Kanvass McManus
5/5
This is a little long, but if you are just not sure if you want to take lessons maybe my story will convince you otherwise. Learning to play the ukulele was at the top of my bucket list. Like a lot of people, I had a not-so-great experience trying to learn to play an instrument when I was a kid and all but gave up hopes of ever being able to learn as a middle-aged adult. Not sure where but along the way I’d heard that the Ukulele might be the instrument that I could actually learn to play, so figured why not give it a try. Lucky for me while surfing the web, I stumbled across Stu’s name for virtual ukulele instruction.
Stu’s biography had a link to his website and there were all sorts of videos and reviews. My first impression was that this guy knows how to have fun. His students seem to be having fun and I too wanted to be part of that experience. But I’m old (50+) and practical so I knew I needed to do a little research before just jumping into this thing. What I learned was that his students and parents of students’ reviews were very good, but it was what he said about himself that really caught my attention. He stated very emphatically that he KNEW he was a good teacher and I believed him. To be honest, I was reluctant to try virtual ukulele lessons initially because I just thought I needed to be in person to ‘get it’ but after reaching out and talking to Stu I knew virtual was no big deal and would not be a factor. To kick things off Stu helped me select a good beginners ukulele and within a week I was ready to start lessons.
My first lesson was awesome, and I haven’t looked back in the year or so since I’ve been working with Stu. This guy genuinely cares about your experience! Every Sunday before a scheduled lesson, Stu sends an email to confirm our scheduled lesson for that upcoming week. On the day-of he sends an email with the PDF for the lesson, the Zoom meeting link, and a link to a supplemental lesson. Thinking back to when I first started, I was super nervous my first time and am nervous/excited even now, but Stu is so easy going and patient. He is so considerate with his teaching approach, always providing insight on timing, how to change chords or strum more efficiently. Gentle corrections and huge encouragements. I’m typically hard on myself but Stu, always the optimistic teacher, reminds me to relax, remember that I’m learning something new and most importantly have fun because…it’s just music! At the end of my hour lesson with Stu he ensures that we’ve touched on every element of that particular song lesson. He makes sure he’s walked me through each chord, strum, timing, etc. so that I will be able to practice. That supplemental video helps too if I need a refresh on what I learned. I can honestly say at the end of my classes he always manages to convince me that I have what it takes to play the song and amazingly to me even with practice I DO!
I can go on and on about learning to play the ukulele from Stu. Bottomline, learning to play has been tons of fun and I can see me doing this for years to come. I can’t emphasize enough that he is very good at teaching, has a great personality and sense of humor while teaching and you’ll learn to play all kinds of fun songs from many different genres. So, if you’re done procastinating about learning to play the ukelele or guitar, and want to get this party started….don’t waste another minute, get signed up with Stu and you’ll be having fun and actually playing in no time!
