The Guitar Can Be More Than an Instrument.
It can be a voice. A place to explore. A way to express what words can’t. And it can be healing.
Yes! We’ll teach you to understand the instrument deeply — developing your fretboard knowledge, ear and technique. But where we specialise is helping you internalise what you learn, giving you the freedom to express something that’s genuinely yours.
Private Guitar Lessons in Sydney & the Northern Beaches • Live Online Guitar Coaching
Face-to-face tuition on Sydney's Northern Beaches • Zoom lessons available across Australia and internationally
YOUR AGS PATH
Choose the Way You Want to Learn
One philosophy. Different pathways.
Whether you want regular one-to-one coaching, structured tuition for your child, live online lessons or a self-paced course, every AGS pathway is built around the same goal: helping you understand the instrument, internalise what you learn and express yourself with greater freedom.
ONE-TO-ONE
Private Guitar Lessons
Personalised face-to-face coaching for players who want structured progress, individual attention and a lesson pathway built around their goals.
EXPLORE PRIVATE LESSONSYOUNG GUITARISTS
AGS Junior Academy
A structured pathway for younger players that develops technique, rhythm, musical understanding, creativity and confidence through progressive stages.
EXPLORE JUNIOR ACADEMYLIVE ONLINE
Zoom Guitar Lessons
Live personalised AGS coaching for students across Australia and internationally, without needing to travel to the studio.
EXPLORE ZOOM LESSONSLEARN AT YOUR OWN PACE
Fretboard Mastery
Work through the AGS fretboard system independently and learn how notes, intervals, scales, chords and improvisation connect across the neck — then turn that understanding into music.
EXPLORE FRETBOARD MASTERYNot Sure Which Path Is Right for You?
Send through an enquiry and tell us where you're at, what you're trying to achieve and how you'd prefer to learn. We'll help you identify the most suitable starting point.
FIND YOUR STARTING POINTINSIDE THE AGS METHOD
Seven areas of awareness that work together to turn knowledge into musicianship
AGS doesn't teach notes, scales, chords, rhythm, improvisation and awareness as isolated subjects. They develop together — helping you understand what you see, hear what you're playing and make increasingly intentional musical choices.
No single key works in isolation. Musical freedom develops as these connections become something you can see, hear, understand and ultimately express without the instrument getting in the way.
01 — Notes
Know where the notes live so the neck becomes familiar territory rather than guesswork.
02 — Intervals
Understand the relationships between notes — the language behind melody, harmony and fretboard movement.
03 — Scales
See scales as connected interval structures rather than isolated boxes.
04 — Chords
Recognise how chords and arpeggios grow from the same interval relationships found in scales.
05 — Rhythm & Time
Develop the timing and rhythmic awareness that turns fretboard knowledge into music.
06 — Improvisation
Turn understanding into real-time musical choices, phrasing and expression.
07 — Awareness
Develop an internal sense of the instrument so you increasingly hear and anticipate where the music can move next.
When the 7 Keys Connect
The guitar stops feeling like a collection of things to remember and starts becoming something you understand intuitively.
Instead of searching for a memorised shape, you begin recognising relationships, hearing possibilities and making intentional musical choices.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
Understanding creates the conditions for freedom — but the goal is always music.
Want to Start Building These Connections?
Start with the free AGS Fretboard Mastery Primer, or go deeper with the complete Fretboard Mastery program and develop the understanding that gives you greater freedom across the instrument.
GETTING STARTED
Your First Lesson at Alien Guitar Secrets
Start with a lesson built around where you are — not where a syllabus says you should be
Every guitarist arrives with a different history, different strengths and different reasons for wanting to play. Your first lesson gives us the opportunity to understand where you are, where you want to go and how AGS can best help you get there.
Your First Lesson Starts With You
Before we decide what to work on, I want to understand where you are, what you've already learned, what you're struggling with, what excites you about the guitar and where you'd ultimately like your playing to take you.
From there, we'll play, explore and start identifying the knowledge, skills and musical connections that will best support your development.
Tell Me About You
We'll talk about your experience, influences, goals, frustrations, what you love playing — and what you wish you could do that you can't do yet.
Let's Play
We'll explore your playing together. Not as a test, but to understand how you currently hear, think about and navigate the instrument — and we'll start working on something useful immediately.
Build Your Direction
By the end of the lesson, we'll have a much clearer picture of where you are, where you want to go and what will best help you get there.
