Lessons at Blue Guitar Studio

Hi everyone! I just wanted to give you a quick update on lessons at the studio! We are still providing both in-person and online lessons, so whether you’d like to come in to the studio or do your lesson from home - it’s totally up to you! I will say that if you are a brand new student who is just beginning guitar, it can be helpful to come in to the studio for the first few lessons as it can make the introductory lessons a bit easier, and allows you to get better acquainted with your instructor. After you’re more familiar with the guitar and the structure of the lesson, if you’d like to switch to online lessons then it’s totally doable!

If you’re just beginning with the guitar, we have plenty of guitars at the studio for you to use, but you are more than welcome to bring your own guitar in if you have one already. Our lessons are primarily song-based to keep students engaged and excited to keep learning. All of our instructors at the studio have post-secondary education in music and are active working musicians, so we’re very in tune with what’s going on in the current music scene. We’re able to teach any genre/style that you’re into, and we’ve found that the best way for students to learn is to play the music that they enjoy listening to, so let us know what you like! We can adapt songs so that students of any level can play what they’re interested in right away.

If you have any questions about our lessons or would like to book your first lesson, you can contact us by using the form on our Contact page! We look forward to hearing from you and getting you rocking!

Thoughts on Jimi Hendrix

In the hundreds of students I’ve taught over the years I’ve seen lots of requests for guitar players like Santana, David Gilmour, and Eric Clapton, yet oddly enough Jimi Hendrix is very rarely requested! If I had to take a guess I would think it's because people think he is out of their reach. There are some songs however, like "Wind Cries Mary", which make for a great study on rhythm chops, double stops and interesting harmonic choices that are simply unparalleled. Here is a cover of Paul demonstrating the song. Contact us for more info on lessons so we can dig into some stuff like this!

Chord Substitutions

Chord substitutions can be a great way to take a simple progression of chords and add extra colour and feel. These can be used on songs you already know and are also great as a writing tool to generate new ideas. Here are my top ten chord substitutions for singer/songwriters. 

Student Appreciation!

I’ve been thinking lately how lucky we are to have such a loyal student base. Some of our students have been with us for 10 plus years. We get to work with a wide range of students with different interests, age levels, and experience levels. Part of what makes the job so rewarding is the wide variety of people we get to see.