There was a time back in 2001 when I was chasing a get-rich-quick scheme that didn’t get me rich.

I had just quit my job for various reasons and was counting on my new made fortune to live the high life.

Well the high life had a habit of evading me.

Very Very soon my meager little savings dried up and I had no job, no money coming in at all, no job prospects - nothing! I was married and my wife’s income was all we had – which wasn’t much!

Pretty bleak situation to say the least.  

It was at that time when I took a quick survey of what I did have and quickly found a way to make money – PLAYING GUITAR!

So I gathered some friends together and told them we could start making some “cable money” – you know, just a little extra dough to play with. So, we started playing music out in bars and clubs. 

We didn’t make much, mind you, but we played out 4-6 days a week, which added up to enough to get food on the table, pay for rent, and have some “cable money” to play around with.

In fact, during that time I was able to make enough for us to buy our first house. Let me make this clear, I made enough for the bank to be kind enough to give me a mortgage. I want you to understand that we didn’t get rich, didn’t live in a dream home, and didn’t BUY our first home. But we made it through. We were able to pay the bills, buy some grub, and go out every now and then – all because I had the ability to PLAY LEAD GUITAR!!

The economy sucks right now - we all know that – BUT, if you have a skill – be it woodworking, carpentry, or playing lead guitar – you can make a little extra money.

Wouldn’t that be COOL?!?!

Now odds are you will not quit your day job and start touring the world like the Rolling Stones or anything, but once you learn to play lead guitar, you now have the skills to market to different bands, start to gig at clubs/bars/parties/etc, and make your own “cable money”.

Heck, I know some bands who play weddings (no jokes here), casinos, at fairs, festivals, amusement parks, etc. that make BIG money. You may never get to that level, but then again….someone did it so you can too.

There is opportunity out there, heck, even if you just become an affiliate and sell other people’s stuff (for instance, you can be an affiliate of Rapid Playing Method for Guitar: Solo and make 75% commission on each sale!), there is opportunity out there….if you look and work hard and smart!

Don’t wait! Learn to play lead guitar today

 and use it to go make some extra money. If

you don’t know how, I can teach you –

FAST!!

Check out my Rapid Method for Playing

Guitar: Solo program.

I put together an E-book full of information along with a Member’s only website with instructional videos.

This is the fastest method I know of to get you up and running and soloing TONIGHT!

The program features OVER $100 worth of VALUE. What you do is just click on that little “Blazing Guitar” Image to the upper right and start your journey. Or learn more by clicking the “RPM 4 Guitar: Solo Book” at the top.

Don’t worry, I’ll be right here with you and there is a 30 day Money Back Guarantee

So you got nothing to lose

and people to entertain!

I want to piggy-back on last week’s post, “Get UP?”.

There have been a lot of times that I have compared myself to someone else. Have even been discouraged by the playing of an awesome guitar player.

This is NOT right!

You should never be discouraged by someone else’s ability. EVER!

Encouraged and inspired is all you should ever feel when comparing yourself to anyone.

In fact, you should never compare yourself to someone else -PERIOD. 

Judge yourself against yourself. That is what Champions do.

Strive to get just a little better each and everyday from the person/player you were the day before – because you have no limits!!

It doesn’t serve you to compare yourself to someone else because everyone brings something different to the party. 

I can’t tell you how many times I have been at a gig and thought I absolutely sucked and blew it, only to have a ton of people come up to me and tell me how talented I am and what a natural player I am!

Then there are times when I felt like I nailed it - big time! Just to have someone come up to me and say so and so is better, “it was ok”, blah, blah, blah.

I personally laugh everytime someone tells me I am natural – yeah right!

Little do they know the amount of hours I spent teaching myself guitar, scouring over albums/tapes/cd’s, searching through books just to figure out chords and riffs – HOURS!

Natural? No. Dedicated? YES! 

Ask any player, and if they are honest, they will tell you the same – it takes practice and time. Some people call it noodling, some call it jamming, some call it what it is…practice. Doesn’t have to be formal, just has to include you picking up the instrument and playing – guess what? That is practicing. And to be good, you have to do it. 

The only thing that separates you from the Steve Vai’s, Eddie Van Halen’s, Stevie Ray Vaughn”s, Jeff Beck’s, and on and on and on is they put more into the guitar than you have. And if you are on their level, then you know what you have had to put into it to get there. Heck, Steve Vai used to play 12 hours a day to warm up!!  If you want to be at that level, then you better open up your schedule and put some time in like he did. 

But most important is to not get discouraged if you can’t. It is ok!

Compare yourself to who you are today by who you were tomorrow and enjoy the progress. If you slip back, then GET UP and do what you need to do to get to the level YOU want to get to.   

If you need help getting UP as fast as you can get my Rapid Playing Method for Guitar: Solo and I will help you OR get someone else’s program – there are plenty of ways for you to get where you need to go. No excuses!!

Bottom Line: Enjoy the Journey! Have Fun! and Appreciate what a great player had to go through to get there.

You can do it too. I know you can, heck I did!

With a little time, the right program, and a positive attitude:

YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!

A while back I had a reunion gig with some friends of mine that I hadn’t played with in over 15 years!!

It was certainly great to see everyone and to know that I wasn’t the only one not to age gracefully – except for the bass player – that well preserved S.O.B.! I am just kidding. Truthfully though, something happened that had a profound affect on me.

You see, after all of these years of playing, you develop a certain comfort with your abilities. Yeah, some nights are better than others, but for the most part there is a certain amount of consistency that you are able to do. I am usually pretty damn consistent and competent in most circumstances – except that night. I played like crap!! It felt like the strings were 10 inches off of the fret board. I couldn’t do any of the things that I normally do with such ease. Technique was shot. Timing was shot. Everything. Shot.

