Guitar Lessons
It is portable, physical, and shaped around songs, which is why it is often the first instrument people pick up and keep around. For some, guitar becomes the instrument they live with. For others, it is where singing, songwriting, or playing with other people starts.
Chords sit under the hands. Strings respond to touch. Rhythm, melody, and voice often come from the same instrument at once. Guitar builds coordination, listening, timing, and a practical sense of how songs are put together.
A lot of people come back to guitar after time away. The place they left off is rarely as far back as they expect.
Most guitar students arrive with songs in mind, or artists they want to sound like. That is useful material to start with. Lessons work better when those songs are part of the practice from early on, not only the reward for it.
Chords, rhythm, and picking patterns are the foundation, and they get stronger faster when they are practiced inside actual songs. The ear and the hands learn to work together that way.
Guitar is rarely solo for long. Most players sound more themselves when they are in a room with other musicians, alongside a voice, or inside a song someone else is also playing. Those situations come up regularly at Resonate, from sessions with other students to the monthly After Hours Jam.
Guitar tends to work especially well for people who want to play specific music, or who want to make music with others.
That might mean starting because of a song or an artist, picking up a guitar that has been sitting in a corner for years, getting more out of what you have already started on your own, or learning to accompany your own voice.
Guitar teachers at Resonate are working musicians whose own playing runs across different styles, bands, and settings. One-to-one guidance from someone who plays the instrument for a living gives students a kind of attention that is genuinely personal and responsive.
In a one-to-one lesson, a teacher can notice what is starting to click, which chord change is not yet settling, and how to shape the next thing around the person in the room. That kind of attention makes the learning feel more personal and more useful.
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Tell us a little about who lessons are for and what you have in mind.
You do not need everything figured out first.
If you'd like more before reaching out: common questions, the styles you can study, and what tends to develop in your first months and first year. Each section below is collapsed by default. Tap any heading to read more.
Real beginner questions. Tap any to read the full answer.
For most adult beginners, a basic acoustic guitar in the $150 to $250 range is more than enough. For kids, sizing matters more than spec, and a classical guitar with nylon strings is often the kindest starting point for very young players. The wider neck and softer strings are easier on small hands. Avoid the cheapest models at big-box stores; they often have intonation and playability issues that make learning harder than it needs to be. Myhre’s Music in Edmonton stocks starter guitars that are properly set up, and we’ve been referring families there for years. If you’re not sure where to start, the front desk team can point you in a direction based on your situation.
Either works. Acoustic is the more common starting point because there’s no amp or cable to manage, you can play anywhere, and the slightly heavier strings build hand strength faster. Electric tends to be easier on the fingers, has lower action (strings closer to the frets), and a student who specifically wants to play the music they hear on the radio often connects faster with electric. The choice mostly depends on what music you actually want to play. We teach both.
Rough guidelines: ages 5 to 7 a 1/2-size guitar, ages 7 to 10 a 3/4-size guitar, ages 10 and up a full-size. But size and reach vary; a tall 8-year-old may be ready for 3/4 or even full, and a small 10-year-old may still do better on 3/4. The most important thing is that your child can comfortably hold the guitar in playing position without straining.
Two small adjustments often help kid hands while the muscles build. A classical guitar with nylon strings is gentler on uncalloused fingertips. Or, for a steel-string acoustic, extra-light gauge strings (often called 10s or 9s rather than the standard 11s or 12s) are noticeably easier to press. We’re happy to size on the spot before your first lesson.
For the first lesson, we can lend you one if you don’t have one yet. After that, having your own guitar at home for practice is essential. Without it, the time between lessons doesn’t compound and progress slows significantly. If you’re not sure yet whether lessons will stick, a rental from Myhre’s Music is a low-commitment way to start.
In person is generally the better experience, regardless of age. Hand position, posture, sound from the room, and small physical corrections are all easier in the same space.
We keep online lessons available because they genuinely serve students who can’t make it in regularly. That includes students who live out of town and come in occasionally for in-person lessons, recitals, or recording sessions. It also covers the weeks when transportation, weather, or feeling a bit under the weather means an in-person make-up isn’t practical.
Plenty of students use a mix of both formats. The quality difference is real, and we noticed it directly during the COVID period when everything was online. That’s part of why we treat online as a complement to in person rather than a substitute.
