Guitar and Bass  Lessons that Work

In-the-Room or Live Online Lessons, tailor-made to suit You.

As well as my in-room sessions I continue to teach via live video using a live, 6 camera HD system for remote students and also as a backup/workaround for in-room sessions and logistical snarl-ups.
Whichever format works for you.


My mission remains the same: to share with you the sheer joy, fun and playfulness of the guitar.

Now you can learn the stuff I'd have given anything to know on Day One, and you can learn it right now.

Of course, you could try to work it out for yourself...
You could try to teach yourself what you don't know and waste decades trying to figure out what works...
You could totally do that

But we all know that life is too short to waste your precious time, so it makes sense to have fun learning what really works, right now.

So let's do this!

Online or in the room - because now is the very best time for you to begin to have fun and learn to Play.


Accelerated Learning for Guitarists.


Now You Can Learn More and Have Fun - All In Less Time.

From Wherever You Are - Beginner to Expert - To Where You Want To Go, I'm with You Every Step of the Way.

No Hype, No Heroes - No Limits.

Don't take my word for it: listen to what my students say:
"Every lesson is like a gift."
Peter Nicholson
"Hi Neil, Thanks so much for the free introductory lesson, it was a revelation, I learnt more in 3/4 of an hour with you than I learnt in my entire time collecting guitars.
Cheers."
Mark Kennedy - Melbourne, Australia


"Really enjoyed the lesson last night. It felt like I'd taken a substantial step forward. Thanks."
Andy Watson
"I’ve learned more in a few weeks with you than I have in the last ten years – I’m amazed at how much progress I’ve made.”
Paul Casson
"I've learned more in three lessons than I have in the last 40 Years...Life changing"
Barry Cooper“
"Neil is an inspiration. I've learned and progressed more with him in 5 months than I had in all the previous years. He unlocks theory, makes it easy, enjoyable and fun. The guidance on technique has been the biggest revelation. Simple adjustments have transformed my playing"
Chris Plumley
Guitar & Bass Guitar Lessons in Broseley, near Telford, Shropshire.
"The Unique Guitar Teacher."

Amazon #1 BestSelling Book for Guitarists!

If being Average excites you, this is not the book for you.
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The Amazon Number One Bestseller!
How Myths, Misconceptions and Downright Lies had me fooled for over twenty years - and they fool almost everyone.
Discover the truth, read this book.

Now Available in Paperback & Ebook formats.
You can even Get it for Free on Kindle Unlimited.
Change your guitar-playing for the better...Forever!
Read this book, change your life.
​But don't take my word for it - just read the back-to-back 5-Star reader reviews

If You Think Education is Expensive - Consider the Cost of Ignorance.


        As you already know - whether you’ve been playing guitar for years or are an absolute beginner - finding the right teacher for you is like stumbling on a diamond amongst a pile of rocks.

There are Good Teachers out there, and there are Bad Teachers out there - but there are very few exceptional teachers.
A bad teacher will kill your spirit and crush the fun from learning.
A merely good teacher will help you get where you want to go.
An exceptional teacher will change forever what you thought was possible for you.

More often than not, the right teacher for you can make the difference between failure and success.
That's the difference between loving playing guitar for the rest of your life, or chucking your guitar into the cupboard in a massive, frustrated sulk.

DISCLOSURE: I'm NOT a failing wannabe musician making a bit of cash on the side, slotting you in around tours and gigs.
I'm a dedicated professional teacher.
And I do it every day.

Every single day I'm refining and improving what I do so that you don't have to dig through mountains of dross to find the odd worthwhile nugget or diamond.

And being a professional teacher means I'm always going to be here for you.
You won't be left high and dry when the next tour comes up or the local gig circuit opens up again...

So, if you are looking for a guitar hero - look elsewhere.
But if you are looking for a dedicated teacher who loves teaching and who makes it fun and exciting, your search ends right here.
I live to teach, and to share my love affair with the guitar.
No tours, no gigs.
I teach.
That's what I do, and what I love to do.

And, for the record: I'm going to be teaching guitar and sharing my love of the instrument until they put me in the ground and throw dirt on my head.

