You’re sitting at home, with just your voice and your guitar writing a song. You have the lyrics and the chords down, and it feels like you have something good! You jump to record it in your phone or in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), but it just doesn’t sound AT ALL what you imagined it could...

I went on a Facebook Live the other day, and I was talking about dreams versus goals. It hit me how many people never move past the dream phase. Honestly, it made me a little sad, because I know it’s possible for you to move past it, and I’m tired of seeing people give up after running around expend...

Networking - it’s not out of your reach

Imagine you’re hungry- starving- so you look in the fridge, you look in the cupboard and there’s no food. I mean that’s inconvenient, but you wouldn’t say, “oh well, I'm just gonna starve to death”. No! {shakes head}! You go to the grocery store! 

It's simil...

Judy Stakee is a legendary music publisher, songwriting mentor, author, and speaker. Former Sr. VP of Creative at Warner Chappell Music, she’s responsible for signing and developing many of today’s most acclaimed artists and songwriters (Sheryl Crow, Katy Perry, Joy Williams, Jewel). Judy shares her...

For two years Bonnie J. Baker was figuring out songwriting again after making multi-platinum hits! She’s had amazing singles cut with so many artists, that I could use this entire platform just to talk about that.  We talk about how she got started, and a period of time, later in life, where she was...

I was in a coaching session the other day, and we were going through chords in a student’s song. I was strumming along with one of theirs that was released on Spotify and they stopped me and said, “Oh I really like what you’re doing there”. Honestly it was nothing too special.  What sounded differen...

You might have heard me talk about active listening because I'm a huge advocate for it as a songwriting guitar  coach. But why is this so important? What are the benefits? Do you really need to do this consistently? 

If you’re thinking, “active listening doesn’t really matter”, or “I want to figure...

82% of people who are looking for guitar advice tell me they have trouble concentrating while practicing. They just can’t focus! 

Well, have you ever been to The Golden Corral? It’s a buffet where you can have whatever you want…. mash potatoes lasagna, shrimp, mexican... It might sound great until ...

When I write blogs/vlogs and do Facebook/instagram ADs 99% of responses are thoughtful and engaging.

What about the 1%?

Well sometimes the responses are either creepy, weird or like this…

Now why single out this passive aggressive “comment” for this blog?

Because there’s sooo much good stuf...

Over the past few weeks I've received a few questions from my Insider Members on arranging guitars for demos.

I posted this video in the group but I wanted to share it with you too. Now is the best time to dig your heals in and prep your skills for 2021! 

If you find this video helpful and want mo...

Building a better practice routine, is one of the trickiest things for any guitar player/singer songwriter. Stop have this unreasonable expectations when practicing! Set very reasonable (yes, reasonable goals. . . you're an adult, life happens!)

Pick a focus item (Scales, chords, a chorus a song yo...

Far too often when I get a new student or have a mentoring session with someone for guitar they say a few phrases. . .

"I'm not that good"

"I'm awful"

"My technique it terrible"

"I'll never be good"

. . STOP! The language we use matters. It can effect our playing!!

Yes we're all working hard o...