Tomas Michaud

Guitar Teacher

Tomas Michaud is a Guitar Teacher and Owner of the Real Guitar School and Starland School Of Music in Alameda, California. With over 40 years of experience in the music industry, Tomas creates step-by-step lessons for adult beginners that want to play acoustic guitar and create their own music. He is passionate about making fun and accessible material for people wanting to learn a new instrument. He has recorded six CDs and has a B.A. in Music from California State University - Easy Bay.

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Co-authored Articles (10)

How to Attach a Strap to an Electric or Acoustic Guitar

A simple guide to securing and adjusting a guitar strap Whether you’re a beginner or a pro guitarist, holding up and strumming your guitar starts to feel heavy after a while. Luckily, putting a strap on your guitar giv...

How to Make Your Fingers Hard for Guitar

Form calluses quickly with these fingertip-hardening tips It’s fun to jam on a guitar, but it’s a real pain when your fingers start hurting after a few minutes. Experienced guitarists build up hard calluses on their ...

How to

Make Homemade Guitar Picks

Making a homemade guitar pick is easy if you have a spare piece of plastic lying around. Credit cards, gift cards, plastic rulers, and CDs can all be turned into homemade picks. The easiest way to make homemade picks is ...

How to Play Happy Birthday on Guitar – Tips & Examples

A step-by-step guide with chord diagrams and more Out of the huge library of songs that are simple enough for beginners to learn on guitar, the classic "Happy Birthday" tune may be one of the most useful as it's welcome ...

3 Easy Ways to Take Out Bridge Pins

A stuck bridge pin can be a hassle when you're trying to restring your acoustic guitar. You could always buy a special tool to pull bridge pins easily without damaging the pin or your guitar—but you don't have to! It'...

How to

Read Fingerpicking Tabs

Fingerpicking can add a lot of style and personality to your guitar playing, but it can be difficult to get the hang of. Since you’re playing individual notes instead of chords, the tabs might look a little overwhelmin...

How to

Fix a Guitar Bridge

The bridge of your guitar resists up to 200 pounds of string tension, yet it's affixed to your guitar with nothing but glue. It stands to reason that, after years of playing your guitar, that bridge might start to come l...

How to

Get Rid of an Unwanted Guitar Buzzing Noise

On a guitar with low action, tiny changes in your guitar's body can bring a fret in contact with an open string, creating a buzzing sound. Changes in temperature, humidity, and pressure are the most common immediate caus...

How to

Write a Riff

The guitar riff is the lifeblood of rock music. It provides the song with a rhythmic theme, and gives listeners something catchy and memorable to draw them in. Writing a solid rock riff requires creativity, originality a...

How to

Reduce Guitar String Noise

Guitar string noise can occur when changing chords or fingering on an acoustic guitar or when doing various effects on an electric guitar. Typically, you can reduce or even eliminate unwanted string noise simply by chang...