Weekend Update + Live Q&A

All right, testing, testing. There we go, now we have audio. Sorry about that, guys, uh, and gals. Uh, didn't know— that's the thing with YouTube Live that I don't like is there's no way to, um, adjust or change your microphones once you're live. Once you go live, that's it, whatever your setup is happens. So, uh, I apologize for having to start a new, a new livestream. But, but that's okay. We're here and we're back and I'll just start from the beginning so that everyone has the updates as they unfold. So it is Memorial Day weekend and we do have, I do have a little promotion going on. So I'll talk about that in a little bit for those of you who are on the mailing list. But I was just talking about before, people were like, you don't have any audio. I was telling you all about my Camaro and nobody was hearing me. So, oh, here, look, I actually have a little coaster. So that's kind of like my car. So that's my year. I actually have a 1968 Camaro that I haven't— yeah, I've had it for years. I bought it when I was 18. That was my first car that I bought, actually was a 1968 Camaro. And it had, you know, the headliner was missing, the springs were sticking out of the seats. It was, it was a mess. So the inside, it has mostly been redone, but I haven't driven it in 6 years. It's kind of just been sitting in the garage. Um, and I finally decided to, to take it out of the garage and start fixing it up because I really would like to, to drive it again, you know, and not just have it sit in a garage and rust more and gather dust. So, so this year it's kind of mechanical, getting the car back on the road. We're updating, um, the brakes. Obviously we have to clean the fuel lines and the fuel tank because it's been sitting for so long. Um, we're doing new brake lines, I think a new carburetor. We're doing a few things on that. Yeah, your dream car. My dream car too. I love the Camaro. So if you know, I have a new Camaro, I have a ZL1, and then I have an old Camaro. Let me see if I can pull up a picture to show you guys of the newer one. I just have like the back end that I took a picture recently. Um, oh well, here's a picture. The— I'll show you the mechanic. I don't know if you can see it. So that's my car there. Okay. Um, the mechanic was because I have to get new rims and tires. Apparently the tires on my— the back of the car from 1997, um, which I didn't know. '97, I feel like I wasn't even a— I wasn't even a senior in high school yet. So I feel like I— I know I changed the tires at one point. I feel like the tire company gave me old tires, um, because I parked— I went to Boston University and I parked the car in Boston. Like, I drove this car, that was my car. And, um, someone slashed my tires. They slashed the front tire and the back tire because I must have maybe parked in there. It was a meter. I must have parked in their parking spot and had to get the car towed. Um, so that's the new one, just so you can see. So that's the, that's the newer one. Okay, it's also red and it is a, um, it is a ZL1. So I love, I love the Camaro. So, um, that's kind of like the big personal story in my life is that I'm finally— I know you guys see the Camaro sitting next on my radio in the videos. Well, I'm actually getting it fixed up now, so that's awesome. So good morning, welcome back Jersey Red. Thanks for, uh, thanks for letting me know we didn't have audio earlier. I appreciate that. And thank you all for hopping on the new feed here. Um, if you're hopping on, I mentioned earlier, um, it is Memorial Day weekend, so we do kind of have a little special promotion going on. Um, in my email list, you may have gotten an email yesterday about it. Yesterday was Friday, um, so if you want to get the updates on that, just go and join, um, the crash course. So go to laurenbateman.com and right on the home page it should say get your free course. So you can just sign up for the mailing list through the crash course there, um, and we're going to send out some emails next week if you're interested in, in getting that offer and seeing what that is. That is on, um my 7 Level System. It's not on sale. Everyone always asks me like, when's it gonna go on sale? It's not a sale, I just do an extra special bundle for you guys to get a few extra things. So if you spent money, it's not any less. It's not any less. It's always $297 because I feel like it is absolutely worth $297. Everyone, I have so many people who are like, make it, you need to make it more money, you need to make it more money. And I'm like, no, I know I could 'cause it would be worth it, but I'm like, I feel like, I'm like, I want people to be able to buy this, use this, and appreciate it and have fun with