September 11, 2025 • 16 mins
Ever felt stuck in your guitar journey despite watching countless tutorials or taking sporadic lessons? Steve Stine unpacks a revolutionary approach to guitar education that's transforming how passionate players finally break through their plateaus.
The GuitarZoom Academy isn't another course or membership site—it's a dynamic learning ecosystem built on daily human connection. Unlike traditional methods where you're left alone to interpret instructions between lessons, this approach provides continuous guidance from eight experienced instructors who get to know your specific struggles, strengths, and aspirations. Through twice-daily "Open Rooms," members receive immediate feedback on their playing, answers to pressing questions, and clarity that prevents wasted practice time.
What makes this model particularly powerful is its foundation in personalized assessment. The process begins with "The Bridge"—a comprehensive evaluation of where you are and where you want to go. This leads to a tailored practice plan focused exclusively on what will move you forward fastest. No more random skill acquisition or wondering if you're working on the right things. Your dedicated "studio instructor" provides weekly check-ins to ensure accountability, while daily practice logs track your progress and highlight patterns in your development. The combination of structure and flexibility accommodates busy professionals and travelers while maintaining consistent advancement.
Ready to transform your relationship with the guitar? Whether you've been playing for decades or just starting out, this approach eliminates the isolation and confusion that holds most guitarists back. Click the link to schedule a conversation with Steve or another instructor and discover if the Academy's personalized coaching system aligns with your musical aspirations.
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:00):
Hey, steve Stine here from Guitar Zoom Academy.
I've been getting a lot ofquestions about what the Academy
is and how it works, so Ithought I would just take a
little bit of time and try andexplain to you how this might be
beneficial for you if this iswhat you're looking for.
So, basically, Guitar Zoom as acompany, what we've been doing
for many, many years is sellingguitar courses you know, online
(00:21):
video courses, that sort ofthing and they've been very
successful.
A lot of people have boughtthem and it's been awesome.
But if there's been onecomplaint with them, it's that
the conversations, just likeYouTube and everything like that
, the conversations areone-sided.
You watch something, you tryand get what you can out of it,
and then you go make sense of itas best you can and then maybe
grab another video and keepgoing, but there's never any
(00:44):
actual communication back andforth to answer the questions,
to get the clarity, to get thedirection all of these things
and to figure out whether or notyou're actually working on the
right things or whether or notyou're just, you know, studying
random things that may notnecessarily be getting you to
your goals, to where you want tobe.
And so during COVID, you knowwe really started rethinking
(01:05):
what could we do to create ahuman experience, an actual
interactive human experience, towhere you know you're talking
to me, you're talking to theinstructors we have here in the
academy and we're actuallyworking things out together
watching you play, gettingassessments of your playing,
giving you direction, setting upa practice plan, telling you
(01:27):
what you should be working onagain, relative to your
struggles, your goals, that sortof thing.
And that's where the academycame from.
So the academy itself isn't likea one you know weekly guitar
lesson where you go see somebodyon Thursdays at five o'clock or
something like that.
You know for 30 minutes andthen you know you hope that
that's enough and then you goand try and work on it for a
week and then meet again and seewhat you come up with.
(01:49):
That's not what this is.
It isn't just watching a guitarcourse and you know finishing
the course and getting acertificate or something like
that.
It's not a membership, it'snothing like that.
What it really is in my eyes,the academy, the word academy
it's like an ecosystem that weexist in and work with each
other interactively in real time.
(02:10):
So you're not sending an emailand waiting for a response or
something.
We're literally just talking toeach other and figuring out the
solutions that are needed toget you where you want to go.
So, in that kind of light, theacademy is an ecosystem where
we're all here, the instructorsthere's seven other instructors,
including Bean we're allworking with you.
(02:30):
It's nice to have differentperspectives Other, you know,
because we have a number ofinstructors.
We're all available on a dailybasis, every day, to be able to
talk to you in the mornings andthe evenings.
Whatever it is that you need,we can have these conversations.
So, basically, what happens inthe academy, whatever it is that
you need, we can have theseconversations.
So, basically, what happens inthe academy, the first thing
that we do is what we call thebridge, and what we try and do
is set up a game plan.
(02:50):
That's what the bridge is foris figuring out what it is that
you need, where it is you wantto go, what your struggles are,
and making a game plan from thatassessment.
So we get together on what wecall a kickoff call.
