LIVE Q&A with Lauren + Special Announcements!

Hello, hello, hello! How are we doing today? Nice to see everyone on a Saturday afternoon. I have some fun little updates and announcements to make today, so thanks for being here. Hope you're all doing a great— having a great day and that you've been practicing hard this week. Hello, Rob. I was just— someone was— Matt was telling me how, um, tilt guilty, the video I did a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, um, the term tilt guilty is now in Gemini as an AI, um, as an AI answer. So that's pretty cool. Thanks. So tilt guilty, if you, uh, don't know what that is, um, it's a term for the guitar when you're holding your guitar A lot of students, when you first learn to play guitar, you play it like this. So we called it tilt guilty, and I think Matt was the one who actually came up with it. So UK in the house, love your lessons. Yeah, put in the chat, you know, where you're calling in from. I'm down here in Mass, just outside of Boston today. The sun has just come out. It's lovely. Spring has finally sprung. And as you know, when the sun starts coming out, it gets harder and harder to stay inside, right? And practice when the sun is out there, beckoning and calling for you to get to go out there, which I'm going to do after this. So if you're someone, you know, we're getting into the spring and summer and you're feeling like you might lose a little bit of your practice time because you're not being forced to stay inside with the bad in cold weather, just, you know, take it easy on yourself. You know, give yourself a little grace, okay? If you need to pull back a little bit on the time, that's okay. The thing is to remain consistent, as long as you don't stop completely, all right? So be like, hey, I'm just gonna practice for 10 minutes, 3, 4 times a week, just to maintain what I've learned, or at least to keep progressing a bit slowly. Because the thing is, we don't want to go backwards. You know, a lot of people, they take 3 months off, 4 months off, they take the summer off, and then they come back in the fall and they're like, oh no, I just like, I was able to do this chord change and now I can't do it anymore. It's much slower than it was before I took the break. And I know we, you know, everyone takes breaks for different reasons. So, you know, if you are going to pull back a little bit, Try and keep the schedule consistent. Try and keep the schedule consistent, but just do something. Do something and keep it fun. All right? If you need to keep it fun for a few months and just play some fun songs, that's perfectly fine too. My neck hurts when I play my guitar. I tilt it as well. Yes, that is also another issue. Steve from Ontario, Canada. Awesome. Oh, France is in the house. Yeah, speaking of Canada, that's one of my announcements. So I think I've made an announcement in like the community section. So I do have a couple of events that are coming up. One of them happens to be in Canada, in Toronto. I have two screens here, so this is cool. So I have all my information. So I'm going to be in Toronto, Canada, August 24th through 25th, doing a little workshop Okay, in Toronto. So if you're interested in learning more about that, it's on my main website. It's laurenbateman.com/events. Laurenbateman.com/events. I also have one in Quebec that's more intermediate, but that one right now is application only, and there is a waitlist for that one. But the one in Canada is great for beginners, late beginners, And we're just going to do, you know, some meet and greet on the 24th. And then on the 25th, it's going to be a full day of workshops and playing songs together, and you'll leave with a workbook and everything. Any plans to return to the UK? I'm glad you asked, because yes, that's the other event. I'm actually partnering. I'm coming back to Scotland. I'm going to Scotland. The dates on Scotland are December 7th 11th. That's also on the events page. Again, that events page is laurenbateman.com/events. I'm partnering up with a good friend and client of mine, Tony Cull, who also teaches guitar over here on, on YouTube. Tony is a good friend of mine, and he asked me if I would join him in Scotland for us to pair up and do some kind of like a guitar retreat in Scotland. So yes, that is happening. Um, it is December 7th through 11th. December 7th through 11th. Um, it's 5 days, 4 nights. This one, this one's a little more expensive because it is all-inclusive, meaning food, hotel, basically everything that's covered for. I think there's gonna be like a whiskey tasting. Um, so there'll be some fun things happening. Um, I know spouses can come to those events as well, I think, um, for like a supplement, maybe because of like food and stuff like that. Um, but if I don't play guitar, will I get rusty and no longer usable? That's a great question. That's a great question. Um, so your strings can become very rusty. I have guitars next door. Like, my first guitar that I learned on, um, is actually next door in my office over there. Um, I don't even know the last time I changed the strings on it. It's pretty— I haven't done much to it, so it's a little bit dried out. Um, but for a guitar that probably hasn't been touched in a