Even if... You've played on and off over the years

Even if... You feel nervous to play for others

Even if... Your fingers don't move fast

"Wow, that's INCREDIBLE!” I said to my student Robert last week when he told me this story. 

Robert had been stuck trying to learn how to play his favorite rock songs for a while now before he started using my methods just a few weeks ago. 

He wanted to learn the good ones, you know from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. 

He told me this amazing story and it all started like this…

Jon, you wouldn’t believe what happened last weekend. One of my friends Alex just moved into a new place and had a housewarming party. 

It wasn’t anything too crazy just some good friends getting together around the grill and having a good ole’ time.

Hamburgers, fish tacos, grilled pineapple, we were cooking it up, telling stories, and laughing together all afternoon. 

Inside the house, in the corner of the room, Alex had this beautiful Fender guitar and amp which was actually a wedding gift from his father-in-law. 

Right next to the guitar was a record player and I peeked at what was on it and I saw one of my all-time favorite records, Back in Back, AC/DC. 

All afternoon, every time I walked by the guitar it was like it was calling out to me. I just hoped that later that evening there might be a chance for me to finally play.

After a few drinks and a great meal things started to move from outside to inside the house.

Then another friend of Alex’s showed up a little late to the party and walked in through the front door with a djembe hand drum. 

This guy was a photographer now, but he used to play drums in a band. 

I started getting really excited thinking that my dream of jamming and playing some of the songs we have been working on together might actually be happening tonight!

Sure enough, all of a sudden, I looked over at my friend Alex, and he had the guitar plugged in, the amp on, and he was strumming and singing "Wonderwall."

Alex was actually an incredible saxophone player, but he had always loved the guitar. 

He knew a few songs and he kept this guitar always out on a stand in the corner of the room.

I knew I could jump in and play some songs. In fact, this is the exact moment you told me to prepare for Jon.

Alex handed me the guitar and said, “Here, you play us something” and then walked into the other room to get his saxophone.

This was it! This was my chance to play, so I kicked into a song we had been practicing together and suddenly the whole room started getting really quiet. 

Their attention was being pulled from their conversations with each other over to just staring right at me. 

I didn’t know what to think, I almost froze up. Their eyes were being drawn like a magnet right to my hands and fingers as I played this first song!

For a moment, time seemed to completely slow down and I felt a bit nervous.

Thankfully somehow my fingers just kept playing through it. 

It was almost like they were on autopilot from what we had been practicing.

Then as I looked up I started seeing everyone’s heads start to move up and down nodding to the music. 

Slowly that shaky nervous feeling was now being replaced with total joy and confidence. 

What a RELIEF!

Then “STRUM”, I hit the last chord of the song and everyone yelled “YEAH!”

“Woo hoo!” another friend shouted from the side of the room, cheering in a high-pitched voice.

“Oh, do you know ‘Hotel California’?” Alex’s wife asked me. “I’ve always wanted to sing that song.”

“Sure!” So I played a big Bm chord, since you showed me how to play those effortlessly now, and started off the song.

Next, the djembe player came in with the groove.

“On a dark desert highway…” Alex’s wife started singing, while at the same time typing into her phone to pull up the lyrics as fast as she could.

Song after song we kept playing all evening

I even held down the rhythm on a 12-bar blues in one song while Alex joined in with his saxophone and played a solo. You showing me how the blues is like the cousin of rock n roll came in really handy when actually jamming together. 

Everyone was amazed! 

Later that night people were saying to each other about me, “Yeah he’s like a ‘Human Jukebox’,” because I knew all their favorite rock songs and could play them with ease all thanks to our lessons.

The next day Alex texted me this:

What a night!

And that was Robert’s story that he told me last week when we got together for his lesson.

It’s amazing to hear so many of my students share stories like this.

But unfortunately, for most guitar players, this experience would actually look quite a bit different.

They'll see a guitar at a party but feel very hesitant about playing it.

"I hope they don't ask me to play," they'll think.

They feel even worse when their partner mentions that they have been playing for years now in the other room.

