Reviews

Rick Ellis is an amazing guitar player and an outstanding teacher who makes learning music theory extremely understandable. His expertise and advanced knowledge of guitars and music theory make for a very enjoyable lesson. I've learned many things from Rick Ellis including chords, triads, notes, scales, the circle of fifths, and much more. I'd recommend Rick Ellis to anyone, even already advanced guitar players, so they can hone their knowledge of music theory until it becomes second nature.

Cardy G.

I am a slow leaner and I am 52 years old. I had some reservation about even thinking about learning to play the guitar, but after my first lesson Rick set my mind at ease and was able to get through to me and really gave me the confidence that I needed. Rick is very patience and very knowledgeable.Rick is a wonderful teacher and a awesome guitar player. although I have only 6 lessons I already feel like I am on my way to becoming a good guitar player he has made it fun and exciting.

Troy D.

From the very first moment I sat down with Rick he made me feel relaxed and comfortable. I went to the first lesson very nervous and apprehensive. Although, I have just begun my lessons Rick has already convinced me that I can, with effort and patience, learn to play. I would recommend Rick to anyone who wants to learn music.

Paul R.

I've struggled for years to improve my understanding of music theory and guitar playing skills. With Rick's help, I've been able to get past many of my prior stumbling blocks and am on my way to playing at a significantly higher level. Whether you are learning as a hobby or a professional, Rick is great at removing the limitations we all encounter and getting you to think and play at a level beyond what you thought was possible.

Rick is a master in getting back to basics and helping guide his students to become true musicians. I would recommend Rick to anyone who has a true passion for music and who is looking to improve their musical talents.

Neil B.

Rick is a great teacher - I highly recommend him!
Rick has a wealth of knowledge and experience along with his easy going teaching style. I am continually impressed by Rick's depth of understanding, and clarity in explaining, musical theory.

Ramn G.

I'm enjoying lesson! Rick is a great teacher and a great musician. He encourages me at the hard time of the lesson, so I feel comfortable because he's always there for me. I totally recommend him as your teacher. You can learn more than just playing a guitar.

Miho I.

I started lessons with Rick in October 2012 at an unexpected tumultuous time in my life - he was not only an organized and knowledgeable musician/guitarist whose lesson plans helped me focus and advance in my novice begginings but he was and is a compassionate, patient and understanding soul - if you are interested in learning how to play guitar to whatever level you aspire, he will be able to lead you there.

Steve D.

Rick is extremely knowledgeable and capable in the areas of music theory, soloing, blues & acoustic guitar and song writing. I had lessons with him for approximately 6 months and it improved my soloing capabilities tremendously. My song writing skills also improved a lot during this time period. He is extremely patient and is a great teacher for the beginner guitarist up to the advanced player. I had played for 13 years prior to my lessons with Rick. Not only is he a great teacher, but he also became my friend.

Sam B.

Rick has been my son's guitar teacher for close to 2 years. He is an excellent instructor with great patience and insight. We are very pleased with his services and highly recommend him

David K.

have been going to lessons for two months now ,and i am surprised at how much i have learned in a short time. He teaches you music theory in a way that makes since. I have to say when i asked my friends about what i know and they tell me we dont know this or that or just know how to play this or that . Rick will tell you how the cords are made up and how songs are made.

Rally P.

I love Rick, he have helped me musically enormous, great guy, great skills and very pleasant to be around,,,, I owe a lot of my songwriting technique to him.

Ricky Ohrn lead singer and guitarist in Rebel Hotel

Rick has taught my son for several years. I cannot tell you how far he has come..he is now playing with a popular teen rock band and will be playing in front of up to 10,000 people next month. Rick is not only knowledgeable, kid friendly, but interacts well with parents, gives detailed progress reports. He teaches theory, excellent blues, and alot of other genres..very flexible..you cannot go wrong hiring Rick. Most of all he really cares!

Anthony D.