decade, it still works. I think I actually did play it for a video. Um, so it will work. Um, just might need some cleaning, some new strings, you know, maybe take it to a guitar place that will clean it up, make sure everything's, uh, functioning properly. And usually your, your pretty good to go. But you will need a new set of strings. That I will— that I will guarantee you. I will guarantee you. Um, do I ever make it out west? Do I ever make it out west? Uh, yes, I want to. I would— I've had a dream of doing like a wine event in like Napa Valley because I love wine. And if you guys know, I'm like, I, I really like red wine. Um, more like Italian reds, but I do like, you know, the California reds as well. Um, French red wine as well too. So I am a fan of really bold and, I guess, strong-bodied red wines. So that's something I've always, always wanted to do. But yeah, most of the stuff's on the East Coast because I'm, I'm on the East Coast. It makes it a little bit easier for me. Hi from Ireland. I was in Ireland in September. Fantastic. I didn't do an event while I was in Ireland. That was mostly for, for vacation. So yeah, so the two events that I do officially have. I mean, I do have 3 events. 2 of them are in Canada in August. Like I said, the beginner to late beginner one's August 24th through 25th, and that is in Toronto. Again, laurenbateman.com/events. And then we have the Scottish Highlands retreat, December 7th through 11th, and that's going to be in Scotland with Tony Cull at Loch Lomond. So that's where that's going to be. So if you're interested in those, you can go over to my website and it has some information on both of those events. So Quebec is the intermediate one and Toronto is more the beginner, late beginner event. So Toronto and Quebec, I guess is the proper way to say it, I'm not good at French. I'm not good at other languages. I'm trying to relearn Italian. And I was speaking with a woman yesterday who's from Italy, and they roll their Rs. Europeans are really good, you know, the Spanish and the Italians, they have this R that's just so beautiful, and I can't do it. I don't think I have the musculature to do a rolled R. I'm also from Boston, so we don't really use Rs. We kind of ignore the R, if you If you know the Boston accent, the R is not important as much in our language. But yeah, so it's funny. 19 Crimes Australian wine is excellent. I've seen that. I don't know if I've ever had it. Yeah, someone said Loch Lomond is beautiful. You will love it. Yeah, that was the one part of Scotland we didn't get to go to, is kind of the Glasgow area. So I'm glad that we're gonna get to go. Um, Greg says, Lauren, I played for nearly 2 years, should be starting to play bar chords. Hey Greg, that's a great question. Yeah, bar chords. Um, I'd, you know, for me it depends on like where you're at, but I would say yeah, if you're 2 years in, you're probably at a good spot. Uh, typically I move people over to bar chords once they've learned all their open chords. Okay, so if you have all your open chords, you know, your G, your C, um, even, even your 7 chords you'll probably be more flexible enough to be able to do it, because with barre chords, there's a strength component, okay? And there's also like a stretch and comfort component because you're using your hand in a different way that you've never used it before. But barre chords are super, super useful. So yes, I would highly recommend, if you've got your open chords and you're feeling good about that, definitely hop on to barre chords. It's— they're They're a pain, but they are absolutely worth it. Um, so I have nothing to worry about it when I return home from the dormitory. No, I think you'll be— your guitar, your guitar will be fine. Yeah, as long as you didn't like put it in a really moist basement and left it there for months, a year. I've had students who are like, their friend gave them a guitar for them to start learning guitar, and I'd be like, where was the— because the guitar, like, the fretboard's like covered in mold, and I'd be like, where was this guitar? They're like, oh, my friend had it down a basement. Um, so if you're storing it in a, in a wet basement, um, not the best spot for, for a guitar. Um, so, but other— if that— if it's in, you know, if it's in a closet or it's in, you know, your living space, uh, it's probably, it's probably safe. You'll probably just have to change the strings when you, you get home. It's in a bag in my wardrobe. Perfect. Yeah, you're gonna be fine. Awesome. Yeah, just maybe put some fresh strings on it when you get home and you'll be perfectly fine. Yeah, extreme heat and/or moisture. Is a no. Yeah, and I'm going to be doing— I'm actually going to record a video because some of you may have noticed on some of my videos, actually. I know, you know, a couple people commented because they saw my Taylor. My Taylor cracked. It did. People are like, did your guitar crack? You go on the close-up, there's a little like fine line. I did get it fixed, but yes, my Taylor guitar did crack. So I'm going to do a video on taking care of your guitars. It's the first time I've been playing guitar now 26 years. It's the first time I've ever had a guitar crack on me. Like I said, I