.Still here?

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It hurts to admit this…

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But if I had known what I’m about to tell you, I would have shaved a decade…no, TWO decades off my 30-year guitar playing career…

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…all while sounding way better than I do now!

nIt’s no secret to tell you that I LOVE trying out new guitars and amps…
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n…judging from the 1 million visitors we get every month, you do, too.
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But NO guitar or amp has ever made me sound like my idols.

nIf I had a penny for every time I heard:
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n“it’s not the gear, it’s the ear” or “the tone is in the fingers”…
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n…I’d have a 1959 Gibson Les Paul proudly displayed on my wall!
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nThe fact still remains…
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If Jimmy Page played a $50…$500…a $5000 amp, you’d INSTANTLY know it was him – WHY’S THAT?

nIn the 1950s when Page was just starting out, you can bet that you played whatever you could get – even a broomstick with steel wires would work out in a pinch.
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nEven if you go back to his earliest work, and fire up Led Zeppelin I…that’s THE Jimmy we know and love.
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nThe first riff still feels as visceral as a punch in the face.
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“Jimmy Page’s guitar pounces from the speakers, fat with menace; John Bonham’s kick drum swings with anvil force; Robert Plant rambles on about the perils of manhood. Hard rock would never be the same.” – The Rolling Stone

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The curiosity was driving me insane!

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I was doing everything you “should” do:

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• “Developing my ear” by rewinding solos for 900 times (until I got sick of ever hearing the song again)

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• Looking for best-rated tabs and reading all the comments to see if it was right (nope – STILL WRONG)

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• Buying official, expensive chord books

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• Spending hours upon hours on Youtube trying to find “THE LICK”…

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n…but I’m thinking the bare-faced kid demonstrating it has never even heard of Led Zeppelin before.
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And when you go back to play with your band, or hit “record” in your room…

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• The same old, tired noodling comes out…your bandmates don’t stop to ask “hey, what’s THAT?” and you don’t even bother to listen to what you recorded

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• Your go-to licks don’t have the same luster they used to because you’ve heard them a million times

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• You start to play something for your kids to show them how it’s done…but they yawn and leave the room!

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• You try to play something new and exciting for your next solo…but you feel completely STUCK

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nNone of it works. The days go by and turn into years.
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nYou know your “magnum opus” is still inside of you, clawing to break out.
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nYou know you can play the solo from your favorite song even if someone woke you up at 3 AM in the night.
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nLooking for the answer, I talked to dozens of guitar players from every background you can imagine:
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• Some were just local guys I share a beer with over the weekends…

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• Some found a bit of success playing in their bands…

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• Some were full-time guitar teachers (one of them even came from the classical world)…

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But there was only ONE that stood head and shoulders above the others.

nThe chameleon Gabriel Leopardi.
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nHis videos go all the way back to 2007., and I remember his videos sounding almost more like the artist…than the artists themselves!
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nHis ear for different guitar styles is unmatched.
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nThe thing that’s most interesting about Gabriel is that he didn’t stop at recreating other player’s styles.
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nHe took this knowledge to develop his OWN style and is now in a band that is massively successful in its own right, opening for Evanescence…Duran Duran…Paramore…and another band you might have heard of…METALLICA.
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nIt doesn’t get any better than playing for tens of thousands of people…and Gabriel has done it on many nights.
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nSo I finally got Gabriel to tell me the secret.
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…AND IT DIDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE AT ALL!

nTo absorb someone’s style, you play their music.
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nAt least it’s the way it has always been done…right?
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nI told him about buying tab books, learning solos note-by-note, getting stuck in the black hole of Youtube looking for licks…
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n…and he LAUGHED RIGHT IN MY FACE (the nerve on this guy!).
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nI never get angry, but I almost shouted “OKAY, SO WHAT IS IT, GAB?!”
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nFinally I got the reply.
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“If you only play solos note-by-note…you will NEVER sound like that player.”

nHe continued.
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nHere’s what I do when I’m absorbing a player’s style:
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• The scales that make up their unique guitar DNA

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• Do NOT play those scales blindly – you also need to figure out their note choices

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• The rhythm and the pulse that goes into everything you play

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n(he went faster – I opened a can of worms with that question!)
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nThe phrasing…dynamics…expression…TONE…
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…THOSE are elements of style, Brian. NOT rote copying.

nThe gears inside my head started to turn…and this completely blew my mind.
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nI followed up with many guitar players I contacted and told them about Gabriel’s theory…
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nThe most common response?
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n“Whoa, that makes SO MUCH sense!”, they said (or texted) in an Eureka moment.
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n“Hey Gabriel…let’s do a course on this.”
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KillerGuitarAcademy is a passion project I started because I wanted to share this knowledge with you.

nI thought of the ultimate “Mount Rushmore” of guitar legends I grew up with, and always wanted to absorb into my own style.
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nEvery course is made to be short-and-sweet so you can get all the value you can by your next practice or recording session.
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nThere is no meandering and no “how to tune your guitar” lesson.
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nWe skip through all the BS.
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nBut whether you’re a complete novice or a seasoned professional, you can get something you can apply right away.
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