Roots Guitar Lessons


How I teach. I’m self taught. I tried lessons, and they never worked for me. So, I am the teacher for students who tried “regular” lessons and it didn’t work. My belief is that not everyone wants to be Eric Clapton, they just want to be able to play the guitar. This doesn’t mean dummying down the material, it’s just a different way of getting at it. A way that is as old as music.
I don’t just teach the song , I teach the language that the song grew out of. I teach a way of learning more songs.
I use very little tablature/paper.

Here is a sketch of what I teach:

I teach all levels
I teach acoustic Roots guitar styles. Roots guitar includes Blues, Delta, Piedmont, N Mississippi, early country and folk. Jug band and Rag. It encompasses finger styles, rhythm guitar, Delta Slide/ Bottleneck, etc., I do not teach electric, or pop styles.

A few of the artists styles I teach:
Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters, Fred McDowell RL Burnside, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Elizabeth Cotton, Woody Guthrie, Ramblin Jack Elliott, early Dylan, The Carter Family, Dave VanRonk

Biz: I charge $40/hr, $30 for ¾hr, etc
I teach at home.

Brief Bio- I’ve been playing for 45+ years, peforming in every kind of venue for almost as long. I’ve been teaching for 20 years.I'm 13th generation Quaker and have a gentle approach to my teaching.
My teaching style is patterned after the teaching approach in martial arts like Aikido. I utilize non-western teaching methods.


Teaching tools: I use various recording, devices, including take home CDs and online videos to help students.

Random stuff:
It is truly amazing what you can do with three chords.
In finger style, the thumb is the first lesson.
There is a left hand language of American guitar.
Blues, jug band and rag guitar are about rhythm first and the notes second.
First there was playing. Then came Theory.

An old player I knew once, instead of calling the left hand positions "chords", called them "holds". This idea underlies how I teach.






Delta Blues/
Roots Blues
Piedmont style
Finger style
Rhythm guitar
Slide/Bottleneck
Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan type Folk Guitar
Singing and playing
Improvisation