have my old Ibanez from next door that I learned to play guitar on when I was 16. It's got a lot of dings in it, but it doesn't have any cracks. I've been doing some research, and it's very, um, it's actually very common in Taylors for that. It's more, it's actually more common in Taylors for that to happen, um, just because of the way they design their guitars. Um, I was talking to a rep from D'Addario, they— I think last month or a few weeks ago, because I was telling him, because I like to use their humidipacks, you know, to keep with the guitars and keep the humidity up. And he's like, yeah, those Taylors, he's like, you know, it's, it's part of the design. Like, the tops are a little bit thinner, which helps with like their, you know, unique sound. He goes, but they do tend to, to crack in that hump. Um, so that's what happened. Mine cracked right, right like on the top hump here. There's a little, little crack. Um, I— there's a few videos if you go back and look at my ones from Popoli earlier this year. I have my, my, um, Taylor. You'll see a little crack on the close-up. It was sad. Yeah, someone said, I just bought a baby Taylor, absolutely love it. Yeah, babe, that's almost like what this is. Um, so baby Taylors, or this is like a parlor size. So this is a PRS guitar. It's a parlor-sized guitar. It's much smaller, like frame-wise, than— like, I don't think it's too thin. This is actually still pretty good size. Um, this is the Tonare P20. Um, great size guitar, nice and small, especially like I'm just under 5'5", so I'm smaller in frame. So dreadnought guitars for me just tend to be a little too big. I really like grand auditorium. That's what my tailor is. And that's what my, um, my Crafter is. Those are grand auditoriums. Oh Steve, you're, you're Taylor cracked too. I know it's sad when it happens, um, but if it happens, it's not the end of the world. BU alum! I was just reading my BU alum magazine this morning with breakfast. Um, but as I was saying, if your guitar cracks, it is not the end of the world. My Crafter has a giant crack in it from a microphone I had in my bag many, many moons ago. But if you do get a crack, you should take it to a luthier because they'll kind of brace— they'll get in and they'll put bracing in to hopefully prevent it from spreading. But I always tell people, like, just look up a picture of Willie Nelson and his guitar. He's got a giant hole in his guitar at this point. I think he just has like a pickguard covering the hole. So So if you get a crack in your guitar, you get a hole— like, even my Crafter, my Crafter has bits of wood like missing from it from strumming. It's just, you know, if you play these guitars, you really play them, um, especially the Road Warriors. If you're someone who's out playing live a lot like I was, you— pieces of the guitar come off, the wood, you know, chips off, and stuff happens. But that means they were loved. Um, how do I love the PRS? I like it. It's different when I, you know, come here because it's so small and I'm used to holding a much bigger guitar, but this one has a great sound. I used this at my live event in August in Boston and really bright, like, punchy sound. I really, really liked it. I got a lot of really great, great comments from some of the other instructors there just on the sound of it. It's a really, really good guitar. It's not even that expensive. Like, this is a very reasonably priced um, very reasonably priced guitar for, um, you know, I think just the quality— I think it's like, I think it's like a $600 guitar. So again, that's that, you know, a little bit more of an investment, but it's a great, great guitar. Yeah, laminate, laminate tops, less likely to, to crack sometimes. Yeah. Um, do you recommend learning tabs or chords first for a beginner? So Rick, I usually like— so if you're my 7-Level Guitar System The 7 Level Guitar System, some of you know, is my step-by-step guitar system. Okay, I primarily, I specialize in working with older adults, helping them to learn guitar, and I usually start with tab and hand dexterity because, especially for older learners, we have to get the hands moving and stretching. Okay, so as we get older, we learn, we lose, you know, flexibility. And strength in our hands. So I start there because we need to kind of rebuild that before we get into chords, because moving one finger on the guitar is hard enough, never mind moving 3 or 4 of them at the same time. I always, I always, you know, when I would have students come to me when I used to teach live in person here, students would bring me their notebook and it'd be like they'd show me their notebooks and it was like bar chords the first lesson. And I was like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It is very hard to move just 1 or 2 fingers. So I would recommend starting with tab, 1, because it's going to get your fingers moving, and 2, it's just a little less information to process. But you can quickly start working your way into chords, very, very quickly. And I, like I say, in my guitar system, I have a way to move you through the chords while you're building that strength in dexterity to make it a little bit more fun, um, to go through. Would my baby Taylor be okay for