From Two Chords to the Songs You Love: How a Guitar Teacher Picks Your First Real Piece

Almost everyone who picks up a guitar does it for the same secret reason. There is a song. Maybe it is the riff that has been stuck in their head for years, or the solo they air-guitared to as a teenager, or the quiet acoustic ballad they want to be able to play for someone. Underneath all the talk of scales and theory, that one song is usually the real engine. The hard part, for any teacher, is the gap between where a beginner starts and where that dream song lives, and the question of when, exactly, to put a real piece of music in a student’s hands.

Alex P., a guitar teacher at Tunelark whose own love of the instrument traces back to watching Eric Clapton play, has a clear and unusually practical answer to that question. For Alex, choosing a student’s first real piece is not about following a method book to the next assigned page. It is about reading the individual player in front of him, keeping the songs they love in view from the very first lesson, and knowing precisely which pieces tend to unlock which skills. What follows is his working approach to one of the most important judgment calls a guitar teacher makes.

Foundations, but never in a vacuum

Alex does not skip the basics, and he is direct about why they matter. “Every student needs to learn the basics to build the foundation of their playing properly,” he says. The fundamentals are not optional, and no amount of enthusiasm for a favorite song changes the fact that a player needs rhythm, clean chord changes, and basic coordination before most real music becomes playable.

What separates his approach is that he refuses to teach those fundamentals as an isolated chore. “As a teacher, I always try to connect anything I teach to songs my students like,” he says. “That keeps them motivated and gives them a little introduction to what playing songs they like will require.” This is the quiet philosophy underneath everything else he does. A G chord drilled for its own sake is just homework. The same G chord, framed as one of the three shapes standing between the student and a song they have wanted to play for years, becomes something they want to practice.

So the early lessons are a kind of double-tracking. The student builds the foundation, and at the same time they are shown, again and again, how each new piece of that foundation connects to the music waiting on the other side. By the time a real song arrives, it does not feel like a leap. It feels like the natural next step the student has been walking toward all along.

He is also specific about the threshold he is watching for. “Once they understand basic rhythm and strums and are able to play 2-chord chord progressions, maybe some chromatic and basic pentatonic exercises properly, it is time to start learning songs they like,” Alex says. That is a concrete, usable checkpoint. It is not a vague feeling that a student is ready. It is a short list of competencies, and once a player can move between two chords in time and handle a few basic exercises cleanly, the door to real repertoire opens.

Reading the individual, not the calendar

One of the most telling parts of Alex’s approach is that he refuses to put every student on the same timeline. The method book has a fixed order. Real students do not.

“I will also give them a few easy songs to learn right at the very beginning of their journey, if I feel they can handle it,” he says. “It depends on the student and everyone has their own timing with learning the basics.” That last phrase captures the heart of responsive teaching. There is no universal week-four moment when songs are allowed to begin. Some students are ready for an easy song almost immediately, and handing it to them early pays for itself many times over in motivation. Others need more time on the fundamentals before a full song would only frustrate them, and pushing too soon would do them no favors.

The skill Alex is exercising here is judgment, the kind that only comes from having taught a long line of different players. He is constantly reading the person in the chair: how quickly their hands are adapting, how clean their chord changes are getting, how much challenge will excite them versus overwhelm them. The decision about when to introduce a real piece is recalculated for each student, lesson by lesson, rather than read off a schedule.

This individualized timing is also a form of respect. It tells the student that the lessons are built around them specifically, not around a generic curriculum that treats everyone as interchangeable. For a beginner who may already feel unsure whether they have any musical ability at all, that message lands harder than almost anything a teacher can say out loud.

The songs as tools, chosen on purpose

Once a student is ready for real pieces, Alex does not reach for whatever happens to be next. He reaches for specific songs that he knows, from experience, tend to unlock specific skills. Ask him for the piece he returns to over and over and he will not give you one answer. He will give you a map, organized by the kind of music the student wants to play.

“That will depend on the genre,” he says, and then he lays out the territory in detail.

For students drawn to rock and roll, he points to AC/DC as a starting ground for both rhythm and lead, suggesting tunes like “TNT” or “Dirty Deeds” to begin. The appeal is obvious once you think about it: the rhythm work is built on driving, repeatable shapes, and the lead lines are memorable without being technically out of reach for a developing player.

