Picture this scenario...

You just joined a band that plays Blues, Rock, Funk and maybe some Pop songs, and you're performing for a community event.

The charts are easy to play, and the band sounds really good.

The bandleader wants to open up a bunch of the songs for solos.

You start to feel a pit in your stomach.

You don't want him to call on you, so you don't look up.

The tension in the room is so thick right now...it feels a little hard to breathe.

You're praying for this moment to pass...you just want to play the charts and not worry about making a fool of yourself in front of your bandmates and your audience.

He DOES call on you to take a solo, and you panic.

You wave him off and mouth the word, "No". (But secretly inside, you feel so ashamed.)

He's okay with it, and calls on someone else.

As the night goes on, you get more and more angry with yourself for turning down the solo.

You wish your solos didn't ramble on and on because you had no idea where you were in the song...

That they sounded much cooler...

That you could impress your bandmates instead of feeling their snickering...

The show ends, and you are more exhausted from the fight in your head than you are from playing the gig.

And you're left wondering, "Will there ever be a day where I WILL look up and take that solo?"

Can you relate?

I Can Relate to BOTH of Those Scenarios!

When I first started playing out in clubs and taking solos, I didn’t know what I was doing.

I had extensive classical training, so I was a great reader, but for the life of me, I couldn’t create a cool solo, certainly not by ear.

In college, I was taught to memorize tons of patterns, in every key, but I didn’t understand the connection between playing those patterns and creating a solo.

And when I got on the bandstand, I would get lost in the form, I played the wrong notes over the wrong chords, and was really embarrassed, especially since I had all that classical training!

I would start making excuses..

Excuses as to why I shouldn’t take a solo during a performance…

Excuses for why I didn’t sound good compared to everyone else…

“It was my equipment...I couldn’t hear myself in the monitor” (or I had no monitor and the guitar was so loud in my ears)...

"I got distracted by someone in the audience.."

the list goes on...

So I thought I would write out some of my solos, and try to memorize them.

Maybe that would sound more professional, right?

But when the time came to play the solo in the song, if I made one little mistake, it threw me off for the rest of the solo, and I couldn’t recover.

I was desperate!

I didn't want to keep looking like a fool every night.

It was killing my confidence.

So I bought every method book available at the time...but that didn’t help.

And there were no online courses at the time that I could take. 

What was interesting was that I found one of my best mentors through an ad for people to join a band.

The ad was posted on the bulletin board at Sam Ash (back when they allowed people to post ads!)

This teacher, Lou, changed my perspective away from learning a million patterns and trying to craft the perfect solo to something more instinctual...

Something that was more musical and authentic to the styles of music we were performing.

Slowly, I was feeling a little less embarrassed with each gig.

Then, another incredible mentor really opened up my eyes. 

When I studied with the legendary Gary Burton at Berklee College of Music, I discovered a totally different way to approach soloing that was less stressful and more creative.

That led to me being so much more comfortable on stage, it was like my second home.

I was eager to play solos - I wanted to solo over every tune.

I was performing in well-known historic venues like the Whiskey A Go-Go and the Viper Room in Hollywood, 

and larger venues like The House of Blues in Anaheim, The Paramount NY and the Wolf Den at the Mohegan Sun. 

And I was loving it!

That was a huge change from being so embarrassed and asking others to solo in my place.