Description
Personalized feedback on your playing—and a clear plan for what to practice next.
Sometimes the problem isn’t that you need to practice more. You need to know what is preventing progress and what to do about it.
The Guitar Practice Assessment gives you individual feedback on a specific problem in your playing without requiring a live lesson or an ongoing commitment.
Send me a short video of your playing and describe what you are trying to accomplish. I’ll personally review your submission, identify the highest-priority issues I see, and show you how I would approach the problem in practice.
What You Receive
Your assessment includes:
- A personalized video response of approximately 10–15 minutes
- An explanation of what I believe is most important to address
- Specific practice strategies demonstrated or explained for your situation
- A one-page Personal Practice Prescription summarizing what to work on
- A practical plan for applying the recommendations during the following week
The goal is not simply to tell you what is wrong. It is to help you understand what to do next.
What Can I Submit?
Your submission may include up to 5 minutes of playing and should focus on one specific problem or goal.
For example:
- A passage that falls apart as you increase the tempo
- A technical movement that feels awkward or unreliable
- A piece that seems stuck despite regular practice
- Difficulty making a passage consistent
- Excessive tension or effort
- A coordination problem between the hands
- Difficulty connecting sections of a piece
- A passage you can play in isolation but not in context
- Uncertainty about how to practice a particular technical or musical problem
- A piece that you are unsure how to approach efficiently
You do not need to diagnose the problem yourself. Simply show me what you are working on and explain what you are trying to accomplish.
How It Works
1. Purchase your assessment.
Complete your purchase through the Charleston Classical Guitar store as you would any other product.
2. Watch for an email from me with your submission instructions.
After your purchase, I’ll send you a follow-up email with a link to the Guitar Practice Assessment submission form.
You do not need to have your video ready when you purchase the assessment.
3. Submit your video and tell me what you’re working on.
Your submission may include up to 5 minutes of playing and should focus on one primary problem or goal.
The submission form will ask you to provide a link to your video and answer a few questions about what you are trying to accomplish, what is happening when you play, and how you have been practicing the problem.
4. I review your playing.
I’ll personally review your video and the information you provide, looking beyond the immediate mistake or difficult passage to determine what appears to be limiting your progress and which practice approach is most appropriate.
5. Receive your personalized assessment.
Within 5 business days of receiving your complete submission, I’ll send you your personalized video assessment and one-page Practice Prescription by email.
What Makes This Different?
There is no shortage of guitar exercises, tutorials, books, and advice.
The harder question is:
Which kind of practice does this particular problem require?
Simply repeating something more often—or always practicing it more slowly—is not necessarily the answer.
My approach to teaching focuses on identifying what needs to change and then selecting practice conditions that encourage that change. Depending on the problem, that might involve coordination, consistency, speed, effort, recall, variability, integration, or another aspect of performance.
The Guitar Practice Assessment applies that approach directly to your playing and your current goal.
Who Is This For?
This assessment is a good fit if you:
- Practice regularly but feel stuck
- Aren’t sure what you should be working on
- Can identify a problem but don’t know how to solve it
- Learn independently but occasionally need an experienced teacher’s perspective
- Want expert feedback without committing to weekly lessons
- Already take lessons but want another perspective on a particular practice problem
- Have limited time and want to make your practice more purposeful
The assessment is available to classical, acoustic, and electric guitarists at a range of experience levels.
About Your Teacher
I’m Chadwick Becks, founder of Charleston Classical Guitar. I have taught guitar for more than two decades and hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees in guitar performance.
My own studies have included work with Aaron Shearer, Thomas Kikta, David Skantar, Ken Karsh, Tim Bedner, and Christopher Berg. My teaching focuses not only on what students play, but on helping them understand how to practice, solve problems, and develop greater independence as musicians.
Important Details
Each purchase covers one assessment of one primary problem or goal and up to 5 minutes of submitted playing.
This is not a complete evaluation of every aspect of your technique or musicianship, and it does not include a live meeting or ongoing correspondence. If your submission contains several unrelated issues, I will concentrate on the issue I believe is most important to your stated goal.
Your completed assessment will normally be delivered within 5 business days after I receive your complete video and questionnaire.
If you need continuing individual guidance after your assessment, private online lessons are also available.
Stop Guessing What to Practice
If you’ve been working on the same problem without getting the result you want, more repetition may not be the answer.
Let me look at what you’re doing and help you determine what to change, how to practice it, and what to do next.