I’m happy to welcome three new members! @Roger Christiansen @Braedan Coghlan and @Rylan Lacroix First, @Roger Christiansen is my Dad. My original guitar hero, and hero in general. His wisdom is something that I have sought and benefited so much from. The kindest sweetest guy, I am proud to have him here. The stories he can tell! Like the time he nearly had a run in with Charles Manson, as a fellow guitar player! @Braedan Coghlan is a really interesting guy I’m just getting to know more about. He’s really grinding away at his own guitar teaching community on here, called BtP, and he’s reaching out towards getting guitar players that are seriously motivated to progress, and he has a lot of fresh takes and motivational stuff. Just a guy with a lot of positives. Great having him. Also he called Me a “king”. I’ve never been called that before! @Rylan Lacroix I don’t know that I’ve talked to him, but welcome to the community. I look forward to hearing your story and getting to know you more. I hope you’ll jump in and be in the mix!

*Disclaimer - This is a post I made on a forum a very long time ago... rescued it as the places/communities are all closing down now. If anyone is interested we can run the idea of improving our solo's (I have a box account full of stuff from that time with challenge tracks and stuff and we can do a collab box) or you can just read it and see* The solo. Two little words, that when used together, inspire fear and loathing in many a guitarist/musician still on their musical journey. It is usually accompanied with things along the lines of "Well, I would if I could", or "I'm not good enough" or "I wish I could solo like you/him/her/famous artist". In three words or less, "That is bullshit!"... kind of has a nice ring to it. We all have to start somewhere, and you can only get better the more you do it. If your song calls for a solo, then do it you must. Pitfalls - You think you suck - Almost every guitarist starts with getting jam tracks... you know who you are... you have 4 minute or 5 minute jam tracks and think this will magically solve all your problems - You think you need modes cos they will also magically solve all your problems - You think you need to know a shitload of scales - You think every chord needs a new scale - You think you need to have monstrous speed and technique If any of these fall into your span of thinking (and as time goes on with updates to this thread, there will be more points), then you are waging war with your creativity. Let's tackle these things one by one: You think you suck This is the worst way to go about anything. This, alone, stifles creativity to the point of killing it off for good. You have come this far in your journey, so why create a mental barricade? What you have achieved to this point in your musical journey is a milestone in itself. You have your current knowledge and current creativity level, so use it. Use it to its breaking point. What happens at breaking point? Well, a new development occurs... a new level is achieved, another tier to conquer... brand new possibilities in all its forms. How can that ever be a bad thing?

I’ll start things off! I’m Sean, a guitar instructor from Texas, I have been teaching since the mid 90s. I’ve had a brick and mortar Guitar Academy since 2004. I’ve been teaching online since 2009. Tell me about you! I’d love to hear your story! Doesn’t have to be elaborate, just what you play how long, any favorite guitars or bands or passions, and anything else you’d like to share! I was a fixture in the Musicians Talk Forum on Ultimate Guitar, which many of you have probably heard of. This was where we all talked music theory and helped other guitarists. I’ve made many great friendship over the years from people there! Currently, I am one of the leaders in the Facebook community “Guitar and Music Theory” which has over 100k members. Beyond all of that, helping others is a passion of mine, and I have been fortunate to have picked up some very unique insights about music and making it easy for others to do the same. I really just want to grow a really tight knit community of like minded players, and hang out, help one another, so if you’d like to join in, welcome aboard, and I hope to be a positive influence in your own guitar journey. One thing that I hope we can do are those virtual meetups, where we just hang out and talk about whatever. and I’m excited to see where that goes. Below is a picture of my studio, where I’ve been teaching out of since 2016. Look forward to getting to know everyone and making new friends!