Frequently Asked Questions

It’s like the “Karate Kid” guitar course. You do what I tell you… when and how I tell you…then, when you’re almost pissed off, I explain the new pathways your subconscious, muscles, ears, and comprehension have learned. This path has worked for over 500 students, ranging from 15 to 70-year-olds.

If you truly want to understand what to expect during and after the VG course, read the full testimonials (click here) provided. They range from a signed recording artist (Alain Carmichael), a Bachelor of Music graduate (Christopher Hansford), cover band and semi-professional players, and guitarists just starting their journey with only a few years experience. I’ve provided a brief sample of 11 complete, un-modified testimonials. That is where you will truly learn what VG is about and the effect to expect upon your thinking and playing.

The course is primarily for intermediate to advanced players. The minimum requirements are:

• A rudimentary knowledge and ability on the instrument. Such as the ability to play at least 5 songs.
• The weekly commitment of approximately 2 hours to watch the week’s video lesson
• Practice for 45-60  mins a day as directed in the practice tables
• To do what and how you are told for the duration of the course, regardless of previous knowledge or skill level

Ultimately, the answer to that question is no. The same musical tools are used. But I will be clear: different methods are required to play acoustic and electric well, and I highly recommend you own at least one of each. I’ve repeatedly noticed accomplished acoustic players splurge on their first electric guitar, and vice versa, as inspiration and musical boundaries broaden throughout the course. 

The vast majority of music, across all styles, except possibly classical and certain cultural genres (like Indian music where microtones are used), is but a relatively small variation of the use of the same musical tools… Normally emphasised by effects, amps, and the combination of instrumentation.

Specific techniques required for specialised styles such as classical or flamenco guitar are not covered… but scale choices, chord structures, accelerated learning and memorisation techniques translate well.

No, but. I will teach you all about it in a way that lets you choose how deep you will dive or how much you even need to know as you move forward in your musical career or obsession. 

Many ‘ear players’ have come to me in the days when I did interviews before accepting students, and confessed they were scared of learning theory. When I asked why, their reply could be summarised as knowing they were missing a key, but recognised that educated players were so often stiff and regimented, lacking feel… and they didn’t want to become that. During the Visionary Guitar course, they learnt how the structure of music fits together without losing their feel, without becoming overwhelmed by rules.

As an ‘ear player’,  learn why what you play works so well, how to manipulate your ideas into many variations, and how to expand your creative ideas using the logical side of your brain… When you tame theory, it is empowering. You will walk the walk and talk the talk.

If you are a left-brain,’ intellectual player, you will learn to tap into a whole new experience of playing that is impossible to describe until you experience it. You will learn to momentarily forget theory and trust the sounds. I once asked Steve Vai what he thought about while he was creating music and improvising. His reply was “I let the note guide me where to go next”. I thought he was full of it because I had never experienced that. Now every time I pick up the guitar, it happens to me. This is the ultimate place I am guiding you to.

All the chords and scales you could wish for, and the theory of how to use them to create your music, are readily available from YouTube, music magazines, internet sites, institutions, private teachers and method books. What is missing is a comprehensive method for looking at them that is clear, simple and easy to memorise.

Let me ask you 3 simple questions:

• How many maths formulas can you remember from school?
• Have you bumped into an old friend you haven’t seen for a while, and been unable to recall their name, only to have your memory deliver it towards the end of the conversation, or later in the day?… Even though you instantly remember lots of other details about them: where you knew them from, laughs and tears you may have had together, etc.
• Can you remember all the scale and chord variations you’ve learnt when you haven’t practised them for a few months, or are under pressure (such as in a jam or performing onstage)?

The Visionary Guitar Course utilises non-traditional research into the workings of the human brain, muscle training, and memory (which is yet to be fully utilised in the teaching industry). This ‘new’ method of learning allows you to learn faster and recall instantly when needed, without constant repetition or countless hours of ineffective practice.

The standard methods used to learn and understand the guitar are based on the same models taught to you at school… rote learning… a method that doesn’t work well with your brain’s natural ability to learn and retain information (as proved by the failure of your memory in the previous 3 questions).

The Ultimate 10-Week guitar course is for guitar junkies! You need to commit to 45-60 minutes of practice a day for the duration of the course to get optimal results. But don’t worry, it is fun and addictive.

The majority of my students are past the beginner phase. Most have tried other courses, private teachers and institutions and are still searching for answers. Some are in their first band; others are singer-songwriters wanting to improve their compositions (and maybe learn a little lead); others have been in top cover bands, playing 3-4 nights a week. Whether you’ve been playing for 30 years or 3, all that matters is that you are addicted to the guitar and want the connection you know you don’t have yet.

In bullet point form… The Visionary Guitar course is suitable for:

• Intermediate to advanced players. (and for obsessed beginners, with an absolute minimum of 2 years of playing experience)
• Guitarists wishing to excel in their field by mastering the guitar
• Players who are not yet at peace with their playing
• Ear players who wish to learn theory and application but are daunted by said approach
• Guitarist looking for an alternative method of study: i.e. players desiring intensive training and results without the time or funds needed to commit to a full-time course of study (I had one student who was one year into their Bachelor of Music, quit full-time study because my course provided a clearer, faster solution).