In this kickoff call, we gettogether, we talk about
everything, try and suss out asmuch information as we can in
the beginning.
Now the reality is, of course,as we start working together, a
(03:13):
month down the road, two monthsdown the road, whatever it might
be, this is going to morphorganically.
This is going to change.
We're going to startrecognizing that we need this or
we need a little more of this,or we need a little more of this
, or we need a little bit.
You know a little less of this.
This is something that happens,you know, very naturally as we
work together.
But the game plan in thebeginning is who are you?
What is it that you're tryingto do?
(03:33):
What are you struggling with?
What do you ultimately wish youcould do?
That you've been strugglingwith for a long time and you
know if it was a year from nowand we were working together and
you were like man, it's been ayear and this is exactly what I
wanted to be able to do.
What live classes would best fitwhat you're trying to do?
And making that daily practiceroutine.
The next thing we do is set upthe structure and the
(04:13):
accountability.
So, yes, you're going to beworking with all eight of us
here in the academy, but one ofthese instructors is going to
become what we call your studioinstructor, so that person is
going to be like your guitarcoach over the amount of time
that you're in the academy.
Their job is to be as proactiveas possible, checking in with
you every week, making sure thateverything's going the way it
(04:34):
needs to be going.
We create a daily practice logfor you and, yes, it's very
important that you fill that outon a daily basis.
Take five minutes out of yourday, get in the habit of filling
it out.
It's very, very important forus to be able to look at the
progress that you're making.
Okay, on that sheet You'd bewriting down, you know, this is
what I'm struggling with, thisis what I'm working on.
(04:55):
This is who I talk to.
This is how I'm feeling aboutthis.
I'm really frustrated with this.
I had an aha moment today.
Whatever, we can look at thatand over time, we can see what
kind of progress you're makingrelative to the things that
you're working on when you'renot with us.
When you're, you know, on yourown practicing.
So that's that daily practicelog is really, really important,
and what your studio instructordoes is he checks that every
(05:19):
week.
How's you know, how's Jim doing, how's Tom doing, it doesn't
matter.
How are things going for youand then they check in with you
hey man, how are things going?
Tell me about last week, tellme how things went.
What's your plan for this week?
And, of course, your plan thisweek might look a lot like last
week.
There's no magic pill to thesethings.
Things take time, especiallyreally good stuff.
(05:40):
It's just we got to keepworking on it to make sure that
it's optimized and you'regetting the.
I always think of it like afoundation.
Everything under here is whatwe really need to be focusing on
to get you where you want to go.
Everything outside of heremight be fun it might be, you
know, whatever interesting, andthat's fine and that's fine.
(06:01):
But if you have too many ofthose kinds of things, the
problem is we lose focus on whatwe're actually trying to do,
actually trying to do.
Now.
There are times, you know, wherewe're working together and we
might realize that we really doneed this thing and it needs to
come inside the foundation.
Or there's something else herethat we're working on that we
don't really need right now andmaybe it's a good time to put it
outside here.
So it's not, it's not gettingin the way right.
(06:23):
So trying to make things aslean as possible so we can get
to where we want to go.
You know, so often people willsay, well, I need more theory,
or I need more triads, or I needmore scales, or and that might
be true, but it might not betrue.
It depends Is your, do yourgoals, does your ultimate goal
match what it is that you'retrying to actually work on to
(06:45):
achieve that goal, or are therethings missing?
Because oftentimes we figureout that you don't know what you
don't know.
There might be things you don'teven know that you should be
working on, that you didn't evenknow existed, because you've
been watching these videos andthis never made sense to you.
Right?
I want to learn how toimprovise musically.
I want to play creatively, Iwant to gain my confidence in my
playing and be able to playwith other people.
(07:07):
That could be maybe a primarygoal of yours.
So you're thinking, well, Ineed more theory, or need more
of this, or need and again, theanswer might be, yes, you do,
but the answer might be let'shold off on those right now and
let's try and focus more on yourskill set, or let's work on
your musicality, or whatever itmight be.
This is why we work togetherand so in the structure and
accountability.
(07:27):
The second phase of this that'sthe whole point is setting this
all up to make sure that you'vegot you're doing the work.
Okay, I tell people youpractice on the days that you
eat.
I can't tell you you canpractice four hours a day.
I can't tell you that you needto practice 30 minutes a day.
You do the best you can withwhat you're working on and you
(07:50):
know what you're working on.
You know why you're working onit.
We can actually start seeingprogress in that.