Their minds race with thoughts like:

• What if I can’t get the guitar in tune?
• What if the strings don’t feel good or are too hard to play?
• What if I draw a blank and can’t remember the chords?
• What if I mess up and hit the wrong strings?
• Will I be laughed at? Will they judge me?

These are crippling issues they face every time. 

It’s as if their hands turn into feet and they lose all coordination as soon as they pick up the guitar.

They may start to play but then just stop. 

Or worse, they forget everything and can't even get started.

The amount of songs or riffs they know taps out at around 1 or 2. 

They can’t seem to play anything all the way through.  

When someone asks if they can play a certain song, their response is always

“Uhhh sorry, I don’t know that one.”

They're stuck fumbling around the same couple of chords or riffs repeatedly until everyone just loses interest and walks away. 

If someone else is playing a hand drum, they have no idea how to match up with them.

They struggle with getting the timing.

In fact, sometimes for these players, it’s so bad that when they get handed a guitar, they’ll just immediately pass it off to another friend. 

“Nooo not me, here you try.” they’ll say.

But it’s frustrating when they pass the guitar to a friend who can’t even really play at all but just jokes around and seems to get a better reaction from the crowd than they feel they can.

It’s rough for these players.

They’ll often spend years stuck in a loop without the right guidance.

Unfortunately, the majority of them will never break out and learn to play rock guitar like they’ve always wanted.

The MYTH of Learning Online

I send over 224,000 emails out every single month, and I hear back from a lot of amazing guitar players in my inbox — people who are just getting started with their playing, to players playing in bands and recording albums.

I get countless emails from guitarists reaching out for help and describing exactly where they are stuck.

Just check out this email I recently got:

Have you been there? I mean, it really does suck when you are trying to get over this hump in your rock guitar playing.

It’s so frustrating.

But barring is just one of the many skills you have to conquer to become GREAT at rock guitar and play all your favorite songs.

Players start out learning easy songs and get comfortable with chords like C, G, D, etc.

They are ecstatic with their guitar playing and having the time of their life.

But then they come across a strange new chord in a song they are trying to learn, for example, the F chord, or maybe Bb.

So they find a chord diagram or a TAB and they’re getting set to give it a try.

“Oh, wow,” is their reaction as they place their fingers down on the fretboard. “Don’t worry,” they tell themselves, “it’s just another chord like C or G”.

They're on edge, ready to conquer it, ready to give it a BIG strum of happiness so they can put it in their favorite song and start playing it for friends and family today!

And then…(drum roll please 🥁)

SCRATCH (muted strings everywhere)

“Ohhhh wait, what was that? Is that it? No that can’t be right?” – (Nervously checks chord diagram again.)

It’s brutal. In fact, for these players typically from here on out whenever they look up the chords to a song they want to play and see names like B, F# etc their hearts instantly sink.

I know I know believe me I’ve heard all the myths too as to why these players can’t overcome barring like:

• I have a crease in my skin right where I am supposed to bar - look at my finger- look right THERE! See it?
• My fingers are different. They don’t do that. They are longer - shorter - larger - skinnier
• My guitar is messed up

Watch out for what I call "Special Snowflake Syndrome." These are just myths. The problem is these players don’t have the correct advice on how to bar. 

So just for fun, I imagined I couldn’t play bar chords anymore and was trying to learn how to do it on my own today.

I went online searching for advice, and let me share with you what came up right away.

This giant post from a student having the same issues as me. If I was trying to learn this I would think, "Oh thank god now I can read on and solve all my problems." 

Student: Does anyone have any tricks for barre chords? Or am I just doing them wrong? I'm physically quite weak and even though I have my fingers in the right positions, it sounds like absolute trash. Total dog 💩

The songs I want to play have chords like F# and B and AAAGH.

Do I need to lift weights? Is it a finger strength thing? What do I need to do????

Here’s where it gets CRAZY!