         Whether you've been studying music with other guitar teachers, or learning bits and pieces from YouTube videos, you're going to love my radical, science-based, no BS approach to learning guitar, and learning how music really works.

When we work together, we'll focus on Functional Guitar Playing - we'll do what works, what maximises your ability to move freely and lightly, and together build the vital core skill-base that will last you the rest of your life.
And you'll discover that optimal function not only works best, but it uses less effort than just about anything else.

Are you ready to fly in the face of conventional wisdom?

Are you ready to re-think everything you believe about music, the guitar, and your own abilities?

Most of all, are you ready to Play and have fun?

         For beginners, the crucial first steps will determine what happens for the rest of the player’s life, so getting proper, real-world expert guidance is the best possible investment you can make in yourself.

Remember – you can’t build a castle without foundations.

"...education always seems expensive - until you consider the cost of ignorance..."

So if you’re setting out on a new journey, get the expert help you need, right now - at the start, when you need it most - and if you are already playing, but you’re stuck at a plateau – I'll help you to smash through your current limits.

You know already that clever people hire experts, because experts know the way to excellence.

So you can sit down here in my teaching room, face to face with me (if you are lucky enough to live near me or to travel here) and ask all those questions you want proper answers to.

I'm a full-time guitar teacher based in Broseley, near Telford, Shropshire - and since 1999, I've been guiding guitar and bass players towards excellence and making sure they have fun as they learn to play, create and love the guitar.
That's hundreds of students and tens of thousands of guitar lessons: accumulating around 55,000 (fifty-five thousand!) hours of face-to-face guitar teaching experience in lessons for students of all abilities, refining and simplifying over and over again; distilling what really matters into a clear and workable system that allows you to play almost any song, in any key - and know how to just join in the fun of playing music, live.

         After becoming frustrated with conventional methods while working with Shropshire Music Service, I was headhunted into four local schools to teach my method and system as their guitar teacher of choice across age ranges from 5 to 18.
        
         I focus on what works for my students, so every lesson is tailor-made to suit each individual student. I only teach one-on-one to ensure you - the student - get proper, individual attention for the entirety of your lesson.

You, like me, know that every student is different, so every lesson should be different.

You might settle for a "one-size-fits-all" music school, but you deserve the undivided attention of your guitar teacher during your lessons, don't you?

And who wants to be in a competitive environment whilst learning a new skill - given that you have a busy life and will progress at a different rate than anyone else will?

Group guitar lessons are great for the teacher who is more concerned about making money than helping their students, but you can't get the vital, individual attention within group lessons with an over-stretched teacher.

Tuition levels range from introductory lessons for absolute beginners seeking the basics, right through to intensely focused lessons and remedial work with seasoned professionals with specific needs.

I believe that anyone can learn to play guitar. I also believe that if the student finds it hard to learn, then that’s a teaching problem – it’s not the student!

That's why I'm constantly learning, striving to perfect and optimise my teaching methods. As part of that ongoing learning programme I've earned a Diploma in Music, a First-Class Honours Degree, and a Certified Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) qualification, and other coaching qualifications.

After I became disillusioned with old-fashioned, traditional music teaching methods,  I set about developing a unique, guitar-specific method and a unique understanding of music: it's all part of a passionate pursuit  of what actually works.

Traditional teaching does not recognise that the guitar and its family of instruments have unique properties, because traditional music teaching methods were developed by music academics – who are predominantly keyboard players, rather than guitarists.

In fact - as one of my students put it - I have “...cracked The Guitar Code”, by designing a structured system that allows you to build your skills from a robust core.

If you are a critical thinker with no time for pretentious nonsense and hero-worship, we're going to get along famously.
I don't believe in the existence of god-given talent, rather that Talent is both a myth, and a nice shorthand word that lazy people use to stand-in for a combination of skills.
Basically, you can use the word "talent" as a proxy word for the following skills - all of which are teachable: good technique, understanding of the instrument, knowing how music works, and having the ability to fearlessly make mistakes.
Learn that suite of skills, and - to anyone who doesn't have them - it looks just like talent, or a special gift.

To put it another way, "In the real World, riding a workhorse is preferable to chasing the unicorns of cleverness".

Having widely researched and gained knowledge in multiple fields outside of music, I'm always interested in working with players with unusual needs, conditions or physiological problems.