How quickly varies between students, and practice frequency between lessons is the biggest factor. For an engaged student practicing a little most days, a recognizable song built around two or three chords is often playable within the first few weeks. For students who practice less consistently, it can take longer. The honest range is wide.
What “playing a song” means also varies. Strumming chords cleanly enough that the song is recognizable is one threshold. Playing it through start to finish without stopping is another. Playing it fluently is a third. Most students cross the first threshold in their first month or two of consistent practice.
Guitar lessons here can move across a wide range of musical territory. Tap any style to read more.
Most guitar students come in with songs from contemporary rock, pop, or older catalogues they already love. Lessons build around the songs that pulled you toward the instrument in the first place: chord shapes, strumming patterns, riffs, basic lead lines, and the song structures behind them. By far the most common starting point at Resonate.
Blues is the foundation behind most of what came after it. Twelve-bar form, pentatonic scales, expressive bends and vibrato, and the rhythmic feel that connects blues to rock, country, soul, and beyond. Useful as a primary direction for students who want to play soulful and expressive music, and as a foundation layer for almost any other style.
Fingerpicking patterns, chord-melody arrangements, alternating bass lines, and the techniques that let one guitarist sound like a whole arrangement. A common path for adults who want to play quietly at home, accompany themselves singing, or move beyond strumming patterns into something more textured.
For students writing their own songs or wanting to. Chord choice, song form, finding the melody, structuring a verse and chorus, getting comfortable arranging your own ideas on the instrument. Often paired with voice in lessons, since most songwriters end up singing what they write.
For students who want to understand how music actually works beyond memorizing songs: scales, keys, chord function, basic notation, ear training. Rarely required and never forced, but available as a layer running through any other style for the people who want it. Especially useful for students moving toward writing, arranging, or playing with other musicians.
Many of our guitar teachers also play bass, ukulele, drums, voice, or other instruments. Students who want to expand beyond guitar can often work with the same teacher across multiple instruments, or move easily between guitar and a related instrument as their interests develop. Useful for songwriters, multi-instrumentalists, and students who already play something else and want guitar as a complement.
Rough averages. Pace varies based on age, practice consistency, and any prior musical experience.
Most first lessons cover how to hold the guitar, your first chord shape or your first single notes (depending on what your teacher starts you on), basic tuning, and a small bit of practice work to take home. What’s actually beginning is the muscle memory and the sense of how to spend time with the instrument between lessons. The visible progress varies; the underlying foundation has started either way.
With consistent practice, which is the single biggest variable in how quickly anyone progresses, most beginners are working on their first complete song by the end of the first month. Often something with two or three chords. Some students get there sooner. Others take longer, especially if practice between lessons is irregular. What’s actually developing in this period is hand strength, muscle memory for chord shapes or note positions, and the rhythm of practice itself. The visible progress can feel slow even when the underlying foundation is building.
By around three months, most students have a small collection of songs or exercises they can play through, though the size of that collection depends on practice habits and how naturally things click. Chord transitions or note-to-note movement starts to get smoother. Practice begins to feel less like effort and more like just playing. For some students this is the turning point where guitar starts to feel fun rather than work. Weekly membership students reach their first complimentary recording studio session around this point, which can become a low-pressure way to capture something they’ve been working on.
The gap between students widens here. Those who practice regularly typically have a repertoire of songs they enjoy playing, basic comfort moving around the fretboard without looking, and the beginnings of being able to learn new music from a chord chart or by ear. Less consistent students may still be building basic fluency, and that’s fine too. Through the year, opportunities to perform in Resonate recitals and to use the included recording studio sessions come up several times for students who want to take them. The honest answer to “where will I be after a year” is that practice frequency between lessons matters more than almost any other factor. The difference between students who play a little most days and students who play once a week is significant.
Guitar is a lifelong instrument. The teachers here have been playing for decades and still find new things in it. The first year is about getting the foundational pieces down. What comes after is leveling up what you can do with those foundations: the music you can play, the songs you can write, the players you can keep up with, the recording sessions you can take on, the performances you can pull off.
Some students build deep repertoire. Some shift into songwriting or recording. Some go into theory and improvisation. Some join bands. Some teach. Many do all of these over time.
Most students who stay with guitar stay in lessons for years, because the instrument keeps opening up and so does the player. The road forks based on what lights you up, and a good teacher helps you notice which fork is calling.