For blues, his list opens up. “I’d recommend ‘Strange Brew,’ ‘Cocaine’ by Clapton (Cream) or ‘Chains and Things’ by BB King,” he says. “‘Belief’ by John Mayer is another one. SRV for more advanced players.” There is a clear ladder built into that recommendation. The early choices introduce the feel and the core pentatonic vocabulary of the blues, and Stevie Ray Vaughan waits at the top for when a student has grown into the technique.

For metal, he treats Black Sabbath as the foundation. “I believe Black Sabbath is a great starting point, maybe ‘The Wizard,’ ‘Iron Man’ or ‘All Moving Parts’ to begin,” he says, before pointing toward Metallica’s “Jump in the Fire” and Megadeth’s “Tornado of Souls” as the player develops. Again the sequencing is deliberate: the riff-driven Sabbath material teaches power, timing, and palm muting before a student tackles the faster, more demanding work.

His acoustic list is the widest, spanning blues, rock, reggae, folk, and country in a single breath. “‘Wonderful Tonight’ by Clapton, ‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd, ‘Redemption Song’ by Bob Marley, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ by Dylan, ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac,” he says, alongside “Neon Moon,” “My Church,” “Family Tradition,” and “many Johnny Cash songs.” These are songs built on open chords and steady, learnable strumming patterns, which is exactly what an acoustic player needs to internalize first, and they happen to be songs almost everyone already knows by ear, which makes them far easier to learn.

For students who want energy and immediacy, he turns to punk. “Wet Leg songs like ‘Wet Dream’ or ‘Pond Song,’ Ramones songs like ‘Pet Sematary’ or ‘Poison Heart,’ Weezer’s ‘Beverly Hills’ and ‘Buddy Holly,’ bands like Green Day,” he lists. Punk is, in many ways, an ideal early genre: the chord vocabulary is small, the payoff is immediate, and the music rewards enthusiasm over precision, which keeps a new player motivated while their accuracy catches up.

And for country, he reaches for “‘Guitars, Cadillacs,’ ‘Family Tradition,’ many Brent Mason solos and songs, Brad Paisley’s ‘Cluster Pluck,'” pieces that open the door to country’s distinctive picking and phrasing for students ready to chase it.

What this catalog reveals is not just that Alex knows a lot of songs. It is that he has thought about each one as a teaching tool, with a clear sense of which skill it builds and which kind of student it suits. The genre is the student’s choice. The specific piece, and its place in the sequence, is his expertise. If you are still deciding which direction to take, exploring beginner guitar tips alongside a teacher’s guidance can help you find the style that will keep you practicing.

When a song is good for you but not yet a favorite

Alex will sometimes recommend a piece that a student would not have chosen on their own, and he is transparent about the reason. “I will make suggestions on songs that maybe are not their favorites but will help them develop a certain skill,” he says. A particular song might be the cleanest way to drill a strumming pattern, a chord transition, or a piece of lead vocabulary that the student’s actual dream song will eventually require.

But there is a firm boundary around this, and it is one of the clearest signals of his student-first philosophy. “Songs are never forced,” he says. “If a student dislikes a song I suggest, I will find another that’s more to their liking.” The skill being built matters, but never more than the student’s engagement. If a recommended piece falls flat, Alex does not dig in. He finds a different song that develops the same skill while staying closer to what the student actually enjoys.

A less flexible teacher might insist that a student grind through an assigned piece because it is good for them. Alex holds onto the developmental goal while staying completely willing to change the vehicle. The student keeps building the skill, and they keep enjoying the process, which is the only way the practice survives long enough for the skill to take root.

Glimpses into the future

Perhaps the most distinctive piece of Alex’s approach is what he does with songs that are clearly beyond a student’s current reach. Rather than telling a beginner that their dream solo is years away and leaving it at that, he offers a taste of it on purpose. He has a name for these moments.

