FAQ

Welcome to the academy! We recommend starting with our Basic lessons such as „Minor Blues“, „All of Me“, „Artillerie Lourde“, „September Song“, and the “Gypsy Guitar Basics” technique lesson. Open the lesson library and use the seach for these lessons. Don't shy away from more Intermediate lessons either. Every lesson contains licks and arpeggios that any guitarist can play, and you don't have to learn the full tune at once. Advanced lessons are usually performed at faster tempos, but the built-in player lets you slow them down to a comfortable speed. Browse around, watch a few previews, and let yourself get inspired.

That depends entirely on you — your motivation, your guitar experience, and how you like to work. Some players pick up a full tune in a few hours or days; others take several weeks, and both paths are perfectly fine. Many of our students focus on specific licks, sections, or rhythm parts rather than learning every solo note for note. Our academy is built so that any guitarist can find something that supports their progress, wherever they are on their journey.

Yes. While the academy is mostly organized around songs, you'll find plenty of dedicated technique exercises throughout. Set the lesson filter to “Technique” to see them all in one place. Start with the “Basic Gypsy Guitar” lesson, where Joscho walks you through the core techniques in detail. We also recommend the in-depth “Technique Class” by our guest teacher Sven Jungbeck, as well as the arpeggio-based improvisation lesson — both are excellent for building a solid foundation.

We are currently working on a structured learning path that will guide students through the academy in a logical order, from foundational techniques to advanced repertoire. Until then, our lesson filters and our recommendations above will help you choose the right starting point. Feel free to reach out via the contact form if you'd like a personal recommendation.

Throughout your active membership, you have full access to the entire lesson library, including: • More than 125 main lessons with over 200 hours of video material • Sheet music as PDF (tablature, standard notation, lead sheets with chord diagrams) • MP3 backing tracks, play-alongs and lesson tracks • Our special “Play With Joscho” tracks, where you take over the rhythm role and accompany Joscho's solo • All guest lessons, including appearances by Tommy Emmanuel, Matteo Mancuso, Biréli Lagrène, Stochelo Rosenberg, Olli Soikkeli, Richard Smith, Adam Rafferty, and Gonzalo Bergara

We offer three billing cycles: 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. The longer the cycle you choose, the lower the effective monthly price. You can find the current pricing on our pricing page.

No — every membership gives you full access to all levels: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. There is no need to pick a level during signup. Start wherever feels comfortable and move freely between levels as your playing develops.

Yes. We offer a free lesson so you can experience the academy before subscribing. You'll find the link to our free lessons on the frontpage.

Individual lessons are not available for purchase — access to the academy is membership-based only. This subscription model allows us to continuously expand the library, produce new high-quality lessons, and keep all content available to every active member.

Yes. You can switch between billing cycles (for example, from a 3-month plan to a 12-month plan) and between membership variants at any time. Plan changes are processed manually to make sure everything is handled correctly on the billing side — please contact us via the contact form and we'll arrange the switch for you. Please note: Upgrades (e.g. from a shorter to a longer billing cycle, or to a higher-tier plan) take effect at the next renewal date, or immediately on request. Downgrades (e.g. from a longer to a shorter billing cycle) take effect at the end of your current paid period; we do not issue partial refunds for the remaining time of an already-paid cycle. Your statutory consumer rights remain unaffected.

Gift memberships can be arranged on request. Please reach out via the contact form and let us know the recipient and the desired plan duration — we'll take care of the rest.

From time to time we offer special promotions. If you'd like to ask about a current discount or a code, please get in touch via the contact form.

Yes. Every lesson comes with PDF tablature, standard notation, lead sheets with chord diagrams, MP3 backing tracks, play-alongs, and lesson tracks.

All of our lessons are recorded twice — once in English and once in German. You can switch between language versions freely. Subtitles are not yet available, but we are actively working on adding them to the platform.

Our goal is to add new lessons on a roughly monthly basis, and over the past years we have consistently been able to keep that pace. That said, we do not want to commit to a fixed schedule — we'd rather take the time to produce lessons that meet our quality standards than rush them out on a deadline.

Yes. Both our video player and our MP3 player support speed adjustment (slow down and speed up) as well as A–B looping, so you can isolate and repeat any passage at the tempo that works best for you. You'll find more details on our information page.

Yes, we are continuously working on bringing in additional guest teachers to expand the academy's stylistic range. If there's a player you'd love to learn from, feel free to send us your suggestion via email — we genuinely appreciate hearing what our community is interested in.

Honestly, "basic" or "intermediate" mean something different to everyone, so it's always hard to put a strict label on your playing level. We do our absolute best to structure our lessons so that everyone has a chance to participate. In fact, you can easily jump into an intermediate lesson because we always make sure to include parts that are much more basic and easy to digest. But let's be real: this style of music is probably not the best place to start if you've just picked up the guitar for the very first time. You won’t find lessons here on "how to tune your guitar" or "how to play your first G chord" ;) The best way to find out? Check out our free lesson on "Love Me Tender" (you'll find the link right on our frontpage). If you can follow along with that, you are definitely ready for the Academy!

