Hi All,
I am a 61-year old beginning guitar player, but I’m coming at it as an ex-orchestral trumpet player with 15 years’ recent experience playing classical, jazz, and Broadway literature and I know how to read music well and know at least the basics of music theory.

I ran across your website and YouTube videos and I think your stuff is head and shoulders above anything else I’ve found, so you definitely have a new acolyte! I signed up for the basic package.

I am hoping that you can answer a couple of quick questions:

1. I see you attended Berklee, so I assume you are familiar with the William Leavitt “Modern Method for Guitar” books. I am about 20 pages into Book 1 and, while I like it, I feel that alone it doesn’t teach enough fundamental skills (which led me to searching the Internet and where I found your stuff) and I don’t want to have to unlearn bad habits. Do you recommend this method, or should I put it aside for now and just work on your stuff?
2. I live in the Seattle area, so taking lessons from you sadly isn’t an option. However, I’d love to find an instructor nearby who uses your philosophy. Are there any teachers you know in the Seattle-Tacoma area who you can recommend? Also, is it important to get an instructor at this early stage? (I don’t want the “trail to get overgrown behind me”!), or would the money be better spent if I wait until I’ve developed my basic picking, fingering, and chord-grabbing skills to at least a basic level (following your videos and methodology)?

Thanks in advance!

Sincerely,

Peter Pawlak

Thanks Pebber!

One followup: where it gets into (Volume 1) Section Two: Position Playing (page 60), is that aligned with what's considered best techniques nowadays? It seems somewhat different from the CAGED system and the 5, 7,12, 14 systems you published on your PDF downloads.

Should I ignore Leavitt's Position Playing or follow it?

Cheers,

Peter