it. So again, just go to laurenbateman.com and go sign up for the crash course and you can get the emails on that. But another super big update outside of the Camaro, and I think a video, I did a video that I think is gonna come out next week. Good morning, Mike, jumping on from LA. Rusty Allen, hey Rusty, how's it going? So I have these. Um, which I've mentioned a little bit. Um, so these are my new signature guitar straps. You'll see it has like a little— I don't know if you can see it, I guess you can't— it has my logo stamped on it. Maybe you can see it on the tan one. Um, but we actually have my store up and running again. So, um, these are my new guitar straps. I've been working on these for the last year, um, developing them and making them to fit the needs of, of my students, specifically older adults, you know, because I get a lot of people who have shoulder pain, and we wanted to make really like a very, very comfortable strap. Oh, Renee says, bought it, use it, and appreciate it so much. Worth every penny. I think she's talking about the, the 7 level, not the guitar strap. We have sold a bunch of guitar straps. If you were in my community, you were able to be part of the, the presale, um, and get some. So I think I also have like a Ninja Turtle green, which is a, um, special edition. We did this just for the release, so it's like, it's like an emerald green. I don't know if you can see that in the lighting, kind of looks black, but it's actually like an emerald green. And I think, I think you only have 10 of those left in one step. Yes, 7 levels, she said. Yeah, um, I think I only have 10 of those left, the green ones, but I was checking my stock. I have like 20 of the tan ones left and 30 black ones, and then we're going to order some more and probably do some more, um, sizing. So these straps here Um, one, um, they're a thicker strap. They have, uh, some suede on the back because I don't know if a lot of you guys have tailors. I'm actually going to show you in the video next week with my tailor. They tend to be very top-heavy, so they tend to drop if you let go of the neck. Um, so this prevents that from happening. It's, um, it's very padded and comfortable. It's probably one of the biggest feedbacks I got from people is like the quality and the comfort. It's real leather. It's not like pleather. It's not cardboard. I have a guitar strap, they said it's leather, it looks like cardboard. Um, but it's, you know, it's got a nylon strap that you can extend. What happens is a lot of people, especially when you're starting off because you don't know any better, you get one of these like nylon guitar straps, um, which are fine, like if that's what you can afford, they're cheap, you know, they're probably like, they're probably like $10, but there's no padding. There's no padding, so it digs into your shoulder. Okay, and it's too narrow too, so it doesn't spread the weight across the shoulder. So while it's great and adjustable and it does have like this leather piece here, I find a lot of people just get these nylon straps and they're just really— they won't make you want to practice because it actually hurts to play with your guitar. So let me put a link here. So we actually have the whole store back up and running because I know I've had people ask me about the t-shirts. Lauren, where can I get your t-shirt? Um, so we took the store down while we were developing the straps and getting everything back up. So we have the t-shirts are back. There's some mugs. I don't have a mug up here with me. I drink my coffee downstairs. Um, but ones that, you know, say Guitar Enthusiast on it, or, you know, I think another one is you can, can never have too many guitars. We all know that you can't have too many guitars. Um, so if you're interested, go to shop.laurenbateman.com. .com. shop.laurenbateman.com. That's the new store that has all the information about the guitar straps and, and the other products. If you want to grab a t-shirt, you want to grab a mug, um, you can go check that out there and, and support the channel, um, that way as well. Greetings from Florida! Hello, John! Hello and, and welcome. And actually, let me pin that link there just in case in the chat it, uh, it disappears. Um, yeah, I said— saw someone else has a 1969 Firebird convertible that they bought in 1982. 