your event in Scotland, or should I bring a full size? No, a baby Taylor would be great. Yeah, so if you are going to come to Scotland or one of the events— if you weren't here earlier, I have two events, one going on in Canada and Toronto and another in the Scottish Highlands. Um, the one in Toronto, Canada is August 24th-25th. The one in the Scottish Highlands is December 7th through 11th. Um, I, I might bring this guitar. I might bring this guitar with me to Scotland, um, or, or I might rent one while I was there. I think Tony has an option if you want to rent a guitar. He can, he can sort that out for you. But yeah, you don't have to bring a full-size guitar. It's much easier traveling with the smaller size guitars, um, but whatever you feel comfortable with. Yeah, thank you, Lauren. I'm an older adult and that makes perfect sense. You're absolutely welcome, Rick. You got it. "Here to support one another playing guitars." Yes, we are, Eric. That's what we're here for. Acoustic Freak says, "I'm a beginner. How can I do finger practice faster?" Yeah, so even if you're not in my 7-level, I got some exercises here. So if you want to write this down, just search my name, Lauren Bateman, and put in spider exercise. Okay, so spider exercise is great. For just working on that finger dexterity. I also have a video on faster fingers. So if you just put in Lauren Bateman finger dexterity or finger exercises, a bunch of videos are going to come up. I even have a playlist. Let that ambulance go by. Hopefully no one's going to the hospital. Salem Hospital is like right up the road for me. Salem, Mass. So what was I going to say? Yeah. So if you look up finger dexterity, I have a whole playlist that has even some simple songs that you can work on. To get your fingers moving. So definitely go check that out. Yes, the crappy string snap, the small strings a lot. Changing to roller rounded style trees helped tremendously. So you talk about your, your, your strings. Yeah, I used to use Elixirs, and I thought they broke too easily on me, and that's why I use Dioderio more, because when I switched, I, I was breaking less strings. So they're, they're definitely my string of choice is, is Dioderio. I prefer the phosphorus Bronze because it's just like a nice warm sound. But you can, you know, obviously that's a personal preference thing. If you're more into like the blues style in the old country, 80/20 Bronze has a little bit more of a brighter twang to it, so you might like that sound. Greg says, I've done the 7 Level and keep going back to it. What would you recommend I do next? Yeah, that's a great question. So if you're someone who's in the 7 Level, or maybe you're someone like Lauren, I'm not an absolute beginner, I know my open chords, I think your 7 Level is going to be too easy. I recommend going to, um, the Next Level courses. So, um, I think it's laurenbateman.com/nextlevel. But if you, if you go to my website, all my courses are on there. Um, but it's a series of 5 courses, and one of the biggest ones that I like is Expressive Rhythm, is in that program. It's all about strumming. I'm a rhythm guitar player, um, because usually that's kind of like the next step for people. I just did a strumming intensive And everyone's like, oh, I feel like I'm playing the same strumming pattern over and everyone plays that down, down, up, up, down, up. And they're like, all right, I got the strumming, but I feel like I'm using the same strumming pattern on every song. So if you feel like you're using the same strumming pattern on every song, expressive rhythm and strumming is a great course. It's a big— it's one of the bigger ones. I think that one's like 50+ lessons in that course. So I just— to buy the strumming course is, is $197. So you might as well spend $297 and get the 4 other courses that I bundle with it, which is fingerpicking, Fingerpicking 101. That one's like 25 lessons. That one's a really good one. Some music theory, Power and Barre Chords. If you want to learn my process for, for working your way up to barre chords, that's in there. Lead Guitar 101, working on your first scale. And speaking— did I change my glasses? I changed them a while ago. I've had these, I think I've had these like a couple years now, maybe a year and a half. I do like these. These are Italian, which goes with my Italian. So how much is the 7 beginner program? That one is $297 for the beginner program. And you get access to the private community and the Q&As that I do here. So I do some of this stuff and I take questions in the private community. as well. But I was mentioning the lead guitar because I forgot there is, um, I'll put— look at, I got another screen up open here. I'll put this in the chat. I did put links in the description below too. Um, good friend of mine Charlie Long is actually featured in my Lead Guitar 101 program. He teaches you how to play your first guitar solo. So Charlie, um, is a really, really good friend of mine. Um, he teaches over here on YouTube. His specialty is more lead guitar, which is not my specialty. I'm more the acoustic person. But him and I are teaming up to do a lead guitar intensive. So if you're someone who's interested in getting into learning scales, you could go