The Starting Point Is Different for Everyone
The aim isn't to fit you into a predetermined lesson plan. It's to understand the guitarist in front of me, identify what will make the greatest difference to your playing and build a direction that serves the musician you want to become.
Complete beginner? You don't need to prepare anything before you arrive.
Already playing? Bring the questions, songs, techniques or musical problems you want help understanding.
There's no pressure to commit on the spot. After your first lesson, you can consider the direction we've discussed and decide whether ongoing AGS tuition is right for you.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
EXPLORE • DISCOVER • CONNECT
Enter the AGS Fretboard Universe
An interactive world designed to help you see, hear and understand how the guitar connects
Fretboard Universe brings the AGS approach to life through exploration. Discover notes, intervals, scales, chords and the relationships between them — developing the awareness that helps turn fretboard knowledge into musical freedom.
Explore It. Understand It. Make It Yours.
The goal isn't simply to memorise more information. It's to explore the instrument deeply enough that the relationships begin to make sense — so you can recognise them, hear them and ultimately use them in your own playing.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
THE STORY BEHIND ALIEN GUITAR SECRETS
It Started With a Much Simpler Question.
What do I actually want from the guitar?
Rob Lobasso
Guitarist • Educator • Founder of Alien Guitar Secrets
There was a point in my own playing when I had to strip everything back and ask myself what I really wanted from the guitar.
The answer wasn't another scale, another technique or the ability to play something faster.
I wanted to be able to say what I wanted to say.
That question changed the way I approached the instrument. I still wanted the knowledge. I wanted to understand the fretboard, harmony, intervals, technique and how music actually worked. But I began to see those things differently.
They weren't the destination. They were the tools that could remove the barriers between what I heard and felt internally and what came out of the guitar.
Years of playing, independent study and more than two decades of teaching gradually turned that idea into Alien Guitar Secrets. Today, the method is built around helping guitarists understand the instrument deeply, internalise what they learn and ultimately develop the freedom to express something that's genuinely their own.
Eventually, You Shouldn't Need Me.
My job isn't to create students who need me to tell them what to play. It's to help you develop your ears, awareness, understanding and technique until you increasingly know what you're hearing, what you're looking for and how to find it for yourself.
Guitar lessons that develop the musician — not just the mechanics
Sydney's Northern Beaches • Online worldwide
The Goal Is Your Own Musical Voice
Learn the instrument. Understand what you're hearing. Develop the technique to express it. Then spend enough time with those ideas that they stop feeling borrowed and start becoming part of you.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
Connect with the instrument and the music. Create from understanding. Transcend the patterns, habits and limitations that once stood in the way.
LEARN AT YOUR OWN PACE
Go Deeper With the AGS Method
Structured guitar courses designed to turn understanding into musical freedom
Work through the Alien Guitar Secrets approach at your own pace — developing your fretboard knowledge, ear, understanding and musical awareness while learning how to internalise what you learn and use it creatively.
Start Free — Then Go Deeper
Begin with the free Fretboard Mastery Primer to experience the AGS approach, or move into Fretboard Mastery for the complete structured pathway — connecting fretboard knowledge, theory, ear, technique and improvisation so they become tools you can actually use.
Paid online course prices shown below are in USD unless otherwise stated.
All Courses
Knowledge Is the Beginning. Internalisation Is the Goal.
The aim of every AGS course is not simply to give you more information. It's to help you spend enough time with what you learn that you can recognise it, hear it, understand it and eventually use it without having to consciously search for it.
That's when knowledge starts becoming part of your playing.
New to Alien Guitar Secrets? The Fretboard Mastery Primer is the easiest way to experience the approach before moving into the complete Fretboard Mastery program.
START THE FREE FRETBOARD MASTERY PRIMERCONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
FROM THE AGS BLOG
Go Deeper Into the Ideas Behind the Playing
Fretboard knowledge, practice, creativity, musicianship and expression
Explore the thinking behind the AGS approach — from understanding how the instrument works to developing the awareness, practice habits and musical freedom to make that understanding your own.
UNDERSTAND
Why Most Guitarists Feel Lost on the Fretboard
Discover why memorising more shapes isn't necessarily the answer — and how understanding the relationships underneath them can turn the fretboard into one connected musical system.