Oftentimes, what happens is youget more motivated and chances
are you're going to startpicking that guitar up more
often or keep it longer.
So it isn't a matter of you gotto promise me you're going to
practice four hours a day.
You can't make that promise Atleast most people can't, right
but you might be able to promisethat you could pick up the
guitar every day, at least whenyou're at home.
(08:11):
If you're someone who travels alot, we can make game plans for
you that work when you'retraveling and things that you
can work on to optimize yourtime when you're not around your
guitar.
It's very easy to do.
We just have to have theseconversations.
The real power of this thing isthe dynamic learning.
(08:32):
So what you are going to getaccess to, of course, are going
to be guitar courses.
Okay, you don't need 400 guitarcourses.
What you need are the ones thatbest fit what your game plan is
, and even have those in anorder of logistics.
So you know, if we're workingon, if we need more work on this
skill or this technique orsomething, okay, let's work on
this.
Maybe not the entire course,but maybe what we need is this
thing.
And then we're going to work onsome improv, and then we're
(08:53):
going to work on some theory,right, Some fretboard
development, whatever it mightbe.
You know, it could be all kindsof different things.
Again, this is why we have akickoff call.
You're going to get access tothe classes.
We have classes, live classesevery day of the week.
So you know, there's classes onblues and soloing, and theory
and technique and just all kindsof different things that we
talk about every day, and youcan jump into those live classes
(09:16):
when you have time, especiallythe ones that, again, best match
what you're trying to do.
And you know, interact, be partof the community, get some
education, get some motivation,learn something new.
You know, ask questions,whatever it is that you need in
those live classes, so they'renot mandatory.
You can take them when you can.
All the live classes arerecorded so you can always go
back and watch them, you know,whenever you've got time.
(09:38):
Some people like to listen tothem, like podcasts, when
they're traveling.
They'll listen to them that way, and then you can always go
back and talk to the instructorthat taught that class and let's
talk about that.
So the big thing that brings usall together is what we call
open rooms.
Okay, open rooms are almostlike open office hours, where
six days a week we don't work.
On Sundays, here I usually playin church or I'm traveling with
(10:00):
bands or something like that,but Sundays we don't work.
But six days a week, in themornings and in the evenings we
have what's called open rooms,again like open office hours.
So what happens is there'ssomeone like me that's sitting
in a Zoom call waiting forsomeone like you to show up and
say hey, I got a question.
Hey, I need some direction onthis.
(10:21):
Hey, I'm confused by this.
Hey, what would you do withthis?
How would you approach this?
Hey, can you watch me play andtell me what it is that I'm
doing here.
How would I?
How you know, am I struggling?
Can you tell me why thisdoesn't feel right, towards not
fast enough, and see what we cando is work with you literally
on a daily basis, literallytwice a day.
We get together, we watch you,listen to you, answer your
(10:43):
questions, get you the claritythat you need, get you unstuck
that day and get you right backto work again.
And if tomorrow you've gotanother question or you need
some sort of clarity, I like tocall it clarity more than
questions, because sometimes youdon't even know what the
question is.
You're like I don't understandwhat this is or how this works.
Can you help me Right, orwhat's the next thing I should
be doing?
So getting that clarityliterally on a daily basis and
(11:07):
what happens over time is we getto know you on a very personal
level, so we know where you are,we know what you're working on.
Everybody here knows whatyou're doing.
Our job is to help you getthere.
You know it's not to.
It's not contest and ego andall these other things.
I've never believed any of thatstuff.
Anyway, you know just mypersonality.
(11:29):
I care about getting peoplefrom where they are to where
they want to go, and I want totry and develop as much more, as
much confidence as I can inpeople to get them there,
because the more confidence theyhave, the more they're seeing
that progress, the more they'regoing to want to play, and
that's what we're talking about.
That's what guitar playing is.
Let's get to where we want togo.
So, with these open rooms, thegreat thing is is that you're
(11:49):
constantly interacting and youalso have different instructors
that you can rely upon.
Maybe you develop a, you know,a particular relationship with
two or three of the instructorsthat you really just get along
to.
Their personality vibes withyours.
Or maybe you're working witheverybody you know just whenever
.
It doesn't matter whateverworks best for you.
The nice thing about havingdifferent um instructors is you
(12:11):
have different perspectives.