Check out the top responses and comments voted up by the masses:

Bad Advice #1: “just keep repeating them until your hands are sore, every day”

Yeah umm, this is how you hurt yourself. I actually landed myself in a hand sling and couldn’t play for a month about 15 years ago. I had to turn down gigs and felt super depressed. I couldn’t even play a basic chord. All from playing too intensely with bad technique like this person suggests. 

Bad Advice #2: “Get lighter strings 10 - 47 at least”

Nope, this is like a Band-Aid. You’re not getting to the root of the problem. 

Bad Advice #3: “It won't work all that well until you've built some calluses on the side of your index finger.”

Hmmmm, but does a capo have calluses? The capo seems to be able to bar pretty good without calluses. 🤔

Bad Advice #4: “It's just practice”

Well, why are there so many students “practicing” them for years but still can’t bar? How many more years will they have to “just keep practicing” 

Guess what, I can show anyone how to bar in about 10 seconds.

Bad Advice #5: “I did it in 1 month, this equals pain but you’ll get there my friend.”

Wait pain? Red flags! Run!

Bad Advice #6: “Lots of good advice here. Also, sand down your bridge, making the strings closer to the guitar.”

This person chimes in agreeing with a ton of terrible advice, and then gives even more terrible advice. 

Wait so while I’m trying to learn how to play bar chords now I’m supposed to be a guitar luthier too. 

Please do not do this. Do not damage your guitar friends. 

I can’t believe this is the first thing that came up when I started searching for learning how to bar on guitar online. 

I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be this bad. 

It’s clearly a case of the helpless being led by the clueless.

Players following this advice are on a straight path to:

• Ruining their hands
• Damaging their guitars
• Quitting

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of what players are up against when they try to cobble together the skills needed to play their favorite rock songs alone.

These players often search for lessons online, and land on a video that has hundreds of thousands of views and the instructor is entertaining and funny.

These videos have tons of comments and “likes” and they think, “This must be good, right?” but when they go to play the song from what they’ve learned in the lesson, it just doesn’t sound right.

“Maybe it’s this instructor or just this lesson,” they think. So off they go searching for another video and wasting more time.

They might even watch 8 different lessons on the same song, like this person:

Just imagine how much time and energy this person is losing as they keep searching and searching only to end up more confused and frustrated. 

Have you been there? Be honest. 

Believe me friend guitar is hard enough as it is, it’s no wonder so many just give up. 

What happens next is they start believing…

The TAB Dilemma

“If I just had the right TABS it would all make sense, then it would be easy. Yeah, let’s try a TAB site,” these players say to themselves.

But after searching through pages and pages of TABS they are confused because all the TABS look different and none of them sound like the song.

Their minds are flooded with so many questions:

• Who’s right? Who do I trust?
• Is this the correct key?
• Someone else commented and said this was off?
• Someone else commented and said this was right?
• Why are these chords so different?

Fed up with all the free junk lessons online, they are now ready to get serious about finally learning to play their favorite rock songs. 

So, they head on over to a paid sheet music site and purchase the sheets for $10-15 per song.

“Ah, finally, it’s going to be so much easier now,” they say to themselves as they click purchase and the printer starts printing out the pages from across the room.

“Wait, what… it’s 11 pages long! This won’t even fit on my desk or music stand.”

Then they start plucking out the notes on the first page, but damn it’s the same problem again.

It still sounds nothing like the recording!

(So many players get frustrated on TAB sites like this ⬇️)

Well, here’s a dirty little secret I know about the sheet music industry that you’re not going to hear anywhere else.

The truth is, most of the time, what you are actually being sold versus what you think you are being sold is very different.

98% of transcriptions out there actually suck. They are chock full of wrong chords, wrong notes, and bad information.

And unfortunately, until you can create that sheet music yourself, you won’t know the difference.

How do I know this?

Well, I actually spent years in the trenches just out of college working as a guitar transcriber for some of the biggest names in the industry. 

This is where I cut my teeth behind the scenes writing out guitar parts for years for them.

And wow the things that I saw getting published! They’ll put anything on the page and sell it to you. 

