Become a Natural
Start where you are;
Get where you want to go!
My personal guarantee:
I guarantee that you will have breakthroughs, aha's, and that after working this program for a year, you will find it easier to learn from other books, YouTube videos, and private teachers. If you practice from 5 to 15 minutes daily and that doesn't happen for you, I will refund your money.
You can also ask for your money back for any reason through week six of lessons if you feel like this program is not a good fit for you.
Click here to join!
My goal for you in this program is that after completing the program, you will have developed a very broad, solid foundation that will make it easier to learn and progress. I have so often seen guitarists struggle unnecessarily and I’d like to put an end to that.
In Become a Natural, you will be able to work at your level. Each lesson is presented so that you will be able to work that objective at a beginner, intermediate, or often advanced level. For beginners, being exposed to what that advanced level looks like, even if you’re not working it yet, helps you to see the value in the foundational work that you are doing. For guitarists with more experience, seeing a beginner level objective often exposes an area of weakness that may be tripping you up and needs development.
Most of your questions will be answered here on this page, but if you have any other questions, you can reach me by looking up at the navigation bar and clicking on “contact.” You can send me an email from there.
Let me first say that it is SOOO hard to explain how it works because it is sooo different. That’s one reason why I offer a full refund period through week six of the program if you find that it is not a good fit for you.
Tuition is $299 per year or $29 per month. That is the original price of version 0.1 of Become a Natural which offered 36 weeks of instruction. I have decided to flesh out the program and include an additional 12 weeks of instruction for the same price for a limited time. I haven’t decided on the new price yet. This program is much more affordable than private lessons, and many people have told me that my video lessons have helped them much more than a series of private teachers. Most teachers don’t teach these fundamentals and you will be better able to learn from many teachers after building this very helpful foundation. Some participants find this course to be a good supplement to private lessons. It fills in the blanks. That’s because I focus on very important, essential fundamentals that are usually left out. Why are they left out? Maybe because no one has ever created handy resources to help teachers to teach these things. Some guitarists figure it out and some don’t.
The best way to know if it works for you is to try it: Click here if you already know that you’d like to register.
I am teaching important basic skills and knowledge that must be developed over time.
We will do this in a very musical way using a variety of backing tracks.
We are not going to be learning one cool song after another. We will learn a few songs for the purpose of dissecting, analyzing and applying the things we’ve learned so that you can learn how what we’ve learned relates to all of your songs. And what we learn will make it much easier to learn (or write!) one cool song after another ; )
Here’s what we do:
Your lessons will be sent to you in an email that contains links to private videos (these are private links to YouTube videos) created just for members of the Become a Natural program.
I will be sending you lessons two times per week for one year.
The lessons are designed to feel like a practice session with me.
You will be able to work at your own pace at a beginner level or beyond beginner.
I will help you to design practice that is effective for you.
Throughout the year, we will systematically work our way through all 12 areas of musical development which I have chosen. (There’s more. That’s why music uses your whole brain! That’s why its so good for you.)
We will build gradually, fitting something new together with something you already know well.
You will have direct support from me through email. (Until so many people join that I can’t keep up with it…so now is a good time to join for direct support.)
You will also receive a plethora of backing tracks which I have composed just for you that will make the difference between night and day. They will allow you to participate in a musical experience using notes well within your skill level. By practicing your notes along with the backing tracks, you are developing your musical brain in a variety of very important ways.
Cost: Tuition is $299 for one year of instruction…for now. This is far more affordable than private lessons! You can also use the payment plan at $29 per month. These are NOT recurring payments. (Monthly payment plan is 12 months only.) This is the original price for version 0.1 of Become a Natural which offered 36 weeks of instruction. I have found that we need more lessons than that to cover our objectives, so I have added 12 more weeks at no extra cost FOR A LIMITED TIME. I haven’t chosen the new price yet, so that’s a huge discount for now: I will most likely decide to charge $399 and $39 for version 0.3, but I haven’t decided yet, so for now, it’s on sale!
My personaI guarantee: I guarantee that you will have breakthroughs, aha's, and that after working this program for a year, you will find it easier to learn from other books, YouTube videos, and private teachers. If you practice from 5 to 15 minutes daily and that doesn't happen for you, I will refund your money.
You can also ask for your money back for any reason through week six of lessons if you feel like this program is not a good fit for you.
Please note: I’m sorry to say that the private YouTube videos you recieve for lessons will sometimes have commercials on them. They started doing that right after I made this course! It totally blindsided me. I am working to get rid of all commercials, but that is a process that will take at least a few more months.
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Here are the 12 areas of development that will
make learning guitar easier:
Please remember all these things are taught on a very fundamental level, so even though some of it may sound difficult or may be something that has been presented to you on a more advanced level, in this program I keep it pretty basic, and the main goal is to fit it all together in a way that supports more advanced learning in the future and facilitates your ongoing aspirations. If just one of these areas is weak, it can really trip you up, even though you might be very skilled in another area.
