Helping Adults 50+
Make your practice finally add up to music
Whether you're brand new, coming back after years away, or tired of collecting lessons that never became songs — Real Guitar Success gives you a clear first month, a daily path after it, and a teacher who's spent 40 years learning how adults learn.
Free for 14 days, then $25/month. Cancel anytime, in a couple of clicks.
Yes — the Spanish guitar is here too
If a Spanish guitar video brought you here, you're in the right place: the melodies, the rhythms, and a full Spanish guitar course are woven through the membership. It's my own approachable take on the style — beautiful without years of flamenco training. (Serious flamenco students looking to advance authentic technique: I'll be honest, I'm not that teacher.)
You've collected pieces. The music hasn't come together.
A few chords from one video. Half a song from another. A strumming pattern you mostly remember, some tabs in a drawer, maybe a course you started twice.
After years of that, it's tempting to conclude you're the problem.
In more than 40 years of teaching adults, I've almost never found that to be true. What's missing is an order to learn things in — a path where each day builds on the last, so the pieces finally connect into music you can actually play.
That's what Real Guitar Success is: the path, with a patient teacher on it.
Why does this work when lessons alone don't
A pile of lessons isn't a path
Learning from a pile
Learning on the path
STAGE ONE · YOUR FIRST MONTH
The First 30 Days: Your Music-Making Foundation
Every new member starts here: one short lesson a day, real chords and real songs from the first week — so the question "Can I really do this?" gets answered by your own hands, not by a promise. A short setup section (tuning, posture, reading tab) comes before day one, so nothing is assumed.
DAYS 1–7
Easy chords
Your first five chords in their friendliest forms, playing in time with a real backing track, and a Spanish-flavored song by the end of the week.
DAYS 8–19
The Magnificent 5
The five full chords behind thousands of songs — G, C, D, E minor, and A7 — smooth switching, and six real songs to use them in.
DAYS 20–25
Power of the pendulum
Strumming that makes songs move: the down-up strum with style, quick changes, and the alternating bass.
DAYS 26–30
Your first solo
Your first scale, finding the good notes, making phrases, adding color — and your own solo. Yes, in your first month.
You're never chasing perfection.
You move on at about 80%, not 100% — the skills come back again and again in the songs, so they deepen on schedule, not under pressure.
Fifteen minutes is the whole ask.
Short lessons with play-along videos and the TABs beside them. Designed for real hands and real calendars — no marathon sessions, ever.
Click to play
STAGE TWO · EVERY WEEK AFTER
Then the Daily Guitar Sessions keep you growing
After your first month, you join the sessions. Each week, one Adventure — a song or a deep dive into one skill. Each weekday, one short session — about 15 minutes. Songs, riffs, rhythm, technique, improvisation: the range widens while the habit stays the same. You never sit down wondering what to practice.
FIRST, LEARN
Tomas walks you through it
A short Learn video shows you this week's piece, one doable step at a time — with the TAB sheet beside it.
Learn video sample
THEN, PLAY
You play along with the band
The Play-Along video is the assignment: you play with a real backing track at the speed you choose. This is where practice turns into music.
Play-Along video sample
Miss a week? There is no "behind."
Sessions stay available for months. Come back and play today's — or catch up at your own pace. The sessions guide you; they don't chase you.
Want to go deeper on one thing?
The course library is your reference shelf — the sessions are the living room. Step out, take a course, step back in.
"First, build the foundation. Then keep growing, week after week."
And behind the path, the shelf
Everything's included from day one
The full course library
18 complete courses on the foundations and beyond — chords, strumming, barre chords, TAB reading, soloing, and Spanish guitar. Every course includes printable TABs, notation, jam tracks, and play-alongs.
Quick Wins
Short single-problem lessons, searchable by topic and level. A buzzing string, a stubborn chord change, a strum that won't sit right — find the fix in minutes.
A few recent ones: "Scary F Chord — Easy Step-By-Step," "5 Steps to Learn Barre Chords Faster," "Hand Stretching Warm-up Routine for Guitar Players," "5 Strumming Tips to Save Years," "Think 1–4–5," "The Magic of Diminished Chords."
Community & the live show
A forum of fellow adult learners, comments on every lesson, and Real Guitar Live — the monthly show where I answer member questions on air. I read every post. You won't be learning alone.
Meet your teacher
A teacher who's spent 40 years learning how adults learn
Hi, I'm Tomas Michaud.
I started with classic rock, then heard the Gipsy Kings on a bus through the Spanish countryside — and spent years piecing together how to make that sound, because nobody handed me a path. That's why my teaching works the way it does.
