Derrick Campbell

I've been playing the guitar for twenty-eight years now, and studied with a variety of teachers including Bob Ferguson and Michael Harris. I began teaching guitar lessons when I was a sophomore at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. I graduated with a B.A. in Communications and then moved to the Boston area in 1997 and began working full time as a guitar teacher within a few months.

I do plan to resume in-person lessons in the future. Taking private guitar lessons is the best way to really learn how to play the guitar, and ensure that you're learning the instrument properly. It also allows you to learn what songs you want, even if there is no sheet music available for it, or no resources online to learn it.

The first one starts at 6pm and is for beginners - total beginners who have never even seen a guitar, much less played one. I start with simple chords and scales - the same as the material in "Easy Guitar Chords - Lesson 1" video on this website - and by week 5 we start working on some simple songs to play with those chords.

If you're interested in learning how to play guitar, but don't want to spend money on private lessons to find out whether or not you like playing, check out the lessons I have posted under this menu item. Each of the "Beginner Guitar Lesson" pages includes a video, and audio file, and pictures. The video shows me demonstrating how to play the chords and playing through the exercises a few times with explanations of what you need to focus on when practicing.The audio file has less in the way of tutorials and mostly consists of me playing the exercises 8 - 10 times each, and is meant to be a practice tool for you to play along with once you've watched the video.