This is even from some of the biggest names in the industry. 

It’s bad out there, especially if you’re going it alone.

It’s incredibly difficult to learn to play your favorite rock songs without a trusted guide or accurate resources. 

Maybe you've even tried one of these online membership sites that claim "We have 1,000 of your favorite rock songs to pick from," only to find out they are just watered-down, half versions of songs that sound nothing like the real thing.

It doesn’t end there, though. Once these players make it through the first couple stages of learning, what happens next is they actually lose a lot more money than the price of a few bad sheet music purchases and a cheap all-access membership that they cancel.

They fall into the trap of starting to doubt their own gear. 

This one personally hurts even now just thinking back about how I lost thousands of dollars trying to get a good rock guitar tone. It all started like this…

How I Lost $11,883.31 Believing The Gear Myth 

“It’s my gear holding me back”, was exactly what I thought when I couldn’t get the sounds I wanted.

“I need the best guitar and amp. This cheap old guitar is the problem.”

So what did I do?

I went down to Guitar Center and just started trusting whatever the person working there was telling me.

I mean they are the real pros, right?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any musicians around me at the time that played for a living, that could give me good advice.

But I did have an older friend who barely played guitar yet somehow convinced me to buy this AMAZING boutique guitar brand. 

“They’re the best guitar and amp brand in the world,” he told me. 

“It will sound so good, and this guitar will even appreciate in value over the years,” he said.

I have no idea why I believed him when he knew absolutely nothing about playing.

Well, where did this end me?

I dropped down a deposit on a $3,000 custom-made guitar and another $3,000 amp to go with it.

In the mid-90s, using an inflation calculator to today’s dollars, this same amount would be $11,883.31.

I’d spent twice the price of the car I was driving at that time.

Long story short, I later found out that this wasn’t a good purchase.

I had bought something more like a fancy piece of furniture than an actual tool to play my favorite rock songs. 

It didn't work, it didn't make me better, and it was too late to go back. 

I just got sucked in and BELIEVED it was the answer.

Years later, I spent months trying to sell it on Craigslist, but I could barely get rid of it. 

I kept having to drop the price over and over again until finally, some guy came and bought it for around $500!

It still hurts to this day as I recall the memory of him loading the gear into his trunk in my driveway while I accepted defeat and silently screamed on the inside.

Friend, it's so easy to fall into this trap. 

Players end up losing countless hours scouring sites like Sweetwater, reading reviews, and getting lost in gear forums searching for answers.

Buying guitar after guitar and pedal after pedal, thinking that it’s going to move the needle, but it just doesn’t work.

What if I told you there’s a way to get an authentic rock guitar tone without spending a lot of money on gear?

What if I showed you the two most important types of rock guitar tones and how to get them with any electric guitar and amp?

These are the actual things players need to learn to get to the core of what they want.

But you’ll never hear that from a gear website or a big YouTuber who’s just trying to sell you the latest amp so they can get a cut.

Here’s where most online courses and in-person instructors miss the mark

Anyone can learn to play their favorite rock songs and jam them for friends and family, they just need to focus on the right skills. 

But when it comes to actually learning how to do this step-by-step, most of the options out there miss crucial ingredients. 

This one ingredient I’d like to point out next can make all the difference in whether or not a player succeeds or stays stuck with their rock guitar playing.

See the majority of lessons just focus on a quick tip here or a rock technique there, but then they abandon the student when it comes time to actually show them how to put it all together. 

They don’t go any deeper than just a quick tip. 

They leave out one of the most important factors and that is MUSICAL CONTEXT.

It’s like they only give out half the puzzle.

A player is never going to make the progress they want if what they are learning isn't directly tied to ACTUAL MUSIC.

Think back to when you were a kid, how many things did you learn with little songs that you still remember today?

This is the magic formula.

It's not enough to just learn the techniques for rock that all the books, DVDs, CDs, and courses claim to teach you.

You have to keep going and immediately put those new skills to use in a song.