The Academy runs in a normal web browser — on smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers, whether Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS or Android. There is nothing to install. Two things matter: your internet connection and how up to date your browser is. For the connection, the old rule of thumb still holds: if YouTube plays smoothly for you, our lessons will too. For the browser it does not. YouTube supports much older browsers than we can. If a page looks broken or scrambled, an outdated browser is almost always the reason — and updating it takes a minute and fixes it.

As the academy has grown over many years, video quality has evolved with it. Older lessons are available in 720p, while our newer productions go up to 4K. In all cases, every lesson is offered in at least HD quality.

Any current browser works. Concretely, these versions or newer: Chrome or Edge — version 105 Firefox — version 121 Safari on Mac and iPhone/iPad — version 15.4 Opera — version 91 Samsung Internet — version 20 In everyday terms: Mac — macOS Catalina (2019) or newer iPhone and iPad — iOS 15.4 (spring 2022) or newer, which includes every iPhone from the 6s onwards Windows, Linux and Android — Chrome, Edge and Firefox update themselves, so you are almost certainly fine

As a rough guide: HD (720p) — about 3 Mbit/s Full HD (1080p) — about 5 to 8 Mbit/s 4K — about 25 Mbit/s Most home connections handle Full HD without any trouble. On mobile data, 4G is usually plenty. One thing worth knowing: our player does not switch quality on its own. If the picture stutters or takes a long time to start, open the gear icon in the player and pick a lower quality. It will play smoothly straight away, and you can go back up any time. Videos are streamed, not downloaded, so you need a connection while you practise.

Not directly through the TV's own browser. Smart TV browsers are usually several years behind, and ours is not a picture we can guarantee there. What works well: - Connect a laptop to the TV with an HDMI cable — simplest and best quality /or - Screen mirroring from an iPhone, iPad or Mac via AirPlay /or - Screen mirroring from an Android phone or tablet For practising, a tablet or laptop near your guitar is usually the more comfortable choice anyway: you can reach the loop and slow-down controls without getting up.

The Loop+ player slows lessons and backing tracks down without making them sound lower in pitch. That takes a little computing power, and it needs a browser from 2020 or later. If your device cannot manage it, playback still works normally — you simply lose the slow-down and the A/B loop. The usual fix is a browser update. On older phones and tablets it can also help to close other apps, since the calculation runs live while you play.

You can cancel your membership at any time. After cancellation, you will retain full access to all content until the end of your currently paid billing period. There are many ways ways to cancel. The best would be: • Directly from your user dashboard • Via the cancellation form linked in the footer of every page • By sending us a short message through the contact form

A membership works a bit like a gym membership: while your subscription is running, the fee covers your access — whether you practise daily or not. For a term you have already booked and paid for, we therefore don't refund unused time. There are two situations in which you do get money back: • Within 14 days of concluding your contract, you can withdraw without giving any reason and we refund the full amount — even if you've already watched lessons. See our right of withdrawal policy. • After your initial term, once your subscription continues on an open-ended basis, you can cancel at any time with one month's notice. If you have already paid beyond that date, we refund the remaining days on a pro-rata basis. If you'd rather use up the period you've paid for, you can choose that instead — in which case no refund is made. The binding details are set out in our Terms and Conditions.

As a German company, we operate under EU and German data protection law, and your personal and payment data is handled in accordance with these standards. Payments are processed externally by Stripe and PayPal, both of which use industry-standard security measures, including two-factor authentication where applicable. Depending on the plan you select, the membership fee is charged every 3, 6, or 12 months.

We accept payments via Stripe, Amazon Pay and PayPal. For customers based in the EU, payment by bank transfer is also available.

No — your subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing cycle (every 3, 6, or 12 months from your original signup date), using the payment method you selected. You can cancel the subscription at any time from your user dashboard, after which no further charges will be made.

No problem. As with any online purchase, you have a 14-day right of withdrawal, without giving any reason. Just message us within 14 days of concluding your contract via the contact form, or use the "Withdraw from contract" link at the bottom of the site. We'll end your subscription and refund the full amount you paid to the same payment method – even if you've already watched lessons in the meantime. The binding details are set out in our right of withdrawal policy.

Gypsy Guitar Academy was founded in 2012, and since then thousands of students worldwide have used our lessons to develop their playing. Joscho Stephan is an active touring artist who has recorded and performed alongside many of the world's leading guitarists and regularly teaches masterclasses internationally. In other words: you'll be learning from a working professional who lives this music every day — and from a platform with more than a decade of experience in teaching guitar online.

If your message is specifically meant for Joscho personally, please also use the contact form on the website. We carefully review every message and forward relevant inquiries directly to Joscho. For general questions about the academy, lessons, or your account, our support team will respond as quickly as possible.

Joscho mostly plays handcrafted guitars by Jürgen Volkert as well as the Academy guitars by Jozsi Lak. His main signal chain and accessories include: • D'Addario Gypsy Swing strings (.011) • Wegen Big City picks (1.8 mm) • Audio-Technica AT831b microphone (used as a pickup mic) • Tondexter II for processing the pickup signal • Jaaz Acoustics Guitar Amp (Compact 6i B) For electric guitars Joscho endorses Ibanez Guitars