Work with a Henderson State graduate for versatile guitar instruction tailored to your style.

Hello! My name is McKinley. I have been consistently composing, teaching, recording, and performing music since I earned my Bachelor's in Music Composition in 2014. Though writing music is often regarded as a subjective field, music theory consists of an expansive set of rules, protocols, and best practices to which one must adhere, in order to compose effectively. I am enthusiastic about sharing music and emboldening others to learn, create, and grow as musicians. I've been teaching guitar and other instruments for about a decade now. My degree in composition and background playing by ear lend to my teaching style of understanding fundamentals, followed by building upon them with technique. I enjoy a wide range of styles, and I meet students where they are in terms of genre. If you have an obscure song you can't find tabs for, let me know, and I'll transcribe it so you can start learning it. I hope to help you get shredding soon!

I use a methodology of ergonomics when it comes to technique on guitar. I usually start with common tone chord progressions based on the open chord shapes. We'll also learn about power chords, and more broadly about movable chord shapes. From there, we'll generally work on left-hand finger dexterity with regular technical exercises. Once the basics are achieved, we'll choose a song based on your preferences and use the acquired knowledge of chord shapes to play it. We'll also likely work on lead lines/riffs if they're present in the song. We'll learn a few songs in this way and start delving more into Ear-Training and Theory. Specifically, we'll learn about intervals and learn about Roman Numeral Chord Nomenclature, including cadences and secondary functions. At that point, we'll begin learning more advanced concepts, both technically and theoretically.