READ THE ARTICLEINTERNALISE
Sing What You Play: The Missing Link Between Your Ear and the Fretboard
Learn to strengthen the connection between what you hear internally and what you play — so your fingers begin following a musical idea instead of simply searching through familiar shapes.
READ THE ARTICLEEXPRESS
The Secret Behind Great Guitar Phrasing
Explore how rhythm, dynamics, articulation, space and feel transform notes into phrases — and why musical expression is about far more than playing faster or knowing more scales.
READ THE ARTICLEMore Than Guitar Information
The AGS blog explores the whole process of becoming a musician — understanding the instrument, developing your ear and technique, practising with intention, internalising what you learn and ultimately finding more freedom in the way you play.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
AGS GUITAR SERVICES
Guitar Setup & Restring Services in Sydney
Sharpen your tone. Maintain your axe.
A guitar that plays properly makes everything easier. Alien Guitar Secrets provides restringing, setup, electronics and specialist locking-tremolo services from our Sydney Northern Beaches studio, helping keep your instrument comfortable, stable and ready to perform.
NEXT-DAY EXPRESS RESTRING
Drop It Off. Pick It Up After 4pm the Next Day.
Reserve one of only 4 Express Restring places available each day. Drop your instrument off at your booked time, we restring it the following morning, and it will be ready for collection after 4pm.
Your Guitar Should Work With You — Not Against You
Poor action, unstable tuning or an instrument that simply doesn't feel right can make progress unnecessarily difficult. A properly maintained guitar lets you concentrate on the part that matters — playing music.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
AGS OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE
Wear the AGS Philosophy
Official Alien Guitar Secrets apparel, headwear and accessories
Explore the official AGS merchandise collections — created for guitarists, students and supporters who connect with the Alien Guitar Secrets philosophy both on and off the instrument.
AGS Rock Series
Bold AGS designs for players who live and breathe guitar.
AGS Heritage Collection
Classic AGS styling with a more refined, timeless feel.
AGS Varsity Collection
Collegiate-inspired AGS apparel built around the 2007 legacy.
More Than Merch
The AGS store carries the same identity that runs through the lessons, courses and community — individuality, creativity and a love of the instrument.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
AGS BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS
Take the Ideas Beyond the Lesson
Guitar books and practice resources built around the AGS approach
Alien Guitar Secrets publications give you the space to go deeper — developing your understanding of the instrument, improving the way you practise and spending enough time with musical ideas for them to become part of your playing.
Written for Guitarists Who Want the Bigger Picture
AGS publications extend the same principles found throughout our lessons and courses: understand what you're learning, explore how it connects, practise it with intention and gradually turn that knowledge into something you can hear, feel and use.
Fretboard Understanding
Develop a clearer understanding of how notes, intervals, scales and chords are organised across the neck.
Better Practice Structure
Move away from random practice and begin working with clearer purpose, direction and musical intent.
Musical Application
The aim is never just to collect information. The deeper goal is to turn knowledge into playing, creativity and expression.
Build a Reference Library You Can Return To
Books offer something different from a lesson or video: the ability to slow down, revisit an idea and build understanding at your own pace. AGS publications are designed to become practical reference material throughout your development.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
BEYOND THE LESSONS
Professional Music & Creative Services
Performance, production and professional guitar work beyond the teaching studio
Alien Guitar Secrets is built from real-world musicianship. Explore Rob Lobasso's work as a guitarist, artist and producer, or enquire about professional session guitar for your own recording or creative project.
Teaching Informed by Doing
The ideas taught through Alien Guitar Secrets aren't separated from real music-making. Performance, recording, arranging and creative work continue to inform how musicianship is approached in the teaching studio.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
A Few Things You May Want to Know
Lessons, Junior Academy, Zoom and getting started with AGS
If you're considering guitar lessons with Alien Guitar Secrets, these are some of the questions we hear most often.
Do you teach complete beginners?
What happens in my first guitar lesson?
Where are private guitar lessons held?
What age can children start at the Junior Academy?
Do you offer Zoom guitar lessons?
How is Alien Guitar Secrets different from traditional guitar lessons?
Can I combine private lessons with AGS online courses?
Do you offer guitar restring and setup services?
Do I have to commit to ongoing lessons before my first session?
READY TO START?
Start With Your First Guitar Lesson
Tell us a little about your playing, experience and goals. We'll review your enquiry and help you find the most appropriate starting point.
CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND
Understand the instrument. Internalise the music. Express something of your own.