Happy to pursue the polymath's interests and with experience in sports, bio-mechanics, physical science, physiology, business and finance - to name just a few of my interests, I'm still pushing myself to improve my teaching methods and skills by working with unusual  or challenging students because I believe that disability, injury or illness need not be a barrier to playing guitar and achieving a lifetime's ambition.

Whoever you are, and whatever you do, there’s always scope for improvement, and for me., the teaching breakthroughs often come from working with non-typical students. I love the challenge of atypical students, because they push me to become even better at what I do: to find a way.

I’ve learnt so much from teaching the unusual, conventionally “difficult” students – especially the players who have been told (by other guitar teachers) not to waste their time trying to learn to play guitar!!

In a nutshell, what I've learned over two decades of teaching guitar is simple: You can learn to play guitar.

Don't take "no" for an answer - you can do it!



LIVE ONLINE LESSONS

Wherever you are in the World - you can get unique insights and guidance.

Personal 1 to 1 lessons in the comfort of your own home

Real, Live One to One Guitar & Bass lessons are also available ONLINE

I wasn't satisfied with my laptop's camera alone, so I invested in 5 more HD and 4K cameras to cover every angle and make sure your online guitar lessons are the best you can get.

Then I installed the 9000 crucial Lumens of proper lighting - because if the lighting isn't up to scratch the video quality drops off a cliff... 

And if that happens, all you have is a grainy feed from a dark and dingy room, and then you're going to struggle to see anything...

Finally, the normal audio feed had to be upgraded and taken directly from the studio interface using only pro mics and hardware.

Lights, Cameras, Action!

So you can get all the help you need, when you need it - online, personal and live - wherever you are in the World.


Go to the BOOKINGS page to schedule your lessons, right now.

A Little Bit About Me:
Since 1999 I've been teaching guitar - my enduring love affair.
I continued to develop my method for players of all types, including lessons for players with a wide range of issues, including blindness, carpal tunnel problems, RSI, arthritis, vibration white-finger, restricted movement, tremor, and other conditions such as cerebral palsy, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia.

As well as my teaching work, I was also a partner in a traditional brick-and-mortar music shop (County Music Supplies, on Wyle Cop, Shrewsbury) and built up a guitar repair business (Cowtown Guitars) with a reputation for absolute professional integrity and transformational set-ups of customers’ instruments. Past clients include members of The Verve, The Alarm, Tenpole Tudor, plus  numerous local bands and solo artists.

And when I'm not teaching, I compose my own projects, and collaborate with Pure Trance figurehead, Solarstone. I also do session work across a wide range of genres, and theatrical pit bands and rock/pop groups - just as long as they don't disrpt my teaching and my commitment to my students.
Because - most of all - I love to teach
.
I've travelled internationally as Caline Electronics’ Effect Pedal demonstrator, playingon trade stands at major events such as the World-famous Frankfurt MusikMesse

Because of wide practical understanding of physics, electronics and sound, I was a technical troubleshooter for both LAG and Faith Guitar brands, and was head-hunted as a production engineering consultant to Denso (Europe), researching and developing unconventional solutions to production line engineering problems.

I'm a regular on BBC Radio Shropshire - being their on-air expert for phone-in shows about learning to play a musical instrument.
You may even have seen me on TV playing guitar in Santander Bank’s TV commercial, shot in Shrewsbury!
 


Fully Accredited RGT (Registry of Guitar Teachers) Teacher.
Neil Cowmeadow
(BA(Hons), Dip.Mus(Open), Cert.Prac.NLP)
Professional Guitar Teacher,
23, Ironbridge Road
Broseley,
(near Telford)
Shropshire.

TF12 5AJ

Office: 01952 882 928
Mobile: 07968 077 280
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BBC Radio Shropshire Phone-in expert guide.
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MusikMesse Trade-Show Demonstrator for Caline Electronics. Effects Pedals and Accessories.
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Technical consultant to Faith Guitars UK Distributor
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Bark.com Award for Excellence 2021 Winner
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Bark.com Award for Excellence 2020 Winner
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Technical consultant to LAG Guitars' UK distributor.
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Technical Consultant to Denso Manufacturing UK