On a sunny afternoon in June, my friend Andrew and I met up with Emmet Louis, an ex Circus Performer turned coach, to learn about object manipulation and other interesting skills. Emmet watched us fumble as we tried to perform a simple exercise: Hold a ball in one hand, hold your other hand out, without moving […]
November 1, 2016
The Best Way to Learn a New Chord [video]
![The Best Way to Learn a New Chord [video]](https://i2.wp.com/aboutthestart.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/trail-700.jpg?fit=700%2C467)
Learning a new chord sucks. If you’ve ever tried to play guitar, you’ve had to go through the rocky road of chord acquisition. when done wrong it can be slow, painful, and worst of all, it can hold you back from learning a song you love. What if there was a way to accelerate the process, a […]
October 20, 2016
Can You Guess What This Student is Doing Wrong (guitar)
This post comes from a 2-part series from my newsletter. Last week I asked you to listen to a 15-second recording of one of my students playing guitar. Your mission was to guess what he was doing wrong. If you didn’t do it last week, give it a quick try before reading on. This is […]
August 20, 2016
The Path to Learning Anything – 7 Phases to the Threshold
Once I discovered this framework, everything changed. Since then, I never approach a new skill without making absolutely sure that I’ve identified what the Threshold looks like and where I am relative to it. My one goal from then on is to make it to the Threshold. Only then can I rest. If you don’t […]
July 12, 2016
How I Go From Terrified to Confident (With One Simple Trick)
It was years ago, but to this day I still recall every detail of how utterly terrified I felt when they called my name. For the first time in my life, I was about to sing to a live audience, alone on stage with my guitar. The loudness of the microphone made me flinch when […]
May 4, 2016
Why YouTube is the Worst Place For Beginners to Learn Guitar
A friend gives you a guitar so you can learn how to play. Where do you go first? YouTube, right? There are thousands and thousands of videos covering virtually everything there is to know about guitar on that platform. You’ll get to see a teacher who’ll show you exactly what you should do as a […]
October 24, 2015
Talent vs Practice: Who Wins?
When I started building my course, I interviewed many of the top beginner guitar teachers. I was on a quest to learn about any techniques or psychological barriers that I might have missed and that deserve a place in my teaching. An interesting trend came up in response to my search for the perfect student. […]
October 22, 2015
How Does a Guitar Work?
I’m fascinated by activities that paralyze absolute beginners. Guitar is one of them. Someone who has never played will often feel very awkward just holding the instrument, and worse when trying to play a single note. Many activities share this trait. Cooking or handiwork are two great examples I think of a lot. You might have experienced the […]
October 16, 2015
The Perfect Beginner Guitar
I remember going from guitar store to guitar store with my guitarist friend to find the perfect guitar for me to learn. He was a fantastic guitarist. Every time we’d set foot in a shop, he’d point to a guitar, sit down, and play it so well that he’d invariably draw a crowd. Every guitar […]
May 25, 2015
Every Beginner Guitarist Should Know This Secret.
I remember vividly the crisp awkward silence that followed my song. I was uneasy. I wished I could disappear right then and there and never come back. A second or two later the adrenaline was coursing through my whole body and I couldn’t get enough of it. Playing a song in front of anyone when […]
May 5, 2015
How Much Should I practice Daily ?
This article used to be called “Why 20 minutes a day is better than 3 hours once a week” but a friend of mine pointed out that most of you would ignore the post thinking the advice seemed too obvious. I’ve rethought and rewritten the article which now pinpoints a counterintuitive tip that will make […]