Shakopee Students Learn From The Best
Shakopee guitar players make an easy drive along Highway 13 to study at my Burnsville studio, and what they find there is 25 years of teaching experience distilled into lessons that actually explain the instrument. I’m an award winning guitar teacher and the author of the Awesome Guitar Series, an instructional method that has sold in twelve countries and is now available on Amazon.
Whatever stage you’re at, my goal is the same: to help you become the player you’ve always pictured in your head. We’ll build real skill from the ground up — solid technique, a confident sense of rhythm, and an ear that actually hears what’s happening in the music. But more than that, I’ll teach you why the guitar works the way it does. Once you understand how chords, scales, and harmony connect across the entire neck, the instrument stops feeling like a mystery and starts feeling like home.
Beginners leave their first lessons already playing songs and understanding what their hands are doing. Intermediate players finally break through the plateaus that have held them back for years. And serious students dig into the deeper world of jazz harmony and chord theory that most teachers never touch. Wherever you want to go, I’ll show you how it all connects.
“…more progress in a few months than the last ten years.” – Matt
Every lesson is private, one-on-one, and built around you. I blend the songs you’re excited to play with the foundational concepts that make you a stronger, more independent musician — because real progress isn’t just about playing more songs. It’s about finally understanding the instrument underneath them. Pick the style that pulls at you. The fundamentals are the same, and that’s what I’ll give you.
“If you’re new to the guitar, Phil is excellent. If you’re experienced, it’s even better.” – Brad
Whether you love acoustic, classical, jazz, blues, rock, or metal, my job is to give you the tools to become the player you’ve been picturing in your head. That means real understanding of the fretboard, not just another list of songs to memorize. If you’re in Shakopee and you’re ready to hear your own playing surprise you, get in touch. I’d enjoy meeting you.
A Unique Experience
What sets us apart from other studios is our unique approach to understanding your instrument as a whole. Traditional lessons only teach you a portion of the neck. We start from the very beginning to show how to understand the entire neck both in single notes as well as chordal. In doing so you will have a foundation that puts your understanding well above that of even intermediate players.
Pick Your Style
Blues & Funk
Blues and Funk are where the guitar becomes a voice. You'll learn how to make the strings feel, not just sound — building the vocabulary of bends, slides, rhythmic groove, and call-and-response phrasing that defines these styles. Whether you want to find your inner Hendrix or lock into a tight funk pocket, this is where feel meets fundamentals.
Classical & Acoustic Fingerpicking
Fingerstyle playing opens up a whole new dimension of the guitar — melody, bass line, and rhythm happening all at once under one set of hands. We'll work through classical technique and acoustic fingerpicking patterns that develop your independence, your touch, and your ear in ways no pick can. Disciplined, rewarding, and deeply musical.
Jazz & Fusion
Jazz is the graduate school of guitar — and it's more accessible than most players think. You'll work through chord voicings, jazz harmony, reading charts, and the harmonic vocabulary that makes this genre so rich. Fusion students go further, blending jazz theory with rock and contemporary styles. Phil's background in formal jazz study makes this a genuine deep dive, not a surface-level introduction.
Rock & Roll and Heavy Metal
Rock is where most players start — and where Phil's neck repetition system pays off immediately. You'll learn the riffs and power chord foundations, then quickly move into lead playing, pentatonic and modal soloing, and the technique that separates players who can shred from players who understand what they're playing. Beginners through advanced welcome.