Don’t Dream It, Be It After 30 years as a guitar school entrepreneur, I’ve heard thousands of people tell me, “I want to learn guitar.”  Often the student has an idea of potential progress in terms of skills acquired. They want to learn chords or barre chords.

Yet another way to have more fun and more success by practicing smarter. Thirty years ago I had just arrived in the bright lights of New York City—a very different place than the little Idaho towns where I grew up—and my friend had gotten me a cool gig. I was filling in for a couple s

The Fastest Way to Play Better is to Slow Down You’re practicing too fast. And it is slowing you down. I get it, it is fun to play fast–and sometimes we have to play fast to play the songs that move us. But when we learn a new guitar part or pass a new threshold of skill, there

Above: That’s Dave on the far right, performing in Herald Square with (from left) my NYC Guitar School business partner Jen, me, student Sophie—and teacher Dylan Charles on the snow mountain. We were playing “On Broadway”… on Broadway! (Photo by Malik Chatman) Today’s guest post comes

Sticking with it matters more than suffering through it We’ve all heard the old joke: Patient: “Doctor, it hurts when I hit myself in the head.” Doctor: “Stop hitting yourself in the head.” Today, I will be your Doctor of Guitar. After several decades of teaching guitar and watching t

Read this if you want your next resolution to actually stick! It’s the New Year! And that means lots of New Year’s resolutions. As a rock‑and‑roll entrepreneur, I love that — January is always one of our biggest months for new enrollments. People are fired up, hopeful, and ready to tr

60+ Events Made This Our Biggest Year Yet! I’ve had so many moments of joy and satisfaction this past year as a guitar-slinging, song-teaching rock-and-roll entrepreneur—but one of the very best came just a couple of weeks ago at one of our Songwriter Showcases. Mass Appeal in Union S

Just Play You don’t need a breakthrough—you need a habit. I felt on top of the world! I had just finished hosting a sold-out Master Class at NYC Guitar School with the incredible lead guitar player and teacher Suke Cerulo. The room was packed, the energy was high, and the students wer

One of the most rewarding parts of running NYC Guitar School is watching students grow—sometimes in ways none of us could have imagined. Today’s guest post comes from a student who went from battling barre chords to running her own guitar repair shop inside our school. (She learned to