2. Currently in the midst of the 4th restoration. Um, I don't even know if I've gotten through one full restoration on my car. Um, I'm just really— this year I'm just really looking forward to trying getting it up back out on the road, um, and driving again. Like, I— it's gonna need a full body restoration and everything else, um, but this year just trying to get it mechanically sound and safe. Um, like I said, we're updating the brakes. So basically updating the brakes to like, you know, the 1970s disc brakes. I had the— I had the original drum brakes that were on the car, um, so we're just going to update the brakes because they're, they're a little bit better. Um, you know, new fuel line, like I said, new brake lines, um, new tires and wheels. And then that'll probably be it for this year. I'll be broke after that. If any of you've done a restoration project on an old car, you know they are not cheap. So, um, so I won't have any money to do that, but maybe next year I'm going to look into getting a new engine putting— put inside, maybe like a 327 engine put inside, and then, you know, other mechanical stuff, and then getting it ready for paint. So it's going to be— it's going to be a process. As you all know, it's a process. Hello Maggie from Chicago! And we have Excited Golf from Baltimore. Canada's in the house! Hi Alim! And we have Vernon Helms, good morning from Louisiana. Oh, I hope it's, uh, hope it's cool in Louisiana. We had a little heat wave come in a couple days ago And hopefully, um, things are cooling down for you because they're cooling down for us here as well. Um, so those are the updates on, on the store and the website side of things. Um, also, I just want to let you know that I do have 2 events coming up, um, one in Quebec. I only think I have a couple seats left for that. Um, it's in Quebec— sorry, I do have one in Quebec that's for intermediate students, and that one's by application only. Um, but I do have a couple seats left in my Toronto event, which is April 24th and 25th. So I have a Toronto event, and you know, it's 24th, 25th. 24th, we do like a little meet and greet. We meet in the lobby, have some hangout, you know, chat, have some beers or, you know, seltzer water, whatever, whatever your drinking choice is. And then the next day, we're going to do workshops, playing songs, all that fun stuff. It's a really, really great time. So if you are in the Toronto area Um, you can check that out on my website. There's, if you look in the navigation, there's an event link. You can check that out. Like I said, I probably only have a couple seats left for that one. Um, so if you're interested, go check that out. If you do live in Canada, um, it's Toronto, like I said, August 24th and 25th. And then I have a big event that I'm doing, um, with Tony Kahl. Tony Kahl is another, uh, YouTuber. He's actually a very good friend of mine. He actually was one of my, my business clients many, many moons ago when he started YouTube. When he only had like 500 subscribers or something like that. He had a very small channel and now he's done very well for himself. Um, and he asked me if I wanted to go to Scotland and do a whole all-inclusive event with him, and I said absolutely, I would love to. I love Scotland. This is going to be in the Glasgow area. Um, so that's December 7th through 11th. All right, so that's a multi-day event. Um, so it is a guitar experience. Okay, so it's going to be me teaching, it's going to be Tony teaching. We're kind of going to be splitting off, but same things— workshops, playing songs. I think there's going to be a whiskey tasting experience. So there's some other things outside of guitar that we will be doing on this, but I'm super excited to go back to Scotland. I really, really enjoyed, um, enjoyed Scotland. Hi Brian from New Jersey! Uh, you've taught me every song I know. Oh, that's awesome! I'm so happy for that. Oh, the Netherlands! I was just— it was so Funny. Hi Evan Carmichael, how are you? Nice to see you from Toronto. Oh Evan, maybe when I get up to Toronto, um, I'll, I'll message you. Maybe we can, maybe we can hook up for like an hour or something. Um, but yeah, so, um, oh France is in the house too. But Netherlands, um, my wife and I were— someone said, oh, someone was telling me how they went They were doing a biking excursion in Holland. Have any of you ever done that? You've gone biking someplace? I never knew you can do these excursions where there's bikes and they take you around and you ride around on a bike. And she was telling us about Holland. And being American, my geography, even in America, is not great. There's certain states where I'm like, I don't know where that state is exactly. So we were like, what specifically is like, where is Holland? Because every time we look, we just saw the Netherlands, and we realized that Holland is like part of the Netherlands. I've never been to the Netherlands, but it's definitely on our, our to-do list. Yes, Evan, I will, I will message you, and we will definitely, definitely, um, organize for that. So those are kind of the big things coming