You know everybody here can dolots of different things, but
you know some people are betterat rock or shred stuff and maybe
some are better at blues andsome at jazz and some at theory,
and you know finger picking andacoustic and flamenco and
seventies and there's just allkinds of different things.
They all have differentstrengths in their playing and
(12:33):
in their personalities and soonce you get in here, you start
recognizing that and maybe youuse everybody.
Maybe there's certain peoplethat you're just kind of
attached to more.
Now, remember you still havethis studio instructor which is
checking in on you all the time.
Our job isn't to be pushy, right, but our job is to push.
To what level we push is alldependent on you.
(12:54):
What feels comfortable to you,right?
We don't want to push too hard,we don't want to not push
enough.
This is why we haveconversations and you can say,
yeah, I can take more, give memore, or it's a bit much, I need
to back off a little bit,that's fine.
That's why we're talking toeach other.
We're actually having arelationship, talking to each
(13:15):
other, figuring these things outOkay, and then making that game
plan.
So the last thing I want to sayabout that is when there are
times when you feel like, man, Ireally need to dive deeper into
this conversation or this thing.
I'm really struggling with this.
You can actually bookone-on-ones.
Now we don't make themmandatory each week, because
some people travel, some people.
(13:36):
It just stresses them out tohave to be, you know, on this
call going well, did I practiceenough?
And all that kind of stuff.
If you need a one-on-one, youjust book it, get a hold of the
instructor and say, hey, can wemeet this week?
Yeah, great, what day do youhave open?
I've got Tuesday, okay, let'sbook that and let's talk about
whatever it is that's on yourmind and boom, you're off to the
races.
(13:57):
I just want to give you somemore insight in that the academy
is not for everybody.
It's for really passionateplayers who have struggled for
however long they've beenstruggling with their playing
and they can't get to where theywant to go on their own, and
maybe they've tried one-on-onelessons.
Now, if the one-on-ones weresuccessful, that's great.
(14:18):
Then there's no reason to havea conversation.
But if they haven't beensuccessful and you feel like
you're stuck, you've got somecourses and whatever, but you're
not able to make sense of allof this and create a cohesive,
you know, path from where youare to where you want to go and
you love to play and you wouldlove to play more.
That's when the academy kicksin.
(14:39):
You know, for passionateplayers that really want to do
this, it's time, you know, intheir life they want to dedicate
to getting from where they areto where they want to go.
Whether you're a full-timebusiness person or whether
you're retired or whatever itmight be, we can always find
time.
I mean, there's always time.
It's using the time wisely,it's optimizing the things that
you're actually working on,versus running in circles just
(15:01):
trying to practice anything,hoping that all of a sudden, all
this stuff is going to startmaking sense.
That's what the Academy is for.
So, anyway, thank you so much,and if you're interested,
there'll be some.
There'll be a link around heresomewhere that you can, you know
, click on and you can learnmore about the Academy.
You know, set up a call with meor one of the instructors and
we can walk you through whateverything is and and go from
there.
So, anyway, take care, staypositive.
Hey, steve Stine here from Guitar Zoom Academy.
I've been getting a lot ofquestions about what the Academy
is and how it works, so Ithought I would just take a
little bit of time and try andexplain to you how this might be
beneficial for you if this iswhat you're looking for.
So, basically, Guitar Zoom as acompany, what we've been doing
for many, many years is sellingguitar courses you know, online
(00:21):
video courses, that sort ofthing and they've been very
successful.
A lot of people have boughtthem and it's been awesome.
But if there's been onecomplaint with them, it's that
the conversations, just likeYouTube and everything like that
, the conversations areone-sided.
You watch something, you tryand get what you can out of it,
and then you go make sense of itas best you can and then maybe
grab another video and keepgoing, but there's never any
(00:44):
actual communication back andforth to answer the questions,
to get the clarity, to get thedirection all of these things
and to figure out whether or notyou're actually working on the
right things or whether or notyou're just, you know, studying
random things that may notnecessarily be getting you to
your goals, to where you want tobe.
And so during COVID, you knowwe really started rethinking
(01:05):
what could we do to create ahuman experience, an actual
interactive human experience, towhere you know you're talking
to me, you're talking to theinstructors we have here in the
academy and we're actuallyworking things out together
watching you play, gettingassessments of your playing,
giving you direction, setting upa practice plan, telling you
(01:27):
what you should be working onagain, relative to your
struggles, your goals, that sortof thing.
And that's where the academycame from.
