Hello!

Thanks for signing up for Positively Dangerous! I’m really excited to have you as part of my pilot course. It’s going to give you a unique personalized learning experience that won’t be available when I launch the full-scale course to the general public. 

Getting to mastery on an instrument takes time. This is a lot more intensive than a regular guitar lesson. That’s why I’ve decided to give two weeks for practicing between each lesson. Every two weeks we’ll meet and learn how to tackle a new important area vital to transforming what you are capable of on the classical guitar. 

Sections and modules of the course, as well as assignments, will become available in the days prior to and immediately after the live session, with additional material added to each section as needed.

Times will be announced once it’s clearer what works best for the most enrollees.

I live in Arizona, and my time zone is Mountain Standard Time. The most likely time frame for most sessions will be in the afternoon, Mountain Standard Time (USA)

We will be starting on Sunday, March 26.

Module two will be on Sunday April 9

Module Three will be on Sunday April 23

Module Four will be on Sunday May 7

Module Five will be on Sunday May 21

The Final Concert/Wrap-up Session will happen during the week of June 4

Here’s my current outline of what we’ll be doing in the course. Expect this to shift and change somewhat.

Week 1: Introduction and Expectations 

1. How the course will work. 
2. What do I mean by Positively Dangerous?
3. Why is classical guitar so hard? What is the main hurdle to becoming Positively dangerous. 
4. What are the minimum elements you need to achieve true mastery? 
5. What is THE most important practicing skill you must master?
6. How to  choose your repertoire and zero in on your goals for this course so that you learn and achieve the most you possibly can.
7. A brief run-through of the ten most important high-level, high-reward exercises and skills you’ll need to develop or improve on 
8. Action Steps (assignments)

Week 2: Making Technique Natural

1. what is the difference between natural and forced technique?
2. Holding the Guitar
3. Essentials of Left hand Technique 
4. Essentials of  Right Hand Technique
5. Weaving your techniques into TECHNIQUE
6. Action Steps (Assignments

1. Week 3: Mastering Slow Practicing and the Practice Cycle 

1. Solving the riddle of slow vs “fast” 
2. How to progress from survival to mastery: Approaching a piece of music, from first reading to full mastery
3. Being at the centre of your practice: learning the basic formula/mindset.
4. Getting into a state of flow.
5. How to practice slowly—the essential set of techniques and mindsets. 
6. How to play without your guitar, and why is a magic ingredient.
7. Action steps

Week 5: Mastering Interpretation and Performance

1. Developing technique and expressiveness side-by-side.
2. How to make your playing musical and natural by feeling what you play.
3. Getting to the heart of the music and the mind of the composer.
4. The basic mindset for sharing and performing music and not losing it. 
5. How to memorise a piece of music on all tracks
6. All the essential expressive techniques you need to practice that will make your playing have shape, drama, sparkle. 
7. Action Steps

Week 5: Fixing Mistakes and Repairing Bad Technique, Preparing for Performance

1. How to learn from your mistakes really, really well.
2. How to work through the most common issues that classical guitarists face
3. How to become aware of blind spots and work with them
4. How to revamp a technical habit that is really messing you up.
5. How to deal with mistakes in practice (and in concert)
6. How to know where you are in the progress of a piece or a technique
7. How to “repair” a section of a piece
8. How to fix memory gaps

Week 6: Wrap up, Concert, and Implementation 

1. Getting the Airplane off the ground. Landing it too. 
2. Answering your questions
3. Creating a Repertoire Stack
4. Sharing your music
5. Live Concert (optional)

Get ready for the course by setting up your practice space, finding 3 possible pieces of repertoire, and practicing and thinking/feeling into what your most important goals are. 

Your feedback throughout this process is vital not only to your personal results in becoming positively dangerous on the guitar, but also to the quality of my finished course that will help a lot more people than the small group we have at this time, with the same guitar challenges that you have. 

To that end, it’s expected and require that you will:

—attend each of the 6 group sessions, or watch the recordings within a day or two if you have to miss one. 

-interact with and support other members of the group via email and chat.

—complete and submit (if required) each of the homework assignments by the given deadline. 

—-complete surveys that request your feedback on the pilot.