up. So like I said, Memorial Day promotion is going to be going starting next week, so get on the mailing list, laurenbateman.com. Just join the crash course. You'll get all the emails next week. If you're interested in the guitar straps and you have questions, you can just shoot me an email or my team an email, info@laurenbateman.com. But these are— I love the smell. I love the smell of fresh leather. But if you're interested in the guitar strap, like I said, the sizing is on the website. So like, if you're, you know, 6'5", this size might not work for you, especially if you're playing an acoustic guitar. Maybe if you're playing an electric, it will, but we have the sizing and everything on, on the site for you guys. And then we have, um, the Toronto trip, August 24th, 25th. Scotland trip, um, December 7th and 11th. All right, if you guys want to take part in those workshops, the events is on the website, or again, just shoot an email to info@laurenbateman.com. We can get you information on that. I'm sure your geography is better than mine. I got lost coming out of a toilet. I like that. Oh, Evan says Lauren's better in person. She's a great human. Oh, thank you so much, Evan. I appreciate that. That's something— it's— I remember Megan, my wife, because she helps me a lot with the, the events, and she said a lot of people came up to me and were surprised that you were the same person in real life that you are on, on YouTube. They're like, wow, she really is— that's her. She really is who she is. And I try to be as, as genuine of a person. That's why you're like, I'm in my office here. There's, there's nothing fancy. I don't have a fan fancy, you know, YouTube set. I have my recording studio across the way, but you know, you can see my books in the background and like some cards and stuff. Oh, my little— there's my little YouTube thing, Evan. You can see my little YouTube plaque for 100,000 subscribers. So I'm just here, I am who I am, and my goal is I love helping older adults learn to play guitar. Okay, so if you're over the age of 50, that's like my specialty. Don't worry if you're in your 40s like me, I still love you. Your 30s, I still love you. It's not that I can't help you, it's just my program is specialized for older adults who are ages 50 plus because as we get older, you know, our bodies do start slowing down a little bit. They don't quite work the way they do, you know, when we were in our 20s or 30s. And so there's just a few extra things we have to do. One, to get the hands back in shape because, you know, our hands have tendons, they have muscles, and As we age, muscles get weaker over time. Okay, so we, we have to do a number of exercises, and that's what I do in the 7 Level Guitar System is we work on a number of exercises step by step just for you to work on building your hand strength, building your dexterity. Okay, count me in on the 50+ group. Yeah, if you're, if you're in the 50+ group, put a 1 in the chat if you are part of my, my 50+ group. I love you guys. I had, um, Jim, one of my students, I did a Q&A in the community earlier this week and Jim is 85 from Arkansas and he's just having a blast. So if you're like, I'm too old, I'm in my 50s, I'm in my 60s, I'm in my 70s, I'm too old. Jim's 85 and he's rocking it. He admits, he's like, there's certain things that I wish I could do faster, but he's like, I'm having a blast. Yeah, 64 counts, 73, Vernon, 73. All right, who's gonna win the prize? Who's the oldest? Vernon's winning right now. 51, I've been playing for 10 months, loving it. Awesome, awesome. Thank you for the videos, you're the first teacher I watched when I started learning guitar last year. Awesome, Chris, so happy to have you here. 66, 66 in the house. Let's see, you're not alone, you're not alone. So I get a lot of students are like, I should have done this 20 years ago. You know, there's a lot of things we should have done 20 years ago. Um, but today is the best day. I always tell people, like, my favorite quote is, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is right now. Okay, today. And we have Stefan from Romania. Welcome, welcome. And that's, you know, that's the key, is doing something that you love. Doing something that you love. There's always going to be that little voice in the back of your head that's like, I can't do this, I'm not good enough. I'm not talented enough. You know, I have another friend who's been playing guitar for 20 years and he's amazing and I'll never get to that point. It's too late for me. And it really isn't. It isn't. The goal with the guitar is just to have fun. Okay? And, you know, maybe you're not going to be Eric Clapton or Steve Vai, but you could be. All right? If you practice