IT. MESSED. ME. UP!!!!

BIG TIME!!!!

I honestly thought that I had lost my ability to play well, especially with other people. I was devastated at the thought – truthfully devastated.

Now I had two choices: accept it is what it is OR fight hard to kick that feeling in the ass!

Lucky for me I chose to grab that feeling and whipped it’s butt. Now don’t get me wrong, this was HARD to do.

It is said that there is no such thing as defeat if you learn from it and carry on. Well I had to learn.Let me repeat myself:

This occassion was an OPPORTUNITY, not a DEFEAT.

An opportunity for me to learn – if I chose to do so. I did.

I broke down my playing and tried to analyze what went wrong. Why did I have a bad night? What have I changed over the years? What have I stopped doing?

I kept very clear that it was MY responsibility. Not the bass player. Not the drummer. Not the singer. Not anybody else. MINE. I can’t do anything about those people. I can only do something about ME.

This night caused me to practice more and practice smarter. Playing by yourself is one thing….playing with a band a whole nother story. So I started to jam more with the radio and cd’s. just like I used to when I first started playing guitar. I changed my thought patterns a little and adjusted my technique slightly. Most importantly though is I PLAYED!

Then there came the time where I had to test my analysis. It was finally time to go out and play live again. I have a wonderful friend who got his band to agree to let me sit in for a few songs – most of which I didn’t know and had to learn – FAST!

I did NOT want to do it.

Yeah, you heard me right….I did not want to do it. I was afraid. Afraid that I would suck and look like a fool. Man, I didn’t care if we were playing for 1,000 people or just the bartender, it was mostly that I didn’t want to look like a fool not in front of them – in front of me. I have a certain self standard.

Oh I agonized over this. A LOT!

Luckily for me, my friend pushed and pushed. I relented – mostly because I told him I would go and I try to stay true to my word. So I grabbed my stones and I went.

You know what happened? I screwed up big time!! No, just kidding. I represented myself well. The fact of the matter was, I didn’t care if the audience liked it, if the band liked it, if the cops liked it. I had to do this one for me. At the end of the night, I was able to hold my head up high again. I got the swagger back. For at least one night.

Why am I writing this? Because no matter what stage of the game you’re in, we all get knocked down. To paraphrase Michael Jordan, it is because we fail that we are able to succeed. Champions count the number of wins – NOT the number of losses. This allows them to get back up again and fight, fight, fight until the job is done. Yup, they may be scared s***less, but the do it anyway. Not for anyone else. For themselves.

You have it in you to almost anything you desire. You just have to keep up the fight and learn the lesson from defeat. The difference between Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen, etc., etc., etc., and anyone else is they took more swings, shots, chances, and understood anything is possible given enough time.

Now go do YOUR impossible!! If you’re lucky enough you will have a friend push you out of your comfort zone, just like I did. If you don’t have  someone who will….then find someone. If you need – I will be that someone for you.

The world is waiting for YOU to BE GREAT, it is your turn to ACCEPT!

GET UP!

You’ve practiced and practiced enough that you can now play a whole bunch of songs and can put together a decent solo.

You got the people together and formed a band. You jammed. You are now bored stiff playing for the neighbors…or worse, your family.

It Is Time To Get A GIG!

For me there is nothing in the world as fun or exciting as playing and kicking ass in front of people!

But how?

Not an easy question to answer in this blog and keep it short, but I will try.

Honestly, I did everything I could to avoid being the guy that booked gigs. I didn’t know what I was doing and was afraid to take it on because I thought I would fail and then the band would fail. So I did EVERYTHING I could to have someone else do it. I was pretty dang successful at avoiding it for a LONG time too!

Eventually though, that which we avoid comes at us like a pack of ravenous wild dogs and we must succomb. It was my turn to pay the piper, suck it up, and get the gigs for our band – otherwise no one else could and we would perish.

So here is what I found out – crash course wise – and ready to share with you:

ultimately the bar wants to make sure you A) don’t scare off their regulars B) are able to bring in your own crowd so they make money both ways. If the bar makes money, you make money.

So, to get your band booked I would:

• check out the bar and make sure what you play goes with their crowd
  
• get your flyers to look good (As Visually Attractive as Possible). Use Different colors to separate your band from the hundreds of others competing for the same eye attention.
  
• get a bunch of your friends to want to attend (if they can age-wise) then you can let the bar owner know you can bring in some people
  
• keep your demo short and precise with your best songs – maybe fade in and out of the chorus (most bar owners I know aren’t musicians – they are like the crowd and want to hear something they can relate to)
  
• have at least 30 tunes (unless you are doing multi-band thing or your songs are long jams) or at least enough to fill up how ever long you are playing. Most clubs/bars/etc I kow want you to play for about four 45 minute sets with 15 minute breaks between sets.
  
• once you get the gigs – DELIVER, otherwise you may not get asked back
•  Watch your volume if you are playing at a place that people want/need to communicate with others (i.e. coffee house, bar, etc.). Remember – you are there to make the joint money and one of the biggest complaints these places have is not being able to hear the orders because you have found that your amp goes to 11 and by God you will take it there!
• When you talk to the person taht books you, just like in a job interview, focus on what you can give THEM and not what they can give YOU. You may be the finest musicians in the world, but if you can’t fill a phone booth with people – nobody will care.
• Present yourself well and be respectful of the person’s time.
• Don’t piss off the staff! They are a GREAT cheering section for you to play there again in the future or will be your worst nightmare if you upset them.
• Play music appropriate for the venue. This may go without saying, but if you’ve ever seen the Blues Brothers – you know what I mean! 

 As I said, there are a lot that goes into it, but I hope this helps. Now go JAM!!!