Since then: seven albums, and four decades teaching adult learners. Not kids with rubber fingers and empty calendars — adults, with real hands and real lives. I built Real Guitar Success so your first month answers the hardest question, and every week after answers the next one.
From members who wondered the same things
"The best teacher I've found"
Came back after four decades
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart for resurrecting my guitar talent after 4 decades. I played my first official guitar accompaniment with my niece on piano at a family gathering. My family was amazed."
MH
Michael Hari
member
Taught herself for years
"I've learned more in the past month than I did in several years of trying to teach myself."
Monique Hairston
Oakland, CA
Tried everything before
"I have taken private lessons, college guitar classes, and many online short courses. Many of the teachers were great guitarists, but I have found that you have been the best teacher."
Herbert Burquez
St. Helena, CA
Feared the overwhelm
"I can see clearly now the fog has gone! It's so much easier when you are taught how to study the guitar and music in a methodical and achievable way."
Shelagh Geller
member
Dreaded practice — found joy
"For the first time since I picked up a guitar, I am becoming lost in the joy of the music, rather than dreading the practice."
Terry O'Connor
member
Came for the Spanish sound
"I started the Spanish guitar course today and I'm hooked! Even though I'm just at the beginning, the music that I've produced is beautiful. Any free moment I have, I pick up the guitar."
SD
Shulamit Dembs
member
Trusted by 950+ adult learners
Is this for you?
It's a fit if…
It's not a fit if…
How the free trial works — no fine print
1.
Today
Sign up and you get instant access to everything: The First 30 Days, the sessions, every course, the community. You won't be charged for 14 days.
2.
Day 12
We email you a reminder that the trial is ending, with one-click instructions to cancel if it's not for you.
3.
Day 14
Your membership begins. Forgot to cancel? Tell us and we'll refund you — no pressure, no stress.
4.
Day 30 and beyond
A 30-day money-back guarantee. If you're not making the progress you hoped for, you get your money back.
Put the trial and the guarantee together, and it means this: you can complete the entire First 30 Days — every day of it — and if it isn't working for you, you get every penny back.
Start free. Choose your pace after.
Monthly
$
25
/month
After your free 14-day trial. Cancel anytime.
MOST POPULAR
Yearly
$
197
/year
That's $16.42/month — save $103 a year. After your free 14 days.
Both options include everything — The First 30 Days, the Daily Guitar Sessions, all courses, and the community. Nothing is held back.
WHY MEMBERS STAY
30-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
If you're not making the progress you hoped for, email me within 30 days of your first payment and you'll get a full refund. No hoops, no hard feelings — and combined with the free trial, that covers your entire First 30 Days.
Questions, answered honestly
Many of our members are in their 60s and 70s and making the best progress of their lives. Everything here is designed around adult hands and adult schedules — friendlier chord forms first, short sessions, and no technique that demands extreme flexibility.
You're exactly who this was built for. The problem usually wasn't you — it was learning from a pile instead of a path. The First 30 Days rebuilds the foundation quickly, and the Daily Guitar Sessions give you a reason to keep showing up after.
There is no "behind." Sessions stay available for months, and The First 30 Days is yours to revisit any time. Miss a day, come back tomorrow. Miss a month, we'll still be here — pick up where you left off, not from zero.
About 15 minutes a day. A short Learn video, a Play-Along, and the TAB sheet. Consistent short sessions build more lasting skill than weekend marathons — especially for adult hands. That principle is baked into everything here.
The skills cover most popular styles — classic rock, folk, singer/songwriter, fingerpicking, blues, and Spanish guitar. I demonstrate on acoustic and nylon-string, and everything applies to electric too.
You enter a card at signup but aren't charged for 14 days. Cancel with one click on your account page before day 14 and you pay nothing — we send a reminder so you don't have to watch the calendar. After that, the 30-day money-back guarantee covers you through the end of your First 30 Days and beyond.
Yes — the Spanish Guitar Step-By-Step course is part of the library, and Spanish rhythms and melodies appear throughout the sessions, starting in your very first week with the Spanish-flavored song "Spanish Road."
Have a question that's not answered here? Email me at tomas@realguitarsuccess.com, and I'll get back to you personally.
Real Guitar Success
Your first month is mapped. The guitar's been waiting.
Thirty days to a real foundation, then a path that keeps going. Free for 14 days — and the guarantee covers the rest of your first month.
Free for 14 days, then $25/month. Cancel anytime, in a couple of clicks.
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