My Personal Journey on Guitar...

I hate getting emails from people who I don't feel like I know. So let's fix that!

As you probably already know, my name is Paul and I'm the principal developer of Guitar in a Nutshell. Ever since I can remember I've had a real fascination for guitar. As a child I can remember experiencing an enormous "wow" sensation anytime I even saw a guitar in real life or better yet, heard someone playing it live. My eyes would literally open to the size of saucers and spellbound I'd stand there watching and listening... it was mesmerizing to me.

In a strange way I feel that I didn't choose guitar - instead, it chose me!

Well, I first tried to learn guitar when I was around 10 years old and guess what... I failed miserably. Looking back on it now I just didn't have the patience to practice and no one was there to teach me properly. So I was pretty much doomed to failure from the get go.

Many years passed before I picked up a guitar again at the grand old age of 17 and this time, things were different. I could no longer ignore the burning desire in me to be able to play and more than anything else in the world I wanted to 'get good on guitar'... really good. It literally meant the world to me.

Music was one of the most important things in my life and the idea of being able to connect with my favorite bands through playing their songs was a super powerful motivator. At first, like all beginners, I found changing chords very difficult and my playing sounding absolutely horrible. I also remember not being able to change from one chord to the next fast enough which was very frustrating. I was a typical beginner in every way - right down to thinking that F and Bm where devilish chords and that barre chords were completely impossible.

At that time I was still in high school but what I did next was quite extraordinary (a.k.a "crazy")... I was so committed to being a guitar player, so SURE that is was my life direction, that I actually quit school despite the fact I couldn't even play very well yet! I dropped out so that I could devote my time to practicing guitar and doing what I felt was my life's calling. To me it was simple - stay in school and be miserable or make a career playing guitar and be happy. Isn't is great how life can be so black and white when you're young?

Well, I pulled the trigger and actually did it. After leaving school I persevered for an entire year trying to be cool by 'teaching myself to play'... and it didn't work. I did improve a lot but I really needed some proper structure to follow.

Feeling so frustrated at my lack of progress I eventually came to my senses and decided to go for some lessons. That's where everything changed for me. Once I was presented with a real system for learning guitar I was able to stop 'treading water' and make some real and measurable progress. From that point onwards I improved at lightning speed all because I had a real teacher to inspire and encourage me. He made me believe that I had talent for guitar and gave me the roadmap to follow. His name was Michael Bradley, I have no idea where he is today of if he's still making living as a guitar player.

So I was lucky enough to have a good guitar teacher and being able to see him play in real life what I could only dream of was another powerful motivator for me. I didn't care if I died hungry and impoverished, I was going to become good on guitar.

Over the years that followed I practiced a great deal and got pretty good on guitar, good enough to be able to create my own full time job teaching others how to play. I never forgot what it was like to be a struggling beginner and I quickly established myself as a popular "always booked out" guitar teacher with 100's of students and even a waiting list. I saw how all beginners basically face the exact same hurdles, frustrations, stumbling blocks and walls on guitar... and I made it my mission to help them get over those problems as soon as possible by developing various techniques and shortcuts they could use to immediately skip ahead of the pack and make faster progress.

The teaching systems, approaches and techniques I developed worked like a charm and eventually I pretty much had every raw, struggling student that came to me playing songs in about 30 days or less. Not too shabby.

Well, after years of teaching and developing my "secret system" with real live students, I finally decided to document it in books and video lessons for others to benefit from - and Guitar in a Nutshell was born. Since it came directly from my experience of teaching guitar with private students and witnessing first hand how beginners really learn and ultimately succeed on guitar I kind of feel as though my students are the true authors of this method.

Today I'm enormously happy to know that so many people have benefited from taking my lessons both on and offline. Each week I receive some of the kindest testimonials you could imagine from members on the site and in many ways its made my entire journey on guitar worthwhile. Maybe I was right after all to quit school and follow the direction my heart was telling me to go in, what do you think? I certainly have no regrets and my life is full of freedom because I was able to create my own employment and be my own boss.

In closing I want to tell you that I hope you too will allow me the opportunity to be your guitar teacher as nothing would please me more than to make guitar a lot easier for you to learn. I hope you will put your faith in me. I promise that the method you'll find here for learning to play is among the absolute best anywhere online and please always remember that I'm only an email away should you ever need help - regardless of whether you are a member or not!

Sincerely,Paul

 

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