“Sometimes it’s necessary to show a student something that they are not yet able to play,” he says. “I call those moments ‘glimpses into the future.'” The reasoning behind them is part inspiration and part navigation. “First it’s important for them to see something they have no idea is even possible on guitar, especially if it’s something they really want to learn,” he explains. “Then, if it’s beyond their skill level, I will still try to give them a little taste of it, just a small part of a session, solo or riff, so that they can understand what it will take for them to get to that level.”

There is real teaching wisdom packed into that practice. A glimpse into the future does two things at once. It shows the student the destination, turning a vague someday into a concrete, audible target they can hold in their mind. And it quietly maps the path, because once a student has felt even a fragment of the thing they are chasing, they understand in their hands, not just in theory, what skills stand between here and there. The abstract goal becomes a real one, and the practice that leads to it suddenly has a clear purpose.

The result, in Alex’s experience, is consistent. “In my experience, this motivates students a lot,” he says. A short riff from a piece a student loves, offered as a preview rather than a full assignment, can carry weeks of practice. It keeps the dream song in view and keeps the player reaching, which is the entire point of choosing repertoire well in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions

About Alex

Alex’s relationship with the guitar started the way so many guitarists’ stories do, with a single image that lodged itself and never left. Ask what first drew him to the instrument and the answer is immediate: “Watching Eric Clapton play.” It is fitting, then, that Clapton runs through his teaching like a thread, from the blues recommendations he hands beginners to the song he loves teaching most of all.

That song is “Cocaine,” and he reaches for it constantly because of how much it teaches. He calls it a “perfect example of blues soloing using pretty much one shape of pentatonic,” which makes it an ideal bridge for a student stepping from chords into their first real lead playing. It is the kind of piece that feels impressive to play and yet sits within reach of a developing player, which is exactly the sweet spot Alex is always hunting for.

That instinct for the right piece is backed by an unusually deep well of experience. Alex has spent more than 25 years as a professional musician, over 20 of them teaching guitar, first in his native Brazil and later in the United States. He studied at Berklee College of Music, where in 1998 he was voted one of the top five guitar players of the year, and he has gone on to become a Grammy nominee who has worked alongside major and Grammy-winning artists. He has taught players at every level, from first-time beginners to producers, songwriters, and working session musicians, which is part of why his sense of which song fits which student is so finely calibrated. Well versed in a wide range of styles, he likes to show students the “behind the curtains” of music through theory, songwriting, and composition, always tied back to what each student actually wants to play.

What has surprised him most over his years of teaching has little to do with technique. “Music can connect people from different backgrounds,” he says. “Music can change people’s lives for the better. I’ve had students who were one way before starting lessons and over time became full of joy and confidence after learning how to play. Music is therapy.” For Alex, choosing the right first song is never only about building skill. It is about handing someone the thing that might change how they feel about themselves.

Ready to play the songs you actually love?

If you have been waiting to learn guitar because the gap between the basics and your favorite song feels too wide to cross, Alex’s approach is built precisely for that gap. He keeps the music you love in view from the very first lesson, picks the pieces that will get you there fastest, and offers glimpses of what is coming to keep you reaching. Alex is currently accepting new guitar students at Tunelark, and works with players across rock, blues, metal, country, and beyond who want lessons built around the music that made them want to play in the first place.

Looking for an online guitar teacher? See our full Online Guitar Lessons page for everything you need to know about getting started.

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About Jennifer Heath

I'm Jennifer Heath, VP at Tunelark and a lifelong singer. I joined the company in 2020 and oversee much of what makes Tunelark work for our students and our teachers. That includes hiring, training, and supporting our instructors, customer and student support, marketing, and the day-to-day operations of the business.

I started voice lessons at age 7, sang with professional choirs that toured internationally through my teens, and performed solo at competitions and community events across Texas before stepping away in my twenties to study other interests, including business management. I haven't performed professionally in years, but I'll happily take the microphone at a karaoke night. Music has been in me every day of my life. Being able to spend the last six years working inside an online music education company, while traveling the world full-time, has been a perfect fit.

I believe deeply that music belongs in every life. For the self-expression, the discipline, the comfort, and the simple joy of it.

The Tunelark blog is where we share what we've learned about online music lessons: how to choose an instrument and a teacher, what to expect from your first lesson, how the major platforms compare, and how to keep music going through the busier seasons of life. Practical, honest writing you can act on.