You want to play the guitar, but you don’t know where to start. What you need is an expert, patient teacher to guide you through those first steps and on to becoming an expert – you have made the correct first step – you found Colin Berrido.

First off there is no shame in being a new student – we were all beginners once! Of course you’ll feel nervous and unsure at first – we all did but a good teacher helps you feel at ease.

Worried about making mistakes? Don’t be! We all had to learn from scratch at some point and making mistakes is all part of the learning process. The trick is to understand what went wrong and how to fix it! This is where I come in…

My role? To help you fix those little “glitches”, get you up and playing quickly and to keep you motivated. Once you realise that you can actually play your self confidence will soar. It’s a real pleasure to see the smile on a student’s face when they’ve “cracked it”.

Getting started:

• Buy an instrument of your choice! If you are not sure what to buy ask me. I will advise you on a suitable instrument to match your budget. I will also suggest that you support your local music store! For the first lesson I can provide a “starter guitar” to try out.
• Go to a qualified and accredited teacher.
• Initially you do not have to learn to read music – we can work with Tablature (Tab). A “no pain” way to get playing quickly.
• My approach is to keep things simple and take small steps – I start by getting your RIGHT hand used to the feel of the strings and then move you over to getting your LEFT hand in to play one string at a time.
• Once you have a portfolio of simple single string pieces we start to look at learning chords.
• Chords are a little more of a challenge since you have to use multiple fingers. Power chords are simple to learn and get you playing rock and metal quickly.
• After practising some simple chord progressions (and yes everyone leaves gaps and hits wrong strings at first!) you’re ready to start playing some simple songs of your choice.
• How long will this take? Assuming you practice for a MINIMUM of 20 minutes EVERY day, and have weekly lessons, you should be starting to be fluent and confident dealing with straightforward songs and tunes within 10 to 12 weeks.
• If that is too long for you then the more you practice, the faster the learning curve. The solution lies in your own hands!
• Some students like to formalise their studies and I can offer a range of Graded courses, including Theory, but it’s your choice. I believe theory should be put into practice to help you improve your playing. Grades are not for everyone – some people want to simply play for fun and relaxation.
• What is the minimum start age? From my experiences, 11 years old is a great age because you have the strength in your hands to fret the neck and co-ordination is well developed. Prior to this age the Ukulele is a good start instrument – a lot of the chord shapes directly swap over to the guitar; for example, a G chord shape on uke is a D chord on guitar.
• What’s the Upper Age limit? None! You just need  Patience, Practice & Perseverance. I have found that some older students get improvement from joint conditions such as arthritis. From personal experience – keeping your joints moving and supple is the key to maintaining good flexibility and function.