Reese
The Songwriter · Warm. Patient. Real.
Reese writes sad songs in major keys and believes every beginner is one campfire away from their first great night. She teaches like she's letting you in on a secret, because she is.
“You're closer than you think.”
Reese's guides
How to Hold a Guitar Properly
Where the guitar rests, how high, and how to relax your shoulders and wrists. The right hold makes chords easier and saves your back — step by step.
How to Tune a Guitar for Beginners
EADGBE, demystified. Learn what in-tune actually means, how to get there without breaking a string, and a game to train your ear.
How to Sit While Playing Guitar
The comfortable, sustainable way to sit with a guitar — where it rests, how high, and the posture traps that cause sore backs and muted strings.
What Size Guitar Should You Buy?
Full-size, 3/4, parlor, dreadnought — how to pick a guitar size that fits your body and hands so playing is comfortable from day one.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Guitar?
A realistic timeline: first chords, first song, and 'actually good.' What to expect at each stage, and how to get there faster.
Why Your Chords Sound Muted
Buzzy, dead, muffled chords are almost always four fixable things. Diagnose yours and clean it up — with a troubleshooting game.
How to Play Your First Song with Three Chords
G, C, and D unlock hundreds of songs. The training-wheels method to play a real song tonight: one strum per bar, keep it moving, build from there.
Why Do My Chords Fall Apart When I Speed Up?
Speed exposes hidden corrections, and tension spirals make it worse. Climb the 5-BPM ladder: clean and calm at each rung, ending smooth.
Do I Need to Memorize Chords or Can I Use a Chart?
Charts aren't cheating. They're scaffolding. How chord memory actually forms (in your hand, not your eyes) and the 30-second look-away game.
Beginner Strumming Patterns
Five strumming patterns that make almost any song feel good, from all-downs to the legendary DDU-UDU — with a rhythm game.
Why Can I Hear the Beat but Not Play On It?
Your ear isn't the problem. It's years ahead of your hands. The four-stage bridge (clap, tap, mute-strum, chord) that wires them together.
Can You Learn Rhythm, or Are You Born With It?
The 'no rhythm' diagnosis is folklore. If you can walk to a beat the hardware works. The five-minute daily gym that trains the rest.
A 10-Minute Beginner Practice Routine
No time? Ten focused minutes beats an aimless hour. Here's the exact routine, minute by minute — plus a build-your-own game.
How to Practice Guitar in Just 5 Minutes
Five minutes is a scalpel, not a consolation prize: one target, tiny reps, leave happy. Why two short sessions beat one long one.
Why Do I Sound Worse the Day After a Good Session?
Yesterday: on fire. Today: strangers for fingers. Consolidation dips, spent fuel, and moved goalposts — why the wobble day is normal and what to do with it.
Why Do I Freeze Up When Someone Watches Me Play?
The kitchen-door effect has a name: explicit monitoring. Why watched brains jam their own autopilot, and the five-rung exposure ladder that fixes it.
Fingerstyle Guitar for Beginners
Your fingers are five picks. The p-i-m-a seating chart, the classic roll on Em, and the gentlest path into fingerpicking.
What Is a Chord Progression?
Chords have jobs: home, departure, tension, return. Why I–IV–V runs the world, how loops work, and hearing the plot in every song.
Why Do Some Chords Sound Happy and Others Sad?
Lift one finger off E and sunshine turns to rain. The major/minor third, four frets vs three, and the ear training that makes you hear the weather.
How to Write Your First Song on Guitar
Two chords, a hummed melody, something true. Your first song in one sitting. The recipe, the voice-memo rule, and permission to finish ugly.
How to Write Lyrics When You're Not a Poet
Songs don't want poetry. They want the truth, said plainly. Concrete beats clever, talk-first writing, and why near-rhymes sound more human.
Capos Explained
The $10 clamp that changes keys while your hands keep familiar shapes. What a capo does, how to place it, and why it's a tool, not a cheat.
Why Can't I Play Without Looking?
You learned with your eyes — now graduate your hands. The look-to-launch ladder, fret-dot landmarks, and the dark-room trick that builds feel.
How to Play and Sing at the Same Time
Two rhythms, one brain: make the guitar automatic first. The ladder, simplify, loop, hum, then words, that gets you singing over your strumming.
What Should I Learn After the Basics?
After the basics it's a menu, not a staircase: repertoire, the neck, lead playing, songwriting, other humans. Pick by pull, frame it as a project.
Can You Teach Yourself Guitar Without a Teacher?
Yes. Most guitarists are substantially self-taught. What 'self-taught' really means, the three traps, and how to run your own school.