hard enough, you could be. But maybe that's not your goal. Like, my goal was never to be like a shred guitar player. My goal was I wanted to strum along, have fun, write my own songs. Some of you may know, I didn't go to school for music, okay? So I'm more like you guys than, than a lot of the other teachers here on YouTube because I didn't go to school for music, all right? My degrees are in archaeology and biology, go figure. And I just, I just love music and I love guitar. So I think that's why I'm used to people telling me that I wasn't good enough. The number of times that I would do talent shows or I try out for things and people are like, yeah, you're not good enough, you should maybe stop doing this, or like, don't do this. So if you've ever been told that you're not good enough, I've been told that too. So, so I understand that. I understand what it's like. I pretty much self-taught myself, and it took a very, very, very long time. All right, Madeline, 71 years old, learned a couple songs for you. Awesome. Hang tough and retire now. I have a lot of time. There you go. Yes, if you've got time. Yeah, and Timothy says fingers are definitely an issue. Yeah, and that's where a spider exercise let me just grab a guitar real quick. You know, this is one of the exercises I teach, and you can find a lesson here on YouTube, Spider Exercise, but it's just getting the fingers moving, okay? Because a lot of people, like, we do this spider exercise and our fingers are kind of like doing this. They're kind of all over the place, right? And it just takes a lot of repetition, going slow, going fast, going slow, okay? It just takes a lot of repetition. Get these fingers to start getting a little bit of control underneath. So if you're like, man, I feel like I have no control over my hands, it's not you. Trust me, it's not you. It's totally normal. It's totally part of the process. I went through the same thing. So I had to go through it. Unfortunately, I'm very sorry, you're gonna have to go through it too. It's just a process. Of building the muscle memory, building the strength. Um, Christopher says, Wayne Arguitar recently did a video saying how playing guitar is good for your well-being. It is. Yeah, I've said for me personally, guitar is therapeutic. Yep. Yeah, so it really is. And, and I'll tell you a story, um, I guess in, in honor of, uh, Memorial Day. Then when we— if you're not in from the US, Memorial Day is on Monday, and that's the day that we honor, um, all of our veterans that, that gave their lives for, for serving our country. And as you know, I have a lot of respect for our vets. If you are a vet, thank you for your service. My dad, he didn't serve, but he's a big supporter of veterans. He was drafted, but I think the war ended before they sent him out. So I guess you could say maybe he was lucky in some respect, but he has so much respect for our veterans. And obviously being his daughter. I also have a lot of respect for our veterans as well, but Memorial Day is for those who actually lost their lives defending our country. And I forget where I was going with this now. This brain, as you get older, I lose track of where I'm going. Does anyone know where I was going? Let me read. Personally— oh, therapeutic. Okay, good. I had to read his comment. I almost stopped doing YouTube a while back, um, because I felt like I was putting these videos out and I was only getting like maybe a couple hundred reviews— views, 300 views. And I was like, that's not really a lot. I'm looking at like, you know, Justin Guitar and Marty Guitar, and they've got millions of followers and they're getting hundreds of thousands of views. And I'm like, man, nope, nobody likes me, you know. I, I was doubting myself. I'm like, nobody likes me. Like, is this even working? Is this even helping anyone? And I was almost ready to give up, and I had I had a disabled veteran who actually emailed me, and I wish I could remember their name. This was years ago, and he sent me an email, and this was when I was reading every single email from everyone. And he reached out to me, and he, he was having a very, very tough time with his PTSD. And as you know, a lot of veterans come home, they have PTSD, and they have very, very high suicide rates. And he was telling me how he was getting ready to kind of like end it all. And he said, I was going— getting ready to end it all, and I grabbed my guitar and I went over to YouTube. It goes, and I watched one of your videos. I wish I knew which one it was. I think it was probably the 4-chord one because that one was pretty popular at the time. He said, I watched your video and you helped me learn to play a song. And he's like, I just wanted to write