Sonora Guitar IntensiveReviews of learnwithsonora.com

Sonora is invested in your progress. Hands on approach. I experienced everyone I have come into contact at Sonora as response and mindful. Thanks for all the effort!

I started with Sonora back when it was GMI and i've never looked back. I was in a self-taught rut as a player and needed to go back to the beginning. With many years of playing experience i needed a course that understood a seasoned professional needing to unlock a new path without losing my musical voice. My mentor TJ was very insightful and really helped me develop a deeper understanding of my instrument and harmony. Playing should be fun and Sonora is a super enjoyable platform to learn with - I'm still using it daily!

Sonora approaches guitar education quite differently than most guitar instructional methods. Sonora employs a holistic approach so you always know why you're working on a particular task and what it means in the bigger picture. A unique and incredibly important feature is the daily video check-in with your mentor. Each morning, I send in a short video of my playing to my mentor via an app that Sonora provides. My mentor then responds back the same day with feedback, what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, what I'm going to work on next and more. (I should mention that the mentors are world-class, professional guitarists themselves.) This back-and-forth on a daily basis keeps you moving forward, nips errors in the bud before they become ingrained, mitigates "slacking off" and results in accelerated learning. Concurrent with the mentoring, is a self-paced, online curriculum that uses adaptive technology to help you focus on the areas that you need more work on and keep you moving down the learning path. The curriculum is extremely well-organized and utilizes proven learning methodology. The instructors and staff are attentive to each student's needs and the weekly group workshops and group office hours with my personal mentor are fun and informative. It doesn't take long for you to become part of a community of like-minded learners. Having been down the traditional path of weekly lessons with its typically slow progress, I am now experiencing dramatic improvement in a very short time. Put in the daily effort and you'll see results quickly!

Teachers are excellent, Curt in one-on-one video sessions was amazing and articulated many things I needed to work on. The lesson programs were helpful and I have been using them as a resource for over one year after completing the three month intensive.

Following is a copy my review that I posted on Google a few weeks ago. I now have my mentor/teacher and am getting even deeper into the work and the challenges. Here's the review from December 2023: I am just getting started and don't have my mentor/teacher assigned yet, but I have been doing the curriculum and going through some of the recorded classes and will say this program is very helpful. I'm a professional musician; composer, pianist, keyboard player, but have never made progress on guitar. Sonora's program keeps students focused on learning the fretboard, understanding chord progressions, and learning various playing styles. Their system paces through exercises and has you review them in a way that you can achieve and retain the skills. While I don't need much work in music theory or song analysis, the fretboard work and styles are helping me move forward in ways that I never did with YouTube videos and tips from players/teachers. Having a consistent system is the only way to get past the "plateaus". The course is not inexpensive, but if you want the personal challenge, or have been stuck for years (like me), or if you can kind of play but want to raise your abilities, I highly recommend this program.

I found Sonora online and thought it sounded different from most other guitar lessons online as it talked about truly understanding the instrument not simply learning a few chords and playing songs. Believe me I am not an experienced guitarist or musician but although I am far from my goals at this part in my journey I have learned and now understand more than I ever thought I would. I can now use the entire fret board and am starting to learn how to improvise. The instructors are all so very helpful and encouraging. I especially can single out Mike Chisnall. When I am met with frustration he will take the time to approach it a different way to help me understand and always encourages. If you really want to discover what you can do with your guitar I recommend this course! Norma G

I don't know enough to rate it yet! So far everyone has been super nice and willing to help! Update: Great place for structure and cohesive practice environment. Recommend as part of practice routine

Going from one lesson a week with a guitar teacher to then transitioning to a program like Sonora was a game changer. You are able to improve your skills drastically. With step by step guides on what to practice, why you're practicing what you're practicing and a clear path to fretboard fluency. I've made many connections with things I'd been playing for a long time but didn't understand, and beyond. It's a great feeling being in the hands of an amazing program like this along with their outstanding mentors.