• Massive improvement in your playing
• To understand your guitar and music in a way that will unlock previous boundaries
• To continue to evolve well after the completion of the course
• To hear your friends, family, band members, and audience say things like… “What happened to your playing?”… “How do you move so freely around the guitar neck?”… “What did you just play? It sounds awesome”… etc.

I actually recommend not telling anyone you are doing a guitar course, so the responses to your improvement are reflected in what your peers hear now… in reference to how you used to sound (and trust me, you will have such comments... some during the course, and many after).

I’ve had players of 20 years’ experience come up to me in the later part of the course and tell me that they’ve done things lately that they only dreamed of… songs they’ve written, responses from the audience (and band), entire albums that they’ve worked out on just one listen... 

In particular, I remember one young adult student telling me how thrilled she was that her mum and dad had asked if they could come and listen to her practice. They had never done that before, and while this might not be your cup of tea, it’s much better than being asked to turn down!

The course evolved from my personal dissatisfaction with current teaching methods and the information available about music creation in general. Music existed before theory cluttered it with convoluted rules and formulae. The Visionary Guitar course is an express guide into what music has always been and what works fundamentally in helping us to enjoy listening to, making and sharing it. Music existed well before theory came along to explain and complicate it.

I found a way to play my guitar the way I always dreamed of... and the way I heard in my favourite players. It was a long, confusing journey full of misinformation about what was truly important in mastering the guitar and music. 

My passion is to share what I’ve learned along the way, save you a ton of money, time, and frustration... (and to pay the bills by doing something I love and am good at), which is why I created “the Ultimate 10 Week Guitar Course.”

My initial journey of learning was no different from most at the time (there was no YouTube). At first, this involved the usual process of reading guitar magazines, books, playing in bands, taking a few private lessons, and learning songs from TAB (or trying to work them out by ear). But after 10 years of playing, even though my friends and band members thought I played impressively, I still knew something was missing in my playing.

My desire to master the guitar and play music in a way that would inspire others (and myself) led me to sell everything I owned, relocate to Hollywood, and study at one of the best guitar schools in the world (the infamous G.I.T… www.mi.edu). After my G.I.T audition, due to my theory knowledge and playing ability, I was advanced 6 months into the course. I practised what they asked, and, more importantly for this discussion, how (they instructed us on their ideas of the best practice methods), for at least 10 hours a day. After 6 months, I just felt like a better machine; my ear had barely improved (even after 1-2 hours of ear training drills a day… that could have been a weakness of mine… or their methods didn’t work for me), and my improvising still felt awkward. 

I left G.I.T to go on tour with Steve Vai and his band. I made the most of this opportunity and spent hours questioning these elite, virtuoso musicians about how they’d learnt to be such masters of their instruments (Steve on guitar, Mike Keneally on guitar and keyboards, Mike Mangini on drums, and Phillip Bynoe on bass).

The biggest shock to me was that after returning from the first 3 months of touring (where there was little time for practice), I had trouble recalling what I had spent so much time learning to pass my G.I.T. tests… I had to look at my class notes to re-trigger my memory.

I relocated to central California and, between tours, spent most of my waking hours searching for the ‘thing’: the combination of learning techniques and playing methods that sets professionals apart from amateurs. I experimented with myself and my American private students. The results were conclusive, and the path devised lies before you.

A good description here:

• Set a dedicated weekly time to watch the weekly course video with your guitar in hand. Allow 2 to 2.5 hours. Frame it as if you were attending a weekly class. Make it a non-negotiable part of your week.
• Print the week’s course notes
• Practice for 45-60 mins a day, with the practice tracks (critical). Mark off the practice table
• Each week you will feel a certain amount of overwhelm and desire to spend more than a week on the drills you’ve just learned, don’t. The course has been designed so that each week builds on and consolidates the previous week in a well-planned manner.

Many songs have the same chord progressions and melodies, yet still sound very different. When you change the way you learn to absorb, and comprehend your unique blend of favourite artists, songs and sounds… by imitating them using the same areas of your brain a child uses to learn to speak, stand and walk… then you add adult comprehension to why they’ve combined the musical palette in such a manner, your playing transforms. You can’t do this when absorbing music lessons with your left brain while watching YouTube lessons.

You have a unique feel, vibrato, and strumming style, and life experience… When applied to the course material, you will use the tools in your own way… and find your own voice… just like the masters who came before you.

Everything you need to play great guitar… but if you require a breakdown:

• More music theory than you could wish to learn… or need… but in a compact way
• Every chord you could ever want to play... from power chords to extended Jazz chords
• Rhythm and lead playing... and how they work together
• Advanced memorisation and practice methods... and how to save hours/days/months/years of previously ‘wasted’ time
• Speed playing tricks and shortcuts
• How to apply what you learn to any style you choose
• The ‘simplicity’ of Jazz, including walking bass lines
• Open tunings
• The inherent problems of utilising tablature (and YouTube), how and why to move beyond it
• And most importantly, how to hear music, and what to do to make the crowd scream (and come back to the next gig)
• See The Ultimate 10-Week Guitar Course for more… 

10 years and over 400 students later the course has proven 100% successful in opening new doors for music interpretation and expression (based on analysis and feedback). I believe this is because VG is based on natural learning principles and information adsorption, analogous to the effortless way we learn to walk and talk in childhood.