So the academy itself isn't likea one you know weekly guitar
lesson where you go see somebodyon Thursdays at five o'clock or
something like that.
You know for 30 minutes andthen you know you hope that
that's enough and then you goand try and work on it for a
week and then meet again and seewhat you come up with.
(01:49):
That's not what this is.
It isn't just watching a guitarcourse and you know finishing
the course and getting acertificate or something like
that.
It's not a membership, it'snothing like that.
What it really is in my eyes,the academy, the word academy
it's like an ecosystem that weexist in and work with each
other interactively in real time.
(02:10):
So you're not sending an emailand waiting for a response or
something.
We're literally just talking toeach other and figuring out the
solutions that are needed toget you where you want to go.
So, in that kind of light, theacademy is an ecosystem where
we're all here, the instructorsthere's seven other instructors,
including Bean we're allworking with you.
(02:30):
It's nice to have differentperspectives Other, you know,
because we have a number ofinstructors.
We're all available on a dailybasis, every day, to be able to
talk to you in the mornings andthe evenings.
Whatever it is that you need,we can have these conversations.
So, basically, what happens inthe academy, whatever it is that
you need, we can have theseconversations.
So, basically, what happens inthe academy, the first thing
that we do is what we call thebridge, and what we try and do
is set up a game plan.
(02:50):
That's what the bridge is foris figuring out what it is that
you need, where it is you wantto go, what your struggles are,
and making a game plan from thatassessment.
So we get together on what wecall a kickoff call.
In this kickoff call, we gettogether, we talk about
everything, try and suss out asmuch information as we can in
the beginning.
Now the reality is, of course,as we start working together, a
(03:13):
month down the road, two monthsdown the road, whatever it might
be, this is going to morphorganically.
This is going to change.
We're going to startrecognizing that we need this or
we need a little more of this,or we need a little more of this
, or we need a little bit.
You know a little less of this.
This is something that happens,you know, very naturally as we
work together.
But the game plan in thebeginning is who are you?
What is it that you're tryingto do?
(03:33):
What are you struggling with?
What do you ultimately wish youcould do?
That you've been strugglingwith for a long time and you
know if it was a year from nowand we were working together and
you were like man, it's been ayear and this is exactly what I
wanted to be able to do.
What live classes would best fitwhat you're trying to do?
And making that daily practiceroutine.
The next thing we do is set upthe structure and the
(04:13):
accountability.
So, yes, you're going to beworking with all eight of us
here in the academy, but one ofthese instructors is going to
become what we call your studioinstructor, so that person is
going to be like your guitarcoach over the amount of time
that you're in the academy.
Their job is to be as proactiveas possible, checking in with
you every week, making sure thateverything's going the way it
(04:34):
needs to be going.
We create a daily practice logfor you and, yes, it's very
important that you fill that outon a daily basis.
Take five minutes out of yourday, get in the habit of filling
it out.
It's very, very important forus to be able to look at the
progress that you're making.
Okay, on that sheet You'd bewriting down, you know, this is
what I'm struggling with, thisis what I'm working on.
(04:55):
This is who I talk to.
This is how I'm feeling aboutthis.
I'm really frustrated with this.
I had an aha moment today.
Whatever, we can look at thatand over time, we can see what
kind of progress you're makingrelative to the things that
you're working on when you'renot with us.
When you're, you know, on yourown practicing.
So that's that daily practicelog is really, really important,
and what your studio instructordoes is he checks that every
(05:19):
week.
How's you know, how's Jim doing, how's Tom doing, it doesn't
matter.
How are things going for youand then they check in with you
hey man, how are things going?
Tell me about last week, tellme how things went.
What's your plan for this week?
And, of course, your plan thisweek might look a lot like last
week.
There's no magic pill to thesethings.
Things take time, especiallyreally good stuff.
(05:40):
It's just we got to keepworking on it to make sure that
it's optimized and you'regetting the.
I always think of it like afoundation.
Everything under here is whatwe really need to be focusing on
to get you where you want to go.
Everything outside of heremight be fun it might be, you
know, whatever interesting, andthat's fine and that's fine.
(06:01):
But if you have too many ofthose kinds of things, the
problem is we lose focus on whatwe're actually trying to do,
actually trying to do.
Now.
There are times, you know, wherewe're working together and we
might realize that we really doneed this thing and it needs to
come inside the foundation.
Or there's something else herethat we're working on that we
don't really need right now andmaybe it's a good time to put it
outside here.