1. preparing for success (removing common stumbling blocks) (begin habits to improve technique)
2. number names of notes
3. basic music theory
4. letter names of notes
5. ear training and improvisation
6. chords
7. technique and self care
8. rhythm
9. putting it all together (songs)
10. analyzing and transposing
11. patterns and relationships
12. brains and practice and planning practice
Using these 12 areas of basic music development, we will...
...develop your innate abilities
...help you to gain awareness of patterns and relationships that
demystify the guitar fretboard.
…make it easier to learn from other sources.
We will consistently be developing your technique throughout, which makes everything physically easier to do and helps to prevent injury.
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Click here to join!
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FAQ’s
Remember if any of your questions are not answered here, you can reach me by looking up at the navigation bar and clicking on “contact”. You can send me an email from there.
Q: What do I get?
A: First, you get prep week, a series of 5 emails and materials to help you prepare for success. Then you get emails twice a week for 48 weeks. You will often have a choice of videos, so that you can work at a beginner level, beyond beginner, or higher. You will also receive PDFs, and backing tracks. You get suggested listening that will help develop your awareness and preparedness for the things we are developing. You will recieve tablature and videos of graded exercises and original songs composed specifically for you. I’ve enjoyed making these things just for you. I think you’ll really like it!
Q: How do I know if this program will work for me?
A: If you have enjoyed my public YouTube posts, I feel very confident that you will like this. It is VERY systematic and builds gradually. Everything we do gets you ready for the next thing we do. This program is designed to work for a broad range of ability and interests. The only way to really know is to try it. if it’s not working, I’ll refund your tuition. One reason I think it will work for almost everyone is that we are not working on specific repertoire. We are working on musical brain development.
Q: You say we are not learning repertoire. Is it just a bunch of exercises?
A: It is much more than exercises. I have composed music simple enough to learn readily while we develop our knowledge and ability to use theory, patterns and relationships, and even develop some innate ability to play by ear. We will use a few songs that will help us to apply what we have learned. For example, we will play a simple song in several keys. You will see how being able to change keys is often the solution to a problem.
Q: What is the format?
A: The lessons will be unlisted YouTube videos. The production quality will be the same as my public posts. Many people comment that they learn better from my videos because I use only one camera and move my hand and guitar neck to present many angles. They say they can see better what my fingers are doing.
Q: Can we meet online face to face?
A: We probably will do that some, but I am not going to make any promises about that. I do keep office hours and sometimes use zoom to clear up important questions. I do enjoy hosting Private YouTube Live meetings for Become a Natural participants. Participation has been good and participants seem to enjoy these.
Q: I am beyond beginner. Will it be too easy? Boring?
A: Probably not, but without a personal assessment, that is hard to say. We are working on developing innate ability and a working knowledge of the fundamentals of music. We are learning to understand the fretboard and how to use some very important patterns and relationships. My favorite things we are developing are things that I learned AFTER graduating music school with a degree in guitar performance. These are things that are either left out of most instruction, glossed over, or usually presented at much too high of a level with too much information all at once. We need to learn a little, then use it musically. Then add a little more and use that musically. If you already have some skill, You might worry at the beginning that it is too easy or too slow. But things will pick up after we cover some essential relationships. After that, you will enjoy using the basic building blocks in new ways and working with new ideas at a higher skill level than some others. In most lessons, I present ways of working an objective at beginner skill level, beyond beginner, and sometimes, advanced.
Q: I am an absolute beginner. Will it be too hard?
A: No, you will just start with a great foundation and you won’t suffer as much as some of your peers ; )
Q: I only have the use of two fingers. Can I work your program?
A: Yes, absolutely. The key to playing guitar if we have arthritis or an injury or missing fingers is innovation. In order to innovate, you must understand how things work. This program is designed to help you develop the ability to solve problems by innovation.
Q: How much do I have to practice?
A: You don’t have to practice long sessions in order to see results. Short practice periods (5-15 minutes daily) over the period of a year will yield good results. Of course 30 minutes would yield faster progress. If you have lots of practice time, this program can be very helpful used together with other resources that are teaching repertoire. Over the course of a year, I suspect that what you learn in Become a Natural will gradually illuminate and facilitate the other work you’re doing.
Q: How long does it take to see results?
A: I suspect most of you will have fun “aha’s” right away. These aha’s will inform all your work with guitar. The best results take a long time to develop, which is why I’m sending these lessons out over the course of a year. After a year in Become a Natural, you will understand better how to design your own practice, and you’ll see better results from your practice. I believe that after completing the program, you will be able to return to things you tried before and find that they are not as difficult as they used to be. Some wonderful results will continue to happen for years to come.
3 reasons why
The BEST time to join is NOW:
The things we are working with are developmental. They are not difficult to learn cognitively. In order to use them musically, they need to develop. We need to use them often over a long period of time. It’s like the adage about planting a tree…the best time is ten years ago. The second best time is now.
I think the new price for the full 48 week program will most likely be $399. I’m keeping it at $299 until I decide for sure.
While I have Promised first dibs on my direct support to the Founding Members, I still have time to offer direct assistance to participants. As the numbers grow, there will be less individual attention at the base price. So….