Am I Too Old? Can I Become A Good Guitar Player If I Started Too Late?

“I always had the impression that you should start young as a guitar player to become really good, but Tom really changed that.  If you put quality practice time into your guitar playing, it will benefit you no matter what.”

Tom really has a structured approach, so he doesn't let you float, he has a plan to bring you to the next level while with other teachers it was chaotic and you had to ask things yourself - and if you didn't, you wouldn't know. Tom really makes sure that you WILL reach the next level, because he plans everything for you.

Anton Lycklama A Nijeholt, Lelystadt, Holland

“Being involved in coaching and sports as an athlete. I find Tom to be one of these guys who he delivers a lot of confidence in the way he knows... I have confidence in him, that if I follow what he says to do, I’ll be successful.”

What I think is remarkable about Tom is he is able to adjust to people of various talents, capabilities, knowledge and skills. He’s affable, he’s funny, he’s good. He’s not standoffish, he’s not intimidating. I was actually kinda nervous before coming here... I’m 62 years old, you know I don’t have anything nervous about at this point in my life. This was a big deal, a big commitment. There’s tremendous confidence, and I’m not trying to be the next Steve Vai at this point in my life, that’s not my goal at all. But where I want to go with my playing... a certain freedom, a certain knowledge... I really do feel the stuff Tom is giving me is going to make a difference in my life, and that’s important.

John Alper, Bridgewater, USA

“I basically made a decision, you know I’ve been playing on and off for most of my life, I made a decision to get serious about this again or just sell the equipment and be done with it you know... either do it or don’t.”

I had searched around, you know found a lot of the free sites you know that are on the internet. Learned some cool stuff. Happened to stumbled upon Tom, I don’t remember exactly how, but anyway… I was a bit skeptical at first, you know, but decided to give it a chance and haven’t looked back since.

Greg Frus, Olympia, Washington, USA

“I was looking for help, I played a lot in the 80’s, and I didn’t touch guitar for 15 years maybe. And I decided to get back into it. And I was an OK player. But I decided I wanted to take it to a new level, I was looking for hobby I could spend time on.”

After playing around for a few months, I decided I needed a teacher. I had taken music theory classes in college. I understood a lot of the basics of music. I felt like I needed a jump start... something to get me going and keep me practicing every day. So, I’d been to the websites and YouTube, on my own, sort of seeking teachers and I came across Tom Hess, saw his videos, and so I gave that a shot.

The online guitar lessons are very high quality lessons, there’s plenty there to keep you going from lessons to lesson, it forces you to practice a lot to keep up with the lessons.

My guitar playing improved immensely! I knew some of the theory, I knew I was a fairly good player, but a lot of this just tied it all together. The typical teacher was just some guy in a band, who was sitting in a music store room, who kind of showed you whatever you asked or what he felt like… there were various techniques used. This is much more professional. You have more of a specific plan the second you walk in, what your goals are, what direction you want to go, you’re kind of mapped throughout your progress and pushed in the right direction.

Daniel Kunde, South Beach, Oregon, USA

“I found Tom Hess on the net through articles, and I read quite a few of those before I went to Tom’s website. Even though I’m not a metal player at all, and Tom is obviously a metal player, I could still see that his ideas and way of teaching could really benefit me. So I pretty much signed up for online guitar lessons with Tom straight away once I’d gone through the website, and it’s just been a real eye opener with the way he teaches…”

... the integration of concepts that he’ll give you and having a really structured strategy… not just week to week lessons, but things that - you can see from one lesson to the next - really develop and continue to work on your technique and your theory and aural skills and those types of things. So I’d played a long time… 20 years before I really caught onto Tom, and I’d had a lot of lessons, and I’d taught and played but I can really see improvements in my technique, sweeping, and picking which weren’t strong parts of my playing.

I feel like Tom has a good gauge of where you’re at as a guitar player and what you need, and there just seemed to be so much more stuff in the lessons week to week than what you’d ever get in an hour or so in a one on one lesson… way more. So yeah I think that and the forum. I think, I’d pay the money just for the forum. That alone would be fine… I wouldn’t have a problem with that at all. So that alone is massive!

The price for the lessons, that’s nothing... nothing. You know, I think it’s, pretty cheap to be honest. I don’t mean that in a bad way, cheap. Cheap is not a good word, but I just think it’s great value… awesome value. I mean, you know, you could pay that for one-to-one lessons and you just don’t get the same results and support of the forum and the content and the strategies.

Other teachers I’ve had have been good players, and some have become good friends too. But when I’ve started lessons with Tom I’ve got something to compare that to and a lot of it is just sort of teaching songs from week to week… a lot of the lesson will be left up to you… you’ll go to your lesson and they’ll be like what do you want to do today? At the time I said, oh do this song or that song, but with Tom you start to realize that you know, there’s more to it… the goals and you know he’s sort of more in contact with what you want to be able to do as a player, because he’s asking you the questions and then setting up the strategies, so I find that really good.

Yeah I can see more results in 18 months in a lot of areas in my playing than you know 20 years. So it’s sort of, you know, would’ve been great 20 years ago to have met Tom.

Simon Candy, Melbourne, Australia