FAQs

www.fingerstylefocus.com is a video based learning site – new video tutorials are regularly uploaded for subscribers. We cover those key elements that are crucial to your development as a fingerstyle player – technical studies, repertoire, style studies of the great acoustic singer/songwriters and an ‘Ask me anything’ section where Stuart can film video responses to questions you may have.

You’ll need a computer or other device to download the lesson, equipped with video playback software – these are all available free online and many people use Quicktime player to watch our lessons

Stuart Ryan is an award-winning guitarist regarded as one of the UK’s finest fingerstyle players. He has been writing the acoustic guitar column for Guitar Techniques magazine since 2004 and his lessons have appeared in guitar magazines across the world. A respected composer his fingerstyle pieces are regularly used on major network tv shows across the world and as a performer he has played as a featured artist at many of Europe’s main guitar festivals. Stuart’s solo guitar pieces feature in the London College of Music guitar exams and Rockschool exams.

I’ve been playing and teaching fingerstyle guitar across the world for many years and became frustrated with people teaching things the WRONG things the WRONG way! Too many people can waste years not getting anywhere or even worse end up with injuries developed from poor technique and worse. We want our videos to get you on the path to better fingerstyle quickly, correctly and without causing you any pain!

YouTube is undoubtedly a fantastic resource (you’ll find plenty of Stuart’s lessons on there!). However, there is an abundance of terrible tuition on there too and if you choose the wrong path then you can set yourself back years or quickly end up in a rut. Fingerstyle Focus is my job and so I strive to create the best lessons possible based on years of working as a contributor and consultant to some of the world’s most respected educational resources. Given that sites like Youtube are starting to demand subscription fees for better content we feel that a low monthly subscription for expert material isn’t too great a price to pay for your development as guitarists.

A monthly subscription to fingerstylefocus.com costs just £10 (approximately 12.38 USD) – this gives you 24/7 access to all our video lessons and downloads for a fraction of the costs of a one hour lesson with most professional guitar tutors!

There is no contract and you can cancel your subscription at any time. Simply cancel your subscription in www.fingerstylefocus.com/my-account and no more payments will be taken. Come back any time to resubscribe.

Firstly thank you for subscribing! Once you subscribe you should receive an order confirmation to the email address you provided (check your spam folder as it can sometimes end up in there). When you purchased your subscription, you should have created a password. Log in to the site using the email address you signed up with and the password you created. You should see in the main menu there is now a link to the ‘Subscribers’ Area‘. When you click on this link you will be able to access the area where all the video lessons live. Very rarely the system requires us to manually confirm your subscription which we can do very quickly.

Don’t worry you haven’t signed up twice! The first order number is for your first month, the second order number is for your subscription set-up. Payment will only be taken for one month at a time.

Don’t worry! If you have a problem with video streaming or downloading the lesson pdfs just email support@fingerstylefocus.com, we are here to help and will aim to resolve any issues you may have as quickly as possible.

Please do! We are always working on new content and love to hear your suggestions – ultimately all these lessons are for you so don’t hesitate to let us know what you want to learn!

Very good question! In a word – experience. Whilst there are many sites out there run by passionate fingerstyle guitarists there are still comparatively few that have been established by experienced professional players like myself. I’ve been playing for over 30 years and for the past 15 years I’ve been creating educational content for some of the world’s biggest music publishers. This, in tandem with my experience of running hundreds of guitar masterclasses across the world, has given me a real insight into what fingerstyle guitar players need to reach their maximum potential. But don’t take my word for it – previous students have included Youtube superstars like Mike Dawes, players who I helped find and nurture their fingerstyle voice!

Fingerstylefocus.com is geared towards players who have anything over 18 months’ guitar playing experience. If you are looking to get the basics in place then we have a separate video course available for you – please check out our introductory ‘Fingerstyle Focus’ video course at udemy.com, 4 hours of video tuition where I take you from the foundations of fingerstyle guitar all the way to how to develop solo guitar repertoire. When you’ve been through that course you’ll find plenty more to keep you focused here!

Yes! We will look at different styles of guitar from traditional, classic fingerstyle to blues, percussive, bossa nova and beyond! However, focus is the key so month to month we will have cohesive lessons planned so you aren’t jumping from one style to another without seeing the connections between them all. A great deal of emphasis is placed on technical development through exercises that are geared to getting the picking and fretting hand developing technique that will help you approach any style. I’ll take you through my original compositions and arrangements so you can develop new repertoire whilst being introduced to new ways of playing.

Yes, the site is 100 per cent secure and has a SSL Certificate installed, ensuring that all data passed between the web server and browsers remains private. We don’t hold your personal details on the site and payments are securely handled by our third-party provider Stripe, who are a world renowned and fully encrypted payment provider. Stuart’s wife, Cori, is the website manager for www.fingerstylefocus.com so if you have any concerns you can contact us directly at support@fingerstylefocus.com, not some faceless helpline who will keep you on hold!