My mission is to prove that
ANYBODY can play Blues guitar
My teaching is different, because instead of preaching the common
"practice, practice, practice ... and then practice some more"
while giving you lots of tedious "exercises",
I'll show you step by step how to play Blues guitar way faster and with lots more joy.
Play Real Songs
From the beginning you'll learn to play Blues guitar by playing real songs instead of tedious exercises. This way you'll love each and every of your practice sessions!
Step By Step
From your current musical ability to where you want to go: I'll lead you all the way with my fool-proof easy to follow step by step method.
Efficiency
To give myself and my students amazing results in the shortest time possible I developed an extremely efficient way to learn Blues guitar.
My Story
Germany's Blues guitar coach No. 1 is unmusical!
To be honest, I am "unmusical". Yes, that's right - Germany's Blues guitar coach No. 1 is unmusical!
When I started out, I was a hopeless case: I was way too old (I was already 17!) and I had no prior musical experience whatsoever. I never had sung in a choir and I never had played any instrument - not even the obligatory recorder.
I had no sense of rhythm, I couldn't tell a higher note from a lower one, I could not read or write musical notation at all. Actually the only F grade I ever got in my whole school career was in music. I still have a recording of my first gig: I had to sing 3 notes of backing vocals on the syllable "oh" - and I never hit any of those notes, not even close.
So I am a guy with no musical 'gift' of any kind.
I hate to practice!
And I hated to practice those boring scales and exercises from the very start! All I wanted to do was play real songs, actual music. For several years I took lessons from different teachers and bought lots (!) of instruction books and videos. They all were
- boring exercises, but no real songs and music,
- made big steps forward and kept frustrating me and / or
- told me I needed to practice several hours each day to get anywhere.
I sucked as a guitar teacher!
When I had my guitar for nearly 2 weeks and could barely play 2 chords (E minor and A minor), a schoolmate approached me: "Andi, you know how to play guitar! Can you show me?"
Turns out I sucked big time as teacher! But at the same time I loved to teach.
So I had to find better ways to learn & teach the guitar - for learning myself and for teaching others.
So I started coming up with my own unique way of learning Blues guitar:
I broke down my favourite Blues songs to my current level so I could play along.
Next I increased my playing level in tiny steps - all while playing the songs I loved.
And I optimized my learning routines so I could learn songs even faster.
Boy, did I suddenly have a blast!
In school I was mediocre. Teachers told me "I could be better if I only wanted".
Turns out I hate bad teaching (that is teaching without a logical step by step system) and tedious learning by rote (with neither understanding the why nor any fun while doing so).
To summarize: I started learning guitar way too old, I was completely unmusical and I hated to practice.
What an unmusical guy can achieve
Fast forward and I am Germany's Blues guitar coach No. 1.
- My first book "Garantiert Bluesgitarre lernen" published in 2012 was the bestselling German Blues guitar book of that year and it has been each year since then. It is a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon Germany in guitar books - which is very unusual for a Blues guitar book! (Usually it's beginner's books, song books, children's books or christmas books).
- My third book "The Chicago Blues Guitar Method" was an international No. 1 bestseller on Amazon in several categories.
- I gave workshops all over Germany including Thomann (Europe's largest musicstore), Musicstore Cologne (the other really big German musicstore) and Blues Schmus Apfelmus Festival (Germany's biggest Blues festival).
- Since 2012 I have been writing for "Gitarre & Bass" and "guitar", Germany's 2 bestselling and most important musician's magazines.
- I played several hundred gigs, partly as a sideman guitarist, partly as a band leader singing and playing guitar at the same time. A few of those gigs where in front of an audience of over 1.000 people.
I didn't tell any of the above to brag. In fact I don't like to write about my successes, as these are only side benefits of what I really care about: Playing & teaching Blues guitar.
So I achieved all those aforementioned success as a guitarist. Yet I am still that "unmusical" guy that hates to "practice". But I can learn to play any song I want, I have a lot of fun doing so, and I feel honored to help countless guitarists to reach their musical goals.
You can play Blues guitar!
So now that you now my story don't tell me you can't learn to play Blues guitar because you are too old to start, because you are unmusical or because you already tried to learn with other teachers or methods.
I have been there, too, and I wish back then I had a teacher with a method like mine. That would have saved me so much time, work and frustration!
So here are the 3 keys to learning Blues guitar the "Saitenhieb way":
1) Play Real Songs
With my method you'll learn to play Blues guitar by playing real songs
instead of tedious exercises - from the very beginning!
This way you'll actually learn to play real music
and enjoy your practice session each and every time!
When was the last time you dreamed about playing scales or exercises?
That's why I teach you to become a GUITAR PLAYER, not a GUITAR PRACTICER.
I researched thousands of Blues songs to play along to at any playing level.
And if some of your favourite songs are missing, we apply the same principles
of bringing a song to your level to them and play along to these recordings also.
2) Step By Step
Together we'll define your musical goals - wether it's playing in a band and standing onstage
or just playing in your living room for yourself or your spouse's birthday.
Then I'll lead you all the way from your current musical ability to where you want to go.
You simply need to follow my fool-proof easy to follow step by step method I have developed
in over 25 years of playing and nearly 20 years of teaching the guitar.
This way we prevent overwhelm and frustration.
I already have made basically every mistake one could possibly make so you don't have to.
3) Efficiency
I believe that everybody has a talent, a gift,
and if one puts a lot of work into this talent great things can happen.
I suck at a lot of things. Actually at most.
But what I am really talented in is learning new things (if I am interested in then) and
analyzing & structuring even really complex topics (like learning an instrument)
so that others can easily follow and understand.
So I love to learn new things. I love to analyze, structure & systemize the topics I learn.
And I love to do what I do in the most efficient way possible.
... so I thought why not structure and systemize the learning itself
so I can learn the instrument in the most efficient way possible?
That's what I have done years ago.
And I tweaked and fine-tuned these practice routines ever since to
give you the most bang (playing fun) for the buck (practice time).
So an important part of learning from me is not only WHAT you learn
- actual Blues songs you love to play -, but also HOW to learn it.
And again I'll teach you step by step:
How to break down complex songs to your current playing level,
how many notes to remember at once,
how often to repeat them,
how to improve your current playing level
and so on ...
So ... are you ready to play Blues guitar?
You Can Play Blues Guitar!
If you want to play Blues guitar, sign up to receive efficient step by step Blues guitar tutorials of actual songs you'll love to play.