Stephen's Guitar Lessons; guitar amp header

The SGL Phone Number (VIP-PLAY-GTR) Explained

Wondering why the area code for the SGL phone number
is not local to the Marietta area?


Wondering what my phone number—VIP-PLAY-GTR—is all about?  The reason behind the "play guitar" part of the number (PLAY-GTR) should be pretty obvious, me being a guitar instructor and all.  And then I wanted to also highlight how much better the circumstances for students can be at Stephen's Guitar Lessons as compared to other lessons options, so the concept of the "Very Important Player" came to be.

Here at Stephen's Guitar Lessons, "VIP" stands for "Very Important Player"—and what that means is that I value each and every one of my students, and you can see evidence of that in the way I treat my students.  You can see it in the learning environment that I create for my students, as well as the freebies and extras I provide.  I call it the "VIP Lessons Experience," and you can only find it here at SGL.

The "VIP Lessons Experience" that I offer is the product of my 35+ years of learning, playing, performing, recording, and teaching the guitar; it's what sets me apart from pretty much any other guitar instructor that you'll likely ever find. I've always strived to make my lessons program the best that it can be, and in the process I've developed a teaching method, a learning environment (both online and in person), a specific approach to my delivery and presentation, and quite a repertoire of music/exercises/techniques/etc.—not to mention the skills that I've honed regarding how to find and cultivate a student's strong suits, while simultaneously locating and addressing as many of their weaker areas as possible as well—resulting in a lessons experience that surpasses any guitar instruction that my students have previously been familiar with.

You can find clues as to what the "VIP Experience" is if you look at how I give my students every tool that they'll need to succeed: access to some of the best—and most essential—guitar accessories as an authorized dealer for lots of brands and product lines (and at prices you won't find anywhere else—so low, in fact, that I'm prohibited from advertising them); helpful lesson reminder emails (complete with lesson plans that usually include tab/music), which are sent weekly; accurate tab/sheet music, usually customized for the individual student; a nice, sturdy folder to keep all of their tab and sheet music in (free for online and in-person students with their first lessons package purchase); free guitar pick tin, with picks (also with first lessons package purchase, for online and in-person students); a Stringjoy string cleaning cloth, to help keep their strings fresh and lasting as long as possible (free for online and in-person students with their first lessons package purchase); flexible scheduling; lots of day/time options for lessons; online and in-person lesson options (and the ability to easily switch between them, in most cases); lots of opportunities to earn free lessons; audio recordings of all lessons are available, for free; video recordings of most lessons are also available (also for free); fast, courteous responses to emails, texts, and voicemails; a learning environment that is engaging, professional, focused, comfortable, and easy to access; and all of that comes standard at the reasonable rates that I charge for lessons!

And there are more clues when you look deeper into those things, as well.  Gone are the days of arriving at your guitar lesson, having prepared diligently over the preceding week (as your guitar instructor had asked you to do), only for the instructor to make it clear within seconds of the start of the lesson that they haven't even thought about you or your playing since the moment the last lesson ended.  Not so with Stephen's Guitar Lessons!  I send out lesson reminder emails each weekend for lessons during the upcoming week, complete with lesson plan info and sheet music/tab when applicable—so not only are you certain that I'm prepared and ready to go by the time we start your next lesson, you'll have plenty of opportunity to be prepared as well (if you so choose).  Plus, the music folder that I give to each new in-person student at the first lesson in their first package (it gets sent to online students via USPS), really helps to keep everything contained and organized, too.

Have you ever taken lessons at a music store, and felt like they just plopped you and the instructor in a storage room in the back?  Or maybe you took lessons from an independent guitar teacher like me, but the lessons were conducted (either online or in person) from a little corner the instructor had carved out of their living room—and so there's a sofa and coffee table right next to you, and maybe a dog bed on the floor nearby, and perhaps you hear someone a few feet away in the kitchen preparing dinner.  You'll find none of those distracting scenarios here; my in-person students have a well-lit, private, off-street parking area with a dedicated lessons studio entrance, which leads right in to my acoustically-treated, professional lessons studio—where all I do is guitar lessons and related work (no more having to walk through someone else's personal living space to get to your lesson).

The environment is the same for online lessons, for which I connect through gigabit fiber internet (connected directly to my lessons computer—no WiFi to slow things down), and for which I use pro-grade gear like an Audio-Technica broadcast headset mic and a Focsurite interface. Professional lighting controls round out the delivery package for my online lessons, which I feel confident in asserting to be the best and most professional online guitar lessons available, anywhere.

Some students have had a guitar teacher tell them that they will gladly teach the student how to play a particular song, if the student would just provide the tab/sheet music—leaving the student to fend for themselves in determining which music/tab version or interpretation, of the many they may find, that they should use (and perhaps even paying for a version that ultimately won't do them a lot of good).  And then at other times they feel like the teacher's main motivation is not the student's progress, so much as it is getting the student interested in this new amp/guitar pedal/accessory/etc. that the music store just recently got in stock.  At Stephen's Guitar Lessons, I clearly spell out all of the costs that you should expect as one of my students, upfront and out in the open, so that I can focus specifically on the most important aspect of lessons for me: your progress and development as a musician and guitarist.  I sell private guitar instruction, plus occasionally some related accessories (exclusively to my students, at fantastic prices); the only things I'm focused on once we start your lessons package, are the quality of your instruction and the rate of your progress.

Bringing all of that to every lesson helps the student's learning accelerate and really take off...not to mention the fact that it makes it clear to each individual student how much I value every one of them. It all comes together to create the ultimate "VIP Lessons Experience"—and it's my distinct pleasure to offer that to you as well!


Ready to get started? Give me a call (or send me a text) at VIP-PLAY-GTR (847-752-9487), or contact me through the website to set up your FREE intro lesson today!


Click or tap here to return to the blog list

Click or tap here to return to the main lessons page