Guitar Lessons by Rick Ellis

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Introduction: I believe that no other guitar teacher offers students the level and quality of personalized guitar instruction, training, coaching, and mentorship as I do. I am devoted to each and every students success and I always go the extra mile for them. The greatest rewards that I receive from teaching guitar is seeing my students progress and grow as guitarists and musicians and how that changes them as human beings. They become more self confident, more self disciplined and they develop a good work ethic, not only in learning to play guitar, but in many other aspects of their lives as well. They become more creative and artistic. Learning to play the guitar and understand music changes the way a person looks at the world and possibly how the world looks at them. Knowing that I had something to do with that brings me great pleasure.

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Hired 24 times

1 employee

37 years in business

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Exceptional 5.0

13 reviews

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Ron W.

Nov 21, 2010

I play lead guitar with popular rock group based out of Atlanta,. I met Rick Ellis at a recording studio in Los Angeles in early 2008 where he was laying down some of the most amazing bottle neck slide blues solo's for a movie soundtrack that I had ever seen or heard played on a twelve string acoustic guitar. I thought "who is this guy? He should be famous. He should be fricking rich." One of the engineer's told me that everybody say's the same thing. Someone called him one of the best kept secrets in the Southern California music scene. He is a singer/songwriter/virtuoso guitarist and session player who lives in Huntington Beach and is, hands down, the most humble musician I have ever met in my life. We went down the street for some coffee and sat and talked for well over an hour. Rick lives for guitars. He has been playing them for over forty years and he is literally a walking guitar encyclopedia. He has amassed an impressive collection of vintage guitars that he is very proud of and even prouder that he plays all of them. He explained how he had lived the rock n' roll life style when he was in his twenties and by the time he reached thirty he concluded that, for him, the lifestyle was not a good choice. He felt that his playing ability was a gift and that he had been using his gift the wrong way. He wanted to share his gift, but not from a stage before thousands of people. He decided that he would share his gift with just one person at a time as a guitar teacher. That was about thirty years ago and since then he has shared his gift, one person at a time, with thousands of people who became his students. He pioneered some teaching methods that are now used by guitar teachers around the world, he wrote a guitar instruction book and, over the years, he very methodically broke down many of the most complicated elements in music theory into their simplest forms which are easy to understand and digest and which enabled many of his students to reach levels of playing that was well beyond their expectations. Rick trains his students to achieve a level of playing where they could go anywhere and improvisationally play anything, anytime with anyone in any key and not only be able to tell you, note for note, how it is played, but also why it is played that way. I had been playing guitar for a lot of years and was mostly self taught. Everything I played was in a performance situation, so every song and every solo was planned, practiced and rehearsed over and over again hundreds of times. I really never excelled at improvisation because I never learned very much about music theory. I decided to take lessons from Rick and over the next eight months I learned a lot of theory which I applied to my playing. It changed my life. Rick really knows his stuff, He's is not only a great teacher, he is also an excellent communicator and motivator. His lessons are very well presented and he utilizes some very ingenious teaching methods. Even with the heavy doses of theory that I was receiving every week, each one hour lesson seemed to fly by. Rick reviewed the material covered in a lesson during the last ten minutes of each lesson and he would not dismiss me until he was absolutely convinced that I completely understood the material that was covered that day which would sometimes cause the lesson to go longer than one hour. It doesnt matter if you are a raw beginner or an advanced player with many years of experience playing the guitar, you could look long and hard, but never find a better teacher than this humble guitarist from Huntington Beach, Rick Ellis.

Michelle C.

Feb 2, 2011

I started taking lessons from Rick after I took lessons from this other teacher in Costa Mesa where I live. I took lessons from the other guy for about 6 months and my boyfriend who plays keyboards in a band didn't think I progressed as much as I should of. The teacher charged $30 a lesson, but it was like he spent a lot of the time playing his stuff and not teaching me. Also he played in a band and he was canceling a lot of lessons because he was busy with his band. He also had a regular job during the day so I guess he didn't have to much time to teach. He wasn't reliable too because a few times he did not show and didn't call to tell me. I saw Rick's flyer in a music store so I called him up and talked to him and decided to try lessons with him. In the first 4 lessons I think I learnt more from him than I did from the other teacher in 6 months. plus I was doing some things wrong and had bad playing habits that Rick caught right away and corrected them. I'm a waitress in NB and my schedule is always different, but Rick always works with me and gets me in a lesson. I've been taking lessons from him for over one year and I'm getting pretty good. I can play lots of songs and I've even written some of my own. Last month I played in public for the first time at a open mic night and played three of my songs and it was awesome. I was learning on a acoustic, but I got squire strat and a amp for Christmas and now I take lessons on my electric. I learnt all the scales and a bunch of modes from Rick and I can play some solo's on my squire. I even can play sweet child of mine by GNR and I play the Slash part at the beginning. My boyfriend even told me that I'm getting pretty good and he's a really good keyboard player. Now sometimes we jam together. Ricks an excellent guitar teacher and I think I am lucky to have found him.

Anthony D.

Sep 24, 2012

Rick has taught my son for several years. I cannot tell you how far he has come..he is now playing with a popular teen rock band and will be playing in front of up to 10,000 people next month. Rick is not only knowledgeable, kid friendly, but interacts well with parents, gives detailed progress reports. He teaches theory, excellent blues, and alot of other genres..very flexible..you cannot go wrong hiring Rick. Most of all he really cares!

Ricky O.

Sep 25, 2012

I love Rick, he have helped me musically enormous, great guy, great skills and very pleasant to be around,,,, I owe a lot of my songwriting technique to him.

Rally P.

Feb 24, 2013

I have been going to lessons for two months now ,and i am surprised at how much i have learned in a short time. He teaches you music theory in a way that makes since. I have to say when i asked my friends about what i know and they tell me we dont know this or that or just know how to play this or that . Rick will tell you how the cords are made up and how songs are made.

FAQs

What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
Lessons cost $40.00 per weekly one hour lesson when the student pays for four lessons in advance. If the student pays for lessons at each lesson, the cost is $45.00 for each one hour lesson. If I travel to the students home the cost is $50.00 for a one hour lesson. Lessons in the students home must be purchased four lessons in advance. All materials and texts are included in the lessons fees, There are never any additional or hidden charges.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I belong to a few music teachers organizations where the main goal is improvement through continuing education. I attended a guitar teacher and mentoring training program. I have taken courses in training children to play the guitar. I have taken courses in advanced music theory, songwriting and composition. I am also an active participant in several on line guitar teachers forums.
How did you get started doing this type of work?
I paid my dues as a musician. I played in bands, toured, performed as a solo singer/songwriter and did quite a bit of session work for a number of years. I also tutored other guitarists and taught guitar to beginners because I really enjoyed teaching. I began to enjoy teaching more than anything else I did musically and after developing my teaching skills for a few years I eventually decided to make it my career. I feel like teaching guitar is what I was put on this earth to do. Everyone has a calling, or a purpose in life and mine is teaching others to play the guitar. I am very fortunate to be able to make my living doing what I do best and love most.

Guitar Lessons by Rick Ellis

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