So it's not, it's not gettingin the way right.
(06:23):
So trying to make things aslean as possible so we can get
to where we want to go.
You know, so often people willsay, well, I need more theory,
or I need more triads, or I needmore scales, or and that might
be true, but it might not betrue.
It depends Is your, do yourgoals, does your ultimate goal
match what it is that you'retrying to actually work on to
(06:45):
achieve that goal, or are therethings missing?
Because oftentimes we figureout that you don't know what you
don't know.
There might be things you don'teven know that you should be
working on, that you didn't evenknow existed, because you've
been watching these videos andthis never made sense to you.
Right?
I want to learn how toimprovise musically.
I want to play creatively, Iwant to gain my confidence in my
playing and be able to playwith other people.
(07:07):
That could be maybe a primarygoal of yours.
So you're thinking, well, Ineed more theory, or need more
of this, or need and again, theanswer might be, yes, you do,
but the answer might be let'shold off on those right now and
let's try and focus more on yourskill set, or let's work on
your musicality, or whatever itmight be.
This is why we work togetherand so in the structure and
accountability.
(07:27):
The second phase of this that'sthe whole point is setting this
all up to make sure that you'vegot you're doing the work.
Okay, I tell people youpractice on the days that you
eat.
I can't tell you you canpractice four hours a day.
I can't tell you that you needto practice 30 minutes a day.
You do the best you can withwhat you're working on and you
(07:50):
know what you're working on.
You know why you're working onit.
We can actually start seeingprogress in that.
Oftentimes, what happens is youget more motivated and chances
are you're going to startpicking that guitar up more
often or keep it longer.
So it isn't a matter of you gotto promise me you're going to
practice four hours a day.
You can't make that promise Atleast most people can't, right
but you might be able to promisethat you could pick up the
guitar every day, at least whenyou're at home.
(08:11):
If you're someone who travels alot, we can make game plans for
you that work when you'retraveling and things that you
can work on to optimize yourtime when you're not around your
guitar.
It's very easy to do.
We just have to have theseconversations.
The real power of this thing isthe dynamic learning.
(08:32):
So what you are going to getaccess to, of course, are going
to be guitar courses.
Okay, you don't need 400 guitarcourses.
What you need are the ones thatbest fit what your game plan is
, and even have those in anorder of logistics.
So you know, if we're workingon, if we need more work on this
skill or this technique orsomething, okay, let's work on
this.
Maybe not the entire course,but maybe what we need is this
thing.
And then we're going to work onsome improv, and then we're
(08:53):
going to work on some theory,right, Some fretboard
development, whatever it mightbe.
You know, it could be all kindsof different things.
Again, this is why we have akickoff call.
You're going to get access tothe classes.
We have classes, live classesevery day of the week.
So you know, there's classes onblues and soloing, and theory
and technique and just all kindsof different things that we
talk about every day, and youcan jump into those live classes
(09:16):
when you have time, especiallythe ones that, again, best match
what you're trying to do.
And you know, interact, be partof the community, get some
education, get some motivation,learn something new.
You know, ask questions,whatever it is that you need in
those live classes, so they'renot mandatory.
You can take them when you can.
All the live classes arerecorded so you can always go
back and watch them, you know,whenever you've got time.
(09:38):
Some people like to listen tothem, like podcasts, when
they're traveling.
They'll listen to them that way, and then you can always go
back and talk to the instructorthat taught that class and let's
talk about that.
So the big thing that brings usall together is what we call
open rooms.
Okay, open rooms are almostlike open office hours, where
six days a week we don't work.
On Sundays, here I usually playin church or I'm traveling with
(10:00):
bands or something like that,but Sundays we don't work.
But six days a week, in themornings and in the evenings we
have what's called open rooms,again like open office hours.
So what happens is there'ssomeone like me that's sitting
in a Zoom call waiting forsomeone like you to show up and
say hey, I got a question.
Hey, I need some direction onthis.
(10:21):
Hey, I'm confused by this.
Hey, what would you do withthis?
How would you approach this?
Hey, can you watch me play andtell me what it is that I'm
doing here.
How would I?
How you know, am I struggling?
Can you tell me why thisdoesn't feel right, towards not
fast enough, and see what we cando is work with you literally
on a daily basis, literallytwice a day.
We get together, we watch you,listen to you, answer your
(10:43):
questions, get you the claritythat you need, get you unstuck
that day and get you right backto work again.
