I will make your guitar playing smarter...I don't just teach the standard material you could learn anywhere. Over the years I have developed my own systems for guitar playing, ways to snap things together & make the guitar much easier to understand with much less memorization involved.

In my teaching, I focus on the fundamentals of what I think someone who wants to be a solid musician needs to know and understand. I teach with all custom designed curriculum that I have written myself, all of which has been fine tuned over the years for maximum effectiveness.

With some students the focus is on more guitar playing techniques; scales & chords, finger tapping & speed picking...everything a player needs to really rip as a guitarist.

With other students the focus is more on songwriting & arranging. We work together towards getting a solid demo together to showcase their abilities, a lot of the time they will have written & arranged for all the instruments. I help them to sequence the instruments that they can't actually play but still have gained enough of a working knowledge of to write for.

Other things about being in the business as a recording artist or a performance artist always come up. They're usually unscheduled, but they often lead to some of the most interesting times that my students and I spend together.

You can tell when you've really gotten across with someone. It kind of hits you over the head. When someone really gets something, they light up like a Christmas tree—and you get the same feeling, from having spent so much time with them. It's really very obvious, and it's very, very cool when it happens. Those moments are why I really have grown to love teaching!

Lessons are custom designed for each student, but common topics include:

*Soloing - What scales to use when, understanding the choices you have so you can create textures.
*Chord Structures & Building Chords - You won't just memorizing shapes, you'll make your own.
*Understanding Chord Progressions - Open doors for reharmonization & writing for 2+ guitars...
*The Modes – Full Understanding made EASY.
*Songwriting - Some students focus on just this...I've worked w/ the best producers in the world.
*Stage Performance - I know how to get your playing to not just sound good, but to look good too.
*Technique - Kill it.
*Music Theory – Made easy & applied to the guitar, a very underestimated & powerful tool.

In person lessons with Ben Carroll are available in:

• Portland Area, ME

If you don't live in Maine CLICK HERE to find out how you can still have Live, 1on1 lessons w/ Ben!

CLICK HERE to contact Ben for booking info.