into Lead Guitar 101. We're doing this May and June. It's an 8-week program, and Charlie's teaching 101, which is for people who've never done scales before. And then there's Lead Guitar 102, which is for people who, who maybe have a scale you know the pentatonic scale, but you feel like you're either like stuck in a box or you don't know how to apply it or how to use it, um, or you don't really know how to play or add your own style into your playing. So it's a little bit— it's not for beginners, and you have to know some scales and stuff, um, but I put the link there, um, for the Lead Guitar Intensive. Um, yeah, laurenbatemanguitar.com forward slash— I know it's— this is a horrible link— lead-guitar-intensive. I'll just put it in the chat for you guys again so it's there. Um, but I did put, put it in the description below, so if you're watching this after the fact, not live, you'll, you'll see it. Yes, that Pentatonix Stuck in a Box. Yeah, so if you're stuck in the box, you're going to want to do Charlie's Lead Guitar 102 Intensive. Um, it's 8 weeks, it's live, it is small group learning. Okay, do I still recommend Zager? Yeah, yeah, I have no issue Um, I have no issue with Zager. Um, they stopped doing their, their referral program, so I don't, I don't talk about them as much, but I still have, um, lots of students who have their guitars, love them. Um, I think they're, they're great quality. Um, so yeah, I have nothing, nothing wrong with them. Um, yeah, I have a lot of students from other countries all over the world. I've seen like Sri Lanka, I've seen Kenya, um I've got people from Japan, Europe, Canada, all over, Australia. And I think that's so cool. I really do think that's so cool. I'm 67 and want to learn guitar so I can play gospel quartet. Will your courses benefit me? Raw beginner. Yeah, if you're a raw beginner, all the skills that are in my 7 level are the fundamentals. They're the basics that you need to know. So no matter what you want to do, even if you want to play gospel guitar, you're probably gonna have to learn a C chord, okay? You're gonna have to learn a D chord. You're gonna have to learn how to strum in time. You're gonna have to learn how to read some rhythm, all right? You're gonna get— need to get your fingers moving. Um, so all the stuff in there would, um, would help anyone in any style because it's the basics, it's the foundation. Um, and then I tell people, like, after you finish the 7 level, then you can start getting into more genre-specific stuff. Like, if you want to go and do lead guitar, you can go that route. Or if you want to go into the more singer-songwriter fingerpicking route— I do teach a little bit of fingerpicking in the 7 level just to give you a taste for it, but Fingerpicking 101 is where I really, really go in depth on the fingerpicking. Yes. Truth Wins: For anyone new here, I can vouch for the fact that Lauren can take a hard song and get you playing it in a single video. Well, thank you so much. That means a lot. That was my goal always. When I was teaching in my studio, because I know, especially for adults, like a lot of you are coming into this first off just wondering if it's even possible. You're like, I have this dream. I've always wanted to do this. But there's like this little voice in the back of your head that's saying you're not good enough. You know, you're not talented enough. You should have done this 20 years ago. You should have done this 30 years ago. Okay, and just so you know, I had a student— we had a Q&A in my community, I think it was last week. His name is Jim. I don't know if Jim's on here, but he was telling everyone how we had a student— he think he said he was like 63, and Jim chimed in, he goes, well, you're young and I'm 84. So, so if you're in your 60s and you feel like you're too old, well, guess what? To Jim, who's 84 and in the program learning to play guitar, you are a youngin'. All right, so you got plenty of time. You got plenty of time. So, you know, like I was saying, if there's that doubt, my goal was to just get people having fun playing music as quickly as possible because I knew if I could just give you that win and show you that it's possible, just like she was saying, Lauren can teach you how to play a song in one video. If I can show you that it's possible in one lesson to learn something and make progress and maybe actually have some fun with the instrument, you're more likely going to stick with it. So, Colombia, 57 years old, never played before. Welcome. Been in the 7 Level Course for 2 months. There we go. Already have calluses on my fingers. It's been fantastic. It made me very happy. You are so welcome. So happy to have you here and thank you for sharing that with me. That means a lot. I started 4 months ago. You are my go-to. Thank you. You guys are— I love you guys. You're all so nice. You're all very, very kind. I appreciate it. Uh, can I learn playing guitar in a month or so if I study for like 20 minutes daily? You can learn some things. Um, you can, you can learn some things. And I always want to be realistic about the guitar, you know, because you'll see the ads like guitar is easy. Guitar is not easy, okay? It's not easy. I can make things easier, um, for