An Arizona-based professional pianist and music director is bringing his guitar and piano lessons to Cuesta College as a community education class, and all students have to do is tune in online with their instruments.
“It doesn’t matter how much you pay for private instruction. If you don’t do the work, it’s not going to happen,” piano and guitar instructor Craig Coffman said. “But the thing about the chord method is it’s dramatically easier than the note-reading method. People who never learned to read notes learn this and have a lot of fun with it.”
The chord method teaches students how to build groups of notes from formulas or scale degrees, allowing them to play songs by changing chords instead of single notes.
“It’s also the way every single professional plays modern music, and when I say modern music,” Coffman said, “I’m talking about anything that is not classical—jazz, blues, showtunes, country music, things like that.”
On Jan. 31, he’ll teach anyone who enrolls (they must be at least 13 years old) how to play piano and guitar using the chord method. His Instant Piano for Hopelessly Busy People will run from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Zoom, and his Instant Guitar for Hopelessly Busy People will take place between noon and 2:30 p.m. the same day.
Both classes cost $69 each. Register at cuesta.edu/communityprograms/community-education/music/instant-guitar-for-hopelessly-busy-people.html.
Coffman teaches how to play the two instruments all over the U.S. through partnerships with colleges in New York, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, and North Dakota, to name a few.
Cuesta College is one of the three California colleges that sponsor his lessons, with the others being Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe and College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita.
“I have heard a lot of people say to me that they’ve started to play for a nursing home,” Coffman said. “A lot of people play for the church because modern music in most churches today uses the chord method. I used to be a church musician as well, so I can understand what they’re looking for.”
Coffman has been teaching this style of music since 1993, traveling from state to state—including 10-hour drives to Cuesta College—until COVID-19 forced the world to slow down. He pivoted to Zoom lessons in the wake of the pandemic and hasn’t stopped since.
“[Zoom’s] just been a lifesaver to me. People absolutely love doing the classes at home,” he said. “I used to make this joke: We used to have people bring up pianos to the class, but we had stopped doing that because we had too many injuries.”
For his online classes, Coffman sets up two cameras—one focused on his face and the other on his hands. He asks people to mute themselves and follow how he plays. The option to mute oneself helps shy students who don’t want to play in front of other people, according to Coffman.
Students need to join the Zoom lesson with a guitar or traditional piano or electronic keyboard, depending on the class they signed up for. Attending the Zoom lesson using an iPad is ideal, according to Coffman, because students can easily prop it up. Laptops and computers work too, but joining the Zoom lessons through cellphones isn’t recommended.
Practice and learning don’t stop once the three-hour lesson ends. Coffman has a plethora of resources available for students, including a recording of the class he filmed professionally at a college a few years ago and his online book on playing the piano and guitar.
Once a month, Coffman also offers an optional Q-and-A session for students, who can sign up by emailing him at chordsarekey@gmail.com. Students can also get in touch with him through his Facebook page Chords Are Key for Piano Community Group. Coffman’s YouTube page @chordsarekey3235 contains about 100 piano tutorial videos.
Coffman’s initial worry that his popular Zoom lessons during the pandemic would be a “flash in the pan” proved to be unfounded, with his classes steadily being offered online thanks to the support of colleges around the country.
“There’s nothing new about online instruction, but it is new that the average person out there in the public is using something like Zoom for doctor’s appointments and everything else,” Coffman said. “So, it’s not at all considered unusual what I’m doing online.”
Fast fact
• Travel Paso awarded more than $80,000 in grant funding to 15 organizations in San Luis Obispo County as part of its Community Events Marketing Grant. Recipients include Studios on the Park, Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association, Women in Olive Oil, and 3 Speckled Hens. The funding will help these groups to continue offering cultural, social, and recreational initiatives that draw in locals and visitors alike. ∆
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 5, 2026.