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The Shawn Lane Guitar Curriculum!

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Shawn Lane

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Beyond Scales. Beyond Speed. 

        The Art of Total Freedom.

Mission Statement by Sid Wolf

Why we believe this guitar/music method is more engaging and more effective than many traditional methods:

 1. Our method is based in large part on concepts I learned from the late great Shawn Lane during the period I studied with him in 1996- 97 while I was teaching at the Atlanta Institute of Music (AIM), which is now the Atlanta Institute of Music and Media (AIMM). 

Shawn had superior musical abilities and an encyclopedic knowledge of many subjects due to his sheer brain power, which was well beyond that of most people. As an example, he could write with both hands at once, letters with one and numbers with the other. It would all be legible even though he was looking at you and talking to you while doing it! 

As another example: when he was a young boy, age 12 or so, he would walk into the Memphis Library pushing a wheelbarrow. The Library staff members all knew him and knew he was a young budding genius, and they allowed him to check out as many books at a time as he wanted- no limit. So young Shawn might check out 25 books about, say, butterflies, and because of his natural speed reading ability and his laser sharp photographic memory, he would read them all in a week and become a virtual authority on butterflies.

 In this way, he became extremely knowledgeable about a great many subjects, including music. Shawn's self-taught approach to learning music was quite different than most familiar methods, borrowing approaches from some of the great classical pianists, violinists, and cellists (Shawn played the cello for several years starting at age 5), but the results he achieved are indisputable, as listening to him play will indicate.

 Fortunately there are videos of Shawn on YouTube that illustrate this point. I already had a somewhat positive reputation in the Atlanta area as a capable player and teacher but when I began studying with Shawn Lane I went through a period of feeling that everything I had learned about playing the guitar was wrong. It wasn't, but that is how radical many of his ideas seemed at the time. 

His ideas and concepts completely changed the way I think about approaching and playing the instrument, and now, over 25 years later, I am convinced more than ever that Shawn's concepts can help any guitarist, regardless of style, realize his/her full potential. 

Sadly, Shawn Lane passed away in September of 2003. I am incredibly lucky and grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from him, get to know and spend time with him. He was my mentor and friend, and if I had 500 years to practice, I still wouldn't be anywhere near being the kind of guitarist he was.

 But Shawn Lane would be the first to tell you that doesn't matter. I think about him every single day. This method would not exist without Shawn Lane and it is dedicated to his memory.

 2. The desire to play music is infinitely greater than any desire to play dull mechanical sounding exercises that traditionally have been used to build technique on the guitar. The guitar is a difficult instrument to play well, and, for most people, exercises of various types become necessary in order to make meaningful progress. 

The problem with exercises that are purely mechanical and non-musical in nature is that that while they are beneficial on a technical level, they are sorely lacking in musical/aesthetic appeal.Before long, most people (myself included) simply can't stand to listen to them any longer. 

We believe the solution to this dilemma lies in a different type of exercise, and we believe an effective exercise should have the following properties:

 a: It must be musically engaging and fun to listen to.

 b: It must allow the player to explore (through working with linear harmony, chords and voice-leading, and counterpoint) his/her natural improvisatory inclinations. 

c: It must provide superior benefits in the area of musical technique. When the player works with these types of exercises, then learning to improve one's guitar playing abilities becomes more of a joy rather than a chore.

 These are the kind of exercises we have set out to present to all guitarists desiring to evolve as musicians. In my own experience, the many types of exercises that comprise this method have helped me tremendously through difficult times and have allowed me to continually grow musically. They have also been of great help to my students. 

3. Our method does not start with scales. It starts with Picking Rudiments (drummers have rudiments, why shouldn't we?) and two-note and three-note CELLS which are the building blocks of scales an melodies. The finger sequences used to play these cells are called COORDINATIONS. The problem with scales lies in their complexity. They consist of multiple coordinations that need to be internalized in order to play them well. If the individual essential coordinations are addressed and mastered it becomes easier to progress much faster with melodies, scales, chords, etc. 

A great guitarist once said the paradox of scales lies in the fact that they require the type of virtuosity they are meant to develop. Knowing this makes it easy to understand why scales can be such an obstacle. 

4. There is an “entry level” to our method that any guitarist who knows basic chords, standard major/ minor barre chords, and the simple two-note power chord can successfully undertake. The benefits will be tremendous, even if only practiced 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. 

But it is also important to know that this method reaches all the way to very advanced levels and will not only develop technique, but also chordal knowledge and ability, essential elements of composition, improvisational abilities, learning from Bach, etc. There is more than enough here for a lifetime of learning at even the most advanced levels.

Sid Wolf ©2025