to you and let you know that you, you basically helped save my life. Because he's like, It did. When we talk about therapeutic, the guitar gave him a way to process whatever he was going through, or maybe it brought him to a more peaceful space. I know for me personally, you know, the guitar was a big part of giving me a voice growing up. I grew up in a very, very strict household. All right. Many of you are Italian out there. So, you know, it was like black and white. Yes, no, your opinion doesn't matter. So I internalized a lot of things and it was very quiet. So for me, music was a way for me to have a voice and express myself and deal and process with emotions, you know, in my teen years and in my 20s. So for me, music was very therapeutic because it provided me that voice. And that's why I hate when teachers are like, you know, you can't do this. Or I had one student who came in, he's like, my guitar teacher told me to stop playing the guitar and to play the harmonica. And I was like, what a jerk. Like, what? Who has the right to take that joy from someone? So for me, my goal is not to tell you, hey, you can't do this. My goal is to tell you, you absolutely can do this. I 100% believe anyone who wants to play the guitar can with the right instructor and the right instruction. Okay. I admit I might not be the right person for you, and that's okay. That's okay. I want you to find the right person who's going to teach to you in a way that works for your brain, okay? And, and me, I, I really love acoustic guitar, so I kind of lean a little bit more towards acoustic guitar. If you're someone who wants to shred, you might want to go learn from a shredder, because I'm definitely not, not a shred guitar teacher. Um, but that's the key for me, is I just want you to have fun, because the guitar can be very helpful, very, very therapeutic. And I just think it's very important that anyone that wants to we, we allow them to do it. Because there's people who don't have hands— go look up, there's videos— who don't have hands and they play the guitar with their toes, with their feet. So it— that goes to show you, if you really want to play this instrument, you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. I firmly believe that. I firmly believe that. Uh, Hank Test says, I've been playing for 4 and a half years now, practice 2 to 3 hours a day, 6 days a week. That's Awesome. Yeah, someone says fighting finger fatigue, finger picking Ibanez baritone acoustic sounds great but a real battle to play smoothly. Yeah, so if you're working on finger picking, sometimes just take the fretting hand out of it and just sit here and relax into the picking. Okay, um, I have a course called Finger Picking 101 and there's a really great exercise in there called Finger Twisters. That works your hand in multiple ways. I had been fingerpicking for years and someone did this with me. I took some classical guitar lessons with the teacher and he did this exercise and I was shocked that my fingers didn't work as, as well as I thought they did. And I had been fingerpicking for years. So I included that in because it just works the fingers in different ways and gets your hand used to becoming more independent on the fingerpicking side. But yeah, if you're having trouble go slow and remember to— if you're hearing this, it sounds like the intro to Metallica's— I can't think of the Metallica— wow, I'm really like having really brain— Nothing Else Matters. I'm really brain dead this morning because that is the intro to Metallica. It's like an E minor chord. But if you just sit and pick your guitar like that and then pick up the speed, because as you pick up the speed, you're going to start feeling your forearm tense. It's it's the tension that slows things down. So we have to do things repetitively enough so that we can actually relax because in relaxation is where the speed comes. Rick says, "Do you offer lessons on Zoom live for out-of-state students?" Ah, great question, Rick. I personally do not. The only time I teach live is really at my events, but, big but here, I do have a teacher So some of you may or may not know I own a music school, actually own two music schools, one in Medford and one in Danvers, Massachusetts. I have a teacher specifically who works with my students. And I say that specifically because I don't just let anyone work with my students. It needs to be a teacher who truly understands how to work with beginners, who has patience, who can break things down. And I would say of all my guitar teachers that I have at the school, this teacher is the one I trust the most to do right by my students and teach in line. So he has access, he knows my 7-level guitar system. He works