And if tomorrow you've gotanother question or you need
some sort of clarity, I like tocall it clarity more than
questions, because sometimes youdon't even know what the
question is.
You're like I don't understandwhat this is or how this works.
Can you help me Right, orwhat's the next thing I should
be doing?
So getting that clarityliterally on a daily basis and
(11:07):
what happens over time is we getto know you on a very personal
level, so we know where you are,we know what you're working on.
Everybody here knows whatyou're doing.
Our job is to help you getthere.
You know it's not to.
It's not contest and ego andall these other things.
I've never believed any of thatstuff.
Anyway, you know just mypersonality.
(11:29):
I care about getting peoplefrom where they are to where
they want to go, and I want totry and develop as much more, as
much confidence as I can inpeople to get them there,
because the more confidence theyhave, the more they're seeing
that progress, the more they'regoing to want to play, and
that's what we're talking about.
That's what guitar playing is.
Let's get to where we want togo.
So, with these open rooms, thegreat thing is is that you're
(11:49):
constantly interacting and youalso have different instructors
that you can rely upon.
Maybe you develop a, you know,a particular relationship with
two or three of the instructorsthat you really just get along
to.
Their personality vibes withyours.
Or maybe you're working witheverybody you know just whenever
.
It doesn't matter whateverworks best for you.
The nice thing about havingdifferent um instructors is you
(12:11):
have different perspectives.
You know everybody here can dolots of different things, but
you know some people are betterat rock or shred stuff and maybe
some are better at blues andsome at jazz and some at theory,
and you know finger picking andacoustic and flamenco and
seventies and there's just allkinds of different things.
They all have differentstrengths in their playing and
(12:33):
in their personalities and soonce you get in here, you start
recognizing that and maybe youuse everybody.
Maybe there's certain peoplethat you're just kind of
attached to more.
Now, remember you still havethis studio instructor which is
checking in on you all the time.
Our job isn't to be pushy, right, but our job is to push.
To what level we push is alldependent on you.
(12:54):
What feels comfortable to you,right?
We don't want to push too hard,we don't want to not push
enough.
This is why we haveconversations and you can say,
yeah, I can take more, give memore, or it's a bit much, I need
to back off a little bit,that's fine.
That's why we're talking toeach other.
We're actually having arelationship, talking to each
(13:15):
other, figuring these things outOkay, and then making that game
plan.
So the last thing I want to sayabout that is when there are
times when you feel like, man, Ireally need to dive deeper into
this conversation or this thing.
I'm really struggling with this.
You can actually bookone-on-ones.
Now we don't make themmandatory each week, because
some people travel, some people.
(13:36):
It just stresses them out tohave to be, you know, on this
call going well, did I practiceenough?
And all that kind of stuff.
If you need a one-on-one, youjust book it, get a hold of the
instructor and say, hey, can wemeet this week?
Yeah, great, what day do youhave open?
I've got Tuesday, okay, let'sbook that and let's talk about
whatever it is that's on yourmind and boom, you're off to the
races.
(13:57):
I just want to give you somemore insight in that the academy
is not for everybody.
It's for really passionateplayers who have struggled for
however long they've beenstruggling with their playing
and they can't get to where theywant to go on their own, and
maybe they've tried one-on-onelessons.
Now, if the one-on-ones weresuccessful, that's great.
(14:18):
Then there's no reason to havea conversation.
But if they haven't beensuccessful and you feel like
you're stuck, you've got somecourses and whatever, but you're
not able to make sense of allof this and create a cohesive,
you know, path from where youare to where you want to go and
you love to play and you wouldlove to play more.
That's when the academy kicksin.
(14:39):
You know, for passionateplayers that really want to do
this, it's time, you know, intheir life they want to dedicate
to getting from where they areto where they want to go.
Whether you're a full-timebusiness person or whether
you're retired or whatever itmight be, we can always find
time.
I mean, there's always time.
It's using the time wisely,it's optimizing the things that
you're actually working on,versus running in circles just
(15:01):
trying to practice anything,hoping that all of a sudden, all
this stuff is going to startmaking sense.
That's what the Academy is for.
So, anyway, thank you so much,and if you're interested,
there'll be some.
There'll be a link around heresomewhere that you can, you know
, click on and you can learnmore about the Academy.
You know, set up a call with meor one of the instructors and
we can walk you through whateverything is and and go from
there.
So, anyway, take care, staypositive.
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