I started taking lessons from Rick after I took lessons from this other teacher in Costa Mesa where I live. I took lessons from the other guy for about 6 months and my boyfriend who plays keyboards in a band didn't think I progressed as much as I should of. The teacher charged $30 a lesson, but it was like he spent a lot of the time playing his stuff and not teaching me. Also he played in a band and he was canceling a lot of lessons because he was busy with his band. He also had a regular job during the day so I guess he didn't have to much time to teach. He wasn't reliable too because a few times he did not show and didn't call to tell me. I saw Rick's flyer in a music store so I called him up and talked to him and decided to try lessons with him. In the first 4 lessons I think I learnt more from him than I did from the other teacher in 6 months. plus I was doing some things wrong and had bad playing habits that Rick caught right away and corrected them.

I'm a waitress in NB and my schedule is always different, but Rick always works with me and gets me in a lesson. I've been taking lessons from him for over one year and I'm getting pretty good. I can play lots of songs and I've even written some of my own. Last month I played in public for the first time at a open mic night and played three of my songs and it was awesome.

I was learning on a acoustic, but I got squire strat and a amp for Christmas and now I take lessons on my electric. I learnt all the scales and a bunch of modes from Rick and I can play some solo's on my squire. I even can play sweet child of mine by GNR and I play the Slash part at the beginning. My boyfriend even told me that I'm getting pretty good and he's a really good keyboard player. Now sometimes we jam together.

Rick’s an excellent guitar teacher and I think I am lucky to have found him.

Michelle C.

I play lead guitar with popular rock group based out of Atlanta,. I met Rick Ellis at a recording studio in Los Angeles in early 2008 where he was laying down some of the most amazing bottle neck slide blues solo's for a movie soundtrack that I had ever seen or heard played on a twelve string acoustic guitar. I thought "who is this guy? He should be famous. He should be fricking rich." One of the engineer's told me that everybody say's the same thing. Someone called him one of the best kept secrets in the Southern California music scene. He is a singer/songwriter/virtuoso guitarist and session player who lives in Huntington Beach and is, hands down, the most humble musician I have ever met in my life. We went down the street for some coffee and sat and talked for well over an hour.

Rick lives for guitars. He has been playing them for over forty years and he is literally a walking guitar encyclopedia. He has amassed an impressive collection of vintage guitars that he is very proud of and even prouder that he plays all of them. He explained how he had lived the rock n' roll life style when he was in his twenties and by the time he reached thirty he concluded that, for him, the lifestyle was not a good choice. He felt that his playing ability was a gift and that he had been using his gift the wrong way. He wanted to share his gift, but not from a stage before thousands of people. He decided that he would share his gift with just one person at a time as a guitar teacher. That was about thirty years ago and since then he has shared his gift, one person at a time, with thousands of people who became his students. He pioneered some teaching methods that are now used by guitar teachers around the world, he wrote a guitar instruction book and, over the years, he very methodically broke down many of the most complicated elements in music theory into their simplest forms which are easy to understand and digest and which enabled many of his students to reach levels of playing that was well beyond their expectations. Rick trains his students to achieve a level of playing where they could go anywhere and improvisationally play anything, anytime with anyone in any key and not only be able to tell you, note for note, how it is played, but also why it is played that way.

I had been playing guitar for a lot of years and was mostly self taught. Everything I played was in a performance situation, so every song and every solo was planned, practiced and rehearsed over and over again hundreds of times. I really never excelled at improvisation because I never learned very much about music theory. I decided to take lessons from Rick and over the next eight months I learned a lot of theory which I applied to my playing. It changed my life.

Rick really knows his stuff, He's is not only a great teacher, he is also an excellent communicator and motivator. His lessons are very well presented and he utilizes some very ingenious teaching methods. Even with the heavy doses of theory that I was receiving every week, each one hour lesson seemed to fly by. Rick reviewed the material covered in a lesson during the last ten minutes of each lesson and he would not dismiss me until he was absolutely convinced that I completely understood the material that was covered that day which would sometimes cause the lesson to go longer than one hour.

It doesn’t matter if you are a raw beginner or an advanced player with many years of experience playing the guitar, you could look long and hard, but never find a better teacher than this humble guitarist from Huntington Beach, Rick Ellis.

Ron W.