you. But yes, if you— what I would recommend If you're questioning, okay, this is CLW4140. If you're questioning, go take my crash course, okay, on my website. Go to laurenbateman.com. I have a free crash course. Go take that and see how far you get, okay? Because I get— my guarantee is basically in 14 days I can get you to play real songs. That's my guarantee if you do the stuff that's in there and you take your time. Now Are you going to be Eric Clapton in 2 months? Probably not. But will you learn some things and be able to play some simple— and I emphasize simple— songs? Absolutely. Absolutely. I can do it in a single lesson. If you were here in my home, I could probably do it in the next 5 minutes. I could get you to play a song. I did it with my mom one time because she was like— she asked me a question, I forget. I was— she was asking about like the course and what I do and And I was telling about the crash course. I was like, oh yeah, I have this free course and I teach people how to play, play songs. And she's like, you can really teach people to play, to play music in your course? And I said, yeah, it's like I can show you how to play a song in the next 5 or 10 minutes. It was Horse with No Name, Renee. And I didn't tell her it was Horse with No Name. I said, yeah, I can get you to play a song in, in like the next 5 or 10 minutes. And she's like, show me. So my mom, I hand her a guitar. She's, she's in my room and I hand her a guitar and I showed her the E minor chords and I showed her how to move her fingers. And then I was like, all right, let's do this together. 1, 2, 3, 4. And she goes, oh, she goes, that, that sounds like Horse with No Name. And I said, that's because it is Horse with No Name. And she goes, oh. So I basically got my mom to play— very simply, very simply, I got her to play Horse with No Name. And she was impressed that I was that I, I actually was able to do what I said I was going to do. I was like, I can, I can, I can do that. Because again, you break things down, you explain things simply. And I think that's where, um, sometimes, you know, I've had a lot of students who've worked with guitar teachers in person, and they're great guitar players. There's nothing against them. They're probably phenomenal guitar players, but they're not great guitar teachers, especially for beginners. So for beginners, you really have to be able to go back to what it was like to be a beginner and understand, just like I said earlier, how hard it is to move a single finger, never mind 3 or 4 of them at the same time to do chord changes. Yeah. Someone said, I remember when Horse with No Name took all my focus. In the beginning, it will. It will take all your focus. But the key is you have to break things down in certain steps. And I find it's not just guitar, it's people who learn anything on their own. We tend to overwhelm ourselves by learning too much at the same time. And that's where I think the 7 Level really works well because, you know, it's designed, there's 7 different levels and there's a number of lessons within each level and they all serve a purpose to get you to be able to learn all the techniques and skills you need so that you can go play a bunch of songs and have fun and feel confident, feel confident playing too. Yeah. Someone says, I've been playing for 1 year, Robert. Your instruction is excellent. The progress I made with your course is unbelievable. Thank you. You are so welcome. You're so welcome. My wife was talking about this the other day. She was like, can you believe that you have actually helped people? She goes, You know, we did an interview with one of our students and she was like, you know, if you even offered me live lessons, she's like, if I could take in-person lessons, which she had with someone, they didn't work. She's like, I'd never go back to live lessons. She goes like, this is perfect. This is perfect for me. And my wife is like, can you believe that you actually have a program that teaches people how to play guitar and they've never met you? You know, other than this, like, you know, she's like, they've never met you, you've never been in a room with some of them or the most of them, and you're actually help— she's like, people are actually learning to play the guitar. And I was like, yeah. And she's like, how did you learn to do that? And I said, um, well, when I used to teach in person, I had two students, um, who were old, again, older adults. Most of my students were older adults. But I had two of them. They were legally blind, meaning they literally could— one couldn't see the guitar, the other couldn't see the PDFs. I would send him the PDF so he could blow it up at home on his screen. I think he had macular degeneration or whatever. But I had two students who were completely blind, and I had to learn to teach so specifically so that even a blind person knew what I was talking about. So that, if I can credit my teaching skills, it's to those two blind students because it made me, they made me become a better teacher. I had to step up my game because I couldn't just rely on the visual because they couldn't see the visual. So I had to get very, very specific about how I described things so that they um, they would