The process should look like this:

Over the years I’ve noticed 5 big myths that players who don’t have this winning formula start to believe. 

And unfortunately, a massive amount of guitar players fall for these and they are held back from progressing for years.

Once you know how the patterns work and how they tie into real music, that’s when the need for memorizing a lot starts to go out the window. And that’s when learning rock guitar gets so much easier.

But the reason why you won’t see this with most programs out there is that it takes 

years of scouring thousands of rock songs to pull out all of the essential skills a player needs to focus on to actually unlock the style. 

(Kinda like what I did on YouTube when I taught over 2,000 songs, and that was just after a few years. I actually had been doing way more for 2 decades before I ever went online.)

The instructor should then take all the techniques and tie them together in real music so it sticks for the student. Remember your childhood songs and how they have stuck with you all these years?

This is why it feels so frustrating to watch lessons and then not see the results follow.

Without musical context, it doesn’t mean much, and this is exactly where most programs and lessons leave the student abandoned.

In addition to this, I feel the instructor should also have a background in actually playing this style in the real world with rock musicians who perform at the highest level. 

Being around the greats and taking notes is the best way to learn.

And this is exactly what I’ve been doing over the past 25+ years.

I’ve been secretly collecting the skills and strategies used by top rock musicians when I’ve been on stage and in top recording studios with legends like Julian Lennon (son of John Lennon) and Steven Tyler (Aerosmith).

Without this formula, students stay stuck in the slow lane.

They’re left wasting countless hours trying to navigate:

• Bad online lessons
• Incorrect TAB sites
• Songbooks with a bunch of wrong chords and riffs everywhere

They’re wandering around lost, practicing the wrong things, not building the right techniques, and are on a sure path to never being able to play their favorite rock songs for friends and family like they have always wanted.

But what if things were different?

What if there was a way to get pulled out of the slow lane and put in the fast lane? 

What if there was a way to get on a proven path to start playing all the rock songs you love today?

The Essential Rock Guitar System is a self-paced online course that gives you all the tools you need to play your favorite rock songs step-by-step.

In the course, you’ll learn…

Module 1

• The 2 most important chord shapes for rock guitar, the theory behind them, and how to play them anywhere on the neck
• A simple yet powerful secret that takes a player’s rock guitar playing from sounding amateur to pro
• If you practice this exercise you’ll be set up to play thousands of rock songs
• When to use 2 or 3-note power chords for playing rock guitar and why
• A sneaky tactic to make your rock chord progressions sound perfectly smooth even if you feel your fingers don’t move fast
• Use this to CONTROL the strings, stand out from the crowd, and your audience will never hear a wrong note again
• The quickest way to find the root notes for chords so you can navigate any rock song with ease
• How to play with a shuffle feel in a rock style
• 98% of Green Day’s hit songs have this one rock guitar move in common
• Are you getting buzzing in your rock guitar playing? Here’s how to eliminate it – FAST
• Unlock the “chicka-chicka” percussive strumming technique that you’ll use to play millions of rock songs
• The 2 most important types of rock guitar tones and how to get them with any electric guitar and amp
• My #1 go-to pedal for rock guitar and where I set it for different rock tones
• Confused about amps, pedals, and gear? Here’s the single most important truth about getting an authentic rock guitar tone, and how you can achieve it without spending a lot on gear
• Struggling with hand coordination? This simple exercise is one of the easiest ways to get your hands in-sync
• WARNING - Here’s why acoustic guitar players often don’t sound great on electric guitar, and how to avoid this mistake like the plague

• 2 must-know ways I practice scales for better hand coordination
• If you want to switch from chords to picking riffs in a rock song this exercise will show you how
• The sneaky trick Angus Young uses to make basic chords sound AMAZING
• The single more important scale for rock guitar and how to play it anywhere on the neck
• The RIGHT way to use alternate picking to speed up your playing
• Wondering if you should use alternate picking or down picking in a song? - Here’s my framework for when and why I use each one
• My go-to warm-up exercise for syncing up my hands and playing the entire neck
• An EASY way to determine which fingers to use for 95% of rock riffs - build this into your playing and you’ll never fumble with your fingers again
• 4 ways that I bend strings in rock guitar and the theory behind them
• Why pro's string bending sounds different from beginner’s
• The 3 leverage points of string bending - Get these right and you’ll have ultimate CONTROL to hit your bends in tune every time
• The single most powerful thing to train your ears to know when a string bend is in tune and when it’s not

