Rose City Guitar Company

I picked up my guitar again during the pandemic after years of minimal playing and no progress. Eventually I felt as though I needed more than just YouTube videos to really learn music theory and add more context to what I had been teaching myself. Samantha and Amber are not only amazing teachers, but fantastic musicians who are knowledgeable and eager to support their students musical growth. They have encouraged me to challenge myself by learning songs in a wide range of musical styles, educating me on practice ideas to improve my technique and they even provide opportunities to perform.

I have always wanted to pick up the guitar because I’m a singer and loved the idea of being able to accompany myself. I’m so lucky that I found Rose City Guitar Company when I was looking for guitar classes! Right off the bat my instructor, Samantha, was so kind and welcoming. I was so worried about joining a guitar school with absolutely zero guitar experience but she made me feel so comfortable right away. I didn’t feel any pressure to already have skills with it or anything like that. In my Guitar Fundamentals class, Sam taught us how to read guitar tabs in a way that made sense to me! She did such a great job explaining everything, I never felt overwhelmed or anything! Once I moved up to the Singer-Songwriters class, I started learning finger picking (which has been my absolute favorite style) and worked on being able to accompany myself. Sam gave me tangible tools to help with this, since often it can be tricky at first to sing and play at the same time. Now, I can play Landslide and sing along as well!

I couldn’t have asked for a better experience gaining the basic skills to be able to pick up the guitar. The moment I walked into Rose City Guitar Company, all my fears about starting guitar just melted away! This is such an amazing company with people who truly care about you as a student. I cannot express how grateful I am. Thank you Rose City Guitar Company for giving me the gift of music!!

This has gotta be hands-down THE best guitar school in Portland! Sam and Amber are both so incredibly knowledgeable and their varying skill sets and genre-knowledges makes for an incredibly well rounded experience. No matter what style guitar you’re looking to learn, and no matter your skill level, I highly recommend checking out Rose City Guitar! I had a pretty complex schedule and Sam was super understanding and flexible to my needs, and having done both in person and video classes I truly feel like i could recommend them to anybody looking to either learn guitar, or brush up on some stuff, or learn something new all together. A+++, 10/10!

I came to Samantha at Rose City Guitar after 8 months of the self taught route, on my guitar journey. I was using Justin Guitar and was looking to supplement my online learning with some in-person instruction. Working with Samantha was amazing! As a beginner, I was a little nervous about being slow to pick new things up, but Samantha is incredibly patient and tailors the experience to your individual skill level. She introduced me to playing styles that have really stuck with me, and advanced me as a guitarist. I've really enjoyed working with Samantha and genuinely feel I'm a significantly better guitar player, after taking several months of classes with Rose City Guitar.

I've been playing the guitar on and off over the past 7 years or so, always trying to get back into the instrument through online tutorials or books. I'm glad I took the step forward in August and took lessons, especially at Rose City with Sam and Amber.

In the span of four months, I found myself more engaged with the guitar than ever. Rose City offers a wide variety of classes that cover guitar fundamentals, music theory, different genres of music, and everything in between. The lessons are engaging as well: the instructors find the right balance between teaching and challenging their students to improve.

I found myself learning more in those four months than I probably could have hoped for over the time I tried to by self-teaching. All the hard work accumulated and paid off when I was able to rock out at the company's Winter concert, where many others did the same as well. If your experience is anything remotely similar to mine, I strongly recommend Rose City and giving it a try.