Don’t Wait Until You’re Great To Start Having Fun

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. Scales or music theory. How to play songs. When I ask “why” I might hear that someone wants to learn chords s

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 songs at Coney Island High as the guitarist for the legendary punk rocker Jayne County. Here’s an awesome picture of

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 is so much going on at once: finger pressure, pick angle, strumming pattern, tone, tempo, chord shapes, the next no

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 from Dr. Dave Popple—a successful entrepreneur, organizational psychologist, and an inspiring guitar student, too!

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 thousands of successful (and not-so-successful) students, I’ve noticed something important: A lot of hardworking, we

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 try something new. But every year I also hear a few jokes about how New Year’s resolutions are likely to last about a

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 Square Park: Over 100 guitarists jamming together on the summer solstice. Thirteen rock band showcases: Kids, teens,

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 were stoked. I felt inspired to go home and play lead guitar, proud of what we’re bringing to our students, and excite

So many times over my career at NYC Guitar School, someone has told me something like: “I love this place–but man, I wish I’d found it when I was a kid. I wanted to play The Beatles (or Radiohead, or The White Stripes). But my parents signed me up with a classical guitar teacher and I got bored and frustrated and I quit.” What happened? This student had a deep and fervent desire to rock. (YE

Playing guitar with someone else! I’ve been playing guitar for a long time—and I have to admit, I’m still not over how fun it is. I still begin most days with a few minutes of playing along with a favorite song or running through some drills. (By “begin” I mean “after I start drinking my coffee”.) After all these years, I still feel a bit thrilled that I’m able to find my way into improvisin