understand it. Are you still taking drum lessons? I am— I'm not taking drum lessons, Dave, only because I, I took the lessons, I performed my song, you know, at the student recital, and then once I hit my goal, I stopped. But I am learning Italian now. That, that's my big thing. I'm getting back into really learning, learning Italian. Um, it's not that I don't— it's not that I don't like the drums. I really love the drums, but I didn't— it's not part of, um, I guess I'm interested. If some of you are in my community, you got an email last Monday about the difference between being interested and committed. I'm interested in the drums, but I'm not really committed to, to learning the drums. And I was working with my business coach, and he's like, there's a lot of steps that go from being interested in doing something to being committed in doing something. Something. Oh, Duolingo for Italian. Yeah, I've actually— it's so funny, I have the book here, but I've been using ChatGPT. I've got my flashcards, you know, I write little Italian words when I run into them. Uh, this— I, I don't— I thought it was my mother's. I think it's my uncle's. Um, but this is— I don't know if you guys know who Brothers Grimm are, the Grimm Brothers, who wrote like kind of the really weird fairy tales. Well, this is the new, a new novel of Brothers Grimm, but it's completely written in Italian. It's very hard for me to read because it's above my reading level. I'm better at reading than speaking, but yeah, so that's what I'm learning now. I'm learning Italian. Braille for blind students tab. Yeah, I'm sure they have that. I'm sure there is Braille tab out there. That would be really, really interesting. I don't know how I could incorporate that because obviously that's tactile. I think I'd have to publish like a real workbook. But I have had a couple of students who've emailed me who have vision issues, and they said that they're actually— they thanked me because they're like, I can actually learn from your program. I don't know how far, again, if it was like macular degeneration or something, but I've had a few people reach out to me and say, even though I'm blind, I'm able able to learn from your videos. So thank you so much. So that means a lot. When you finish learning Italian, do tutorials for Andrea Lazio, De Simone song. Okay. I don't know if I know that one. No, they have braille music. Okay. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. They have braille music. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So just as a recap of a few things today, I just wanted to let you know that I do have a couple events coming up. One in Canada, one in Scotland. Okay, the Canada one is Toronto in August 24th-25th. Scotland is December 7th through 11th. You can learn more at laurenbateman.com/events. Okay, and I'll put descriptions in the link— or links in the description below for y'all. And then there are those two lead guitar intensives that are coming up next month, okay? May and June. Lead Guitar 101, Lead Guitar 102— those are small group classes, okay? Charlie Long will be teaching those. But if you're interested in learning about lead guitar and scales and how to play hammer-ons, pull-offs, and play a guitar solo, those are great, great options for you. Um, can we get a glimpse of that PRS? Yeah. Crash course is at Lauren Bateman— go to laurenbateman.com and click on the big red button that says get your free course. laurenbateman.com, and then on the home screen there should be a red button that says get your free course. It's right at the top. But yeah, here's the PRS. It's not in tune, so it's going to sound horrible. Let me tune it up real quick for you guys just so that you can hear it a little bit. Um, so play the tuning song. I probably should have tuned it before, but you can see how quickly— let me find my guitar. Guitar tuna. A Bostonian must have made this. There's— it's tuna, like tuna fish. So anywho, all right, let's get this in tune for you. But yeah, it's— this is a smaller body, so this is a parlor size. Great size if you are smaller framed. Um, a lot of my female students love either, like, you know, the the Baby Taylor or Baby Martins and, you know, all those small guitars. Um, I do like a fuller guitar only because you get a bigger sound out of them, but overall— that's better. Now it sounds like a guitar. Yeah, so you can hear it has like a brighter brighter tone to it. Yeah, I, I think it's a really great guitar. And like I said, I think the retail on this is maybe $600, um, but it's, it's a, it's a solid guitar. It has a great sound to it for such a small body too. Um, but yeah, and I really like the birds. Um, I like the birds on the, uh, the frets. So, so super nice. All right everyone, I'm gonna pop off because I think my internet, for some reason I can see I'm lagging a little bit, my internet seems to be slowing down towards the end of this live. So I just want to say thank you for being here, really appreciate it, and I'll see you all in a lesson Next week I'll be back with an official lesson. Melissa Etheridge song coming out next week, so, uh, keep your eyes posted for that. And have a wonderful, wonderful day, everyone. Thanks for being here. Bye-bye.