Establishing Musical Territory
Find a home sound, feel a pulse, explore connected notes, and make a first phrase that belongs to you.
A first piece of music
Connective Guitar Method
Discover a more connected way to learn guitar.
The Connective Guitar Method builds technique, rhythm, fretboard understanding, and practice together, so each new skill helps the rest make sense. You’ll also learn a connected, efficient way to keep improving—both in lessons with me and when you practice on your own.
The guiding ideaBuild the skills. Understand the instrument. Use what you learn in music.
The approach
Build a foundation you can use.
The Connective Guitar Method brings physical technique, rhythm, notes, intervals, chords, listening, and fretboard knowledge together. Simple phrases and progressions allow each discovery to strengthen several skills at once.
What you can expect
I’ll help you build a solid foundation on guitar and understand how to practice. We’ll use simple music as you learn, and when you have the basics to support it, I’ll show you how to use tablature and recordings to explore songs you want to play—and how to bring difficult parts into our lessons. We’ll use that connected way of learning together, and you can use it whenever you practice on your own. I hope it keeps serving you for as long as you play.
Start
We begin with what brought you to guitar, then use that answer to make the foundational work relevant to you.
Connect
You’ll learn technique, pulse, notes, and movement as connected parts of playing the instrument.
Grow
You’ll build essential skills deliberately, then apply them in a phrase, progression, improvisation, or song passage.
Making music
Make the instrument your own.
Learning guitar is about more than reproducing existing songs. You’ll learn how notes, intervals, chords, rhythm, technique, and listening work together so you can create phrases, explore ideas, and improvise with increasing confidence.
Bring your discoveries into the lesson
When a song interests you, explore its recording and tablature, make note of the passages, techniques, or sounds that challenge you, and bring those questions into the lesson. We’ll identify the underlying skills and develop them together, so you can return to the music with a clearer understanding.
Create
Build phrases, variations, progressions, and improvisations that use what you understand.
Explore
Use songs, recordings, and tablature to investigate music that interests you and discover where you want to grow.
Develop
Turn difficult passages into focused work on technique, timing, fretboard understanding, or whatever the music requires.
The learning path
Four milestones.
Your pace.
Milestones describe what you can understand and use. They are not session numbers or deadlines. You may show a later skill early, and we can build on it.
Turning Notes Into Harmony and Song
Use chosen notes as roots for chords, connect a phrase to harmony, and hear how basic guitar skills form a short original piece.
Melody meets harmony
Building Vocabulary for Self-Direction
Strengthen rhythm, fretboard movement, technique, and practice habits. Learn basic tablature, improvise with greater purpose, and use songs you choose to reveal the next skills to develop.
Tools with a purpose
Designing Your Development
Set your own skill goals, explore music that interests you, and continue strengthening the foundation with my guidance.
An adaptable path
The first three milestones build shared guitar skills. The fourth adapts the path to your goals while keeping the foundation strong. Progress depends on comprehension, retention, and practical comfort.
A repeatable learning habit
Learn how to find your next step.
- PlayUse a phrase, improvisation, exercise, or song passage.
- NoticeFind what feels difficult or uncertain.
- IdentifyName the underlying guitar skill.
- Practice & useWork on the skill, then apply it.
- Keep goingChoose the next useful skill.
I’ll teach you how to play guitar and give you a connected way to keep growing—both in our lessons and in your own practice.
The opening experience
One first lesson, three movements.
The first milestone introduces you to the instrument and foundational playing skills, then puts those skills to work in a short phrase you can repeat and develop.
Meet the guitar and choose a sound
We’ll tune together, learn the essential parts and controls, and talk about what brought you to guitar. The sound you prefer can guide an initial G major or G natural minor exercise.
Find G, a pulse, and a phrase
You’ll hear the scale along one string, then find the same notes across nearby strings. You’ll choose favorite notes and shape a short phrase.
Make music with the notes you know
Use the notes introduced in the lesson to begin making music. Shape them into a short phrase you can repeat, vary, and continue practicing at home.
My guitar journey
About the Teacher
My name is Shawn, and I started playing guitar at age 49 in 2024.
I’m not a master guitarist, and I won’t pretend to be one. I’m an early-intermediate player who still remembers clearly what it feels like to be a beginner—especially the frustration of trying to assemble disconnected lessons into an understanding of the instrument.
My progress began to take off when I stopped treating technique, rhythm, scales, chords, and the fretboard as separate subjects and started learning them as connected parts of the same instrument. That approach became the foundation of the Connective Guitar Method.
I’m continuing my own journey while using what I’ve learned to help beginning guitarists avoid some of the confusion I encountered. My goal is to give you a clear, integrated foundation for playing guitar and a reliable way to keep building upon it.
Lesson options and pricing
Begin with one lesson.
Continue at your pace.
Standard lessons are held online through Zoom. Local in-person lessons in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, may also be arranged when we both agree on the location and details. Your first lesson is booked individually so you have time to decide whether guitar—and my approach to teaching it—are right for you before purchasing a package.
Online60 minutes · Zoom
$40
Local in person60 minutes · Port Saint Lucie, FL · By mutual agreement
$60
Every new student begins with an individual lesson. You can also continue booking one lesson at a time.
OnlineFour 60-minute lessons · Zoom
$150
Local in personFour 60-minute lessons · Port Saint Lucie, FL · By mutual agreement
$225
After at least one individual lesson, you may choose a discounted four-lesson package if you decide you’d like to continue.
Payment, cancellations, and refunds
Once we agree on a lesson time, payment for the lesson or lesson package is made through PayPal at the time of booking. No payment information is collected on this site.
Rescheduling or canceling
Please give at least 24 hours’ notice. With that notice, an individual lesson may be rescheduled or refunded, and a package lesson remains available to reschedule.
Late cancellations
A cancellation with less than 24 hours’ notice, or a missed lesson without notice, will be charged and will count as a used package lesson. As a courtesy on my part, illness and genuine emergencies may be considered on a case by case basis. As a rule, this is a courtesy I am more likely to extend to long-time students, as a result of established trust.
Package timing
A four-lesson package should be used within eight weeks of the first lesson in that package, leaving room for reasonable scheduling changes.
Unused package lessons
If you need to end a package early, the unused balance will be refunded after completed lessons are recalculated at the applicable individual lesson rate.
Start the conversation
Request a Lesson
Tell me a little about yourself and when you’re generally available. This form begins the scheduling conversation; it does not automatically book a lesson or request payment.
Working principle
A strong foundation opens the path forward.
I can guide you throughout your journey, while the connected way of learning we build together continues to serve you between lessons and for as long as you play.