Module 3

• The simple formula Keith Richards’ used to create one of the most iconic rock riffs of all time
• Think you need a lot of pedals to get your favorite rock guitar sounds? Wrong! This lesson explains how to sound like you're using a bunch of effects without even being plugged into a single one! 
• Why players get stuck with palm-muting and how to overcome it
• The 2 techniques you must have in place to play GREAT rock rhythm
• How Keith Richards uses power chords in his guitar style
• The single most powerful concept to master the note names on the guitar neck 100x faster
• How to use octaves in rock guitar. PLUS the 4 most common shapes you’ll need to know for 99% of songs
• The sneaky way the best rock players add excitement to their riffs
• Unlock how Joe Perry combined rock rhythms, power chords, and bluesy licks in his guitar style
• Discover how to “scoot” your fingers on the neck to make your rock riffs sound more CONFIDENT
• The single most important scale Eric Clapton used in his rock guitar playing. PLUS how to play riffs with it
• The one “song form” you need to know to make playing millions of rock songs easier

Module 4

• Watch me break down step-by-step the signature rock guitar techniques behind Angus Young’s guitar style
• Discover how a few simple chords and this one picking technique created some of the most LEGENDARY rock riffs of all time
• Struggle with bar chords? Get my step-by-step playbook of everything you’ll need to know to finally conquer them for good GUARANTEED
• Avoid hand pain or having to change to lighter gauge strings when learning bar chords with just these 4 easy exercises 
• BUILD ENORMOUS BARING STRENGTH AND GET ALL THE NOTES CLEAN INSTANTLY - even if you feel you are squeezing too much on the neck, or your hands are weak
• The 4 bar chord shapes you’ll need to know to play all the chords in 98% of the songs you love PLUS - forget memorizing them here’s how to just instantly KNOW them

Essential Rock Guitar System IS for you if...

• You want the quickest way to learn everything you need to play your favorite rock guitar songs
• You're tired of wasting time on bad lessons that don’t deliver the goods
• You're ready to do it RIGHT and are looking for a SYSTEM not tricks or tactics

Some people choose the slow lane. 

Others take the fast lane.

We spend most of our lives working on our guitar playing alone.

We see others playing on higher levels and wonder how they do it. 

Sometimes we feel guilty about our practice or lack of focus.

The thing is top athletes have coaches and trainers.

Top musicians have mentors and instructors. 

They don’t do it alone. Why should we?

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of saying well “Let's just keep on keeping on.” 

But what is the true cost of doing this?

The cost of feeling paralyzed with too much information and no logical order to learn it in. 

The thousands of dollars wasted on gear, and in-person lessons that didn’t work.

The cost of us only knowing how to play fragments of songs and never being able to get all the way through them. 

The cost of years spent stuck in a vicious circle of piecemeal lessons only to wake up decades later and still not feel like the player we wished we could be.

A much better path is to…

Start Playing Your Best Rock Guitar With Ease Today!

Imagine getting out of the slow lane and into the fast lane with your rock guitar playing. 

Imagine having my complete system of everything I’ve learned from over two decades plus of experience in the trenches of rock and roll.

Imagine putting huge smiles on the faces of your audience as they watch you jam out to your favorite rock songs from beginning to end.

Imagine the relief you will feel a couple of weeks from now knowing that the days of feeling directionless are gone.

You don’t have to do this alone, I can show you exactly how to get to where you want and guide you every step of the way!

All of this can be yours.

So what’s it gonna be?

A year from now you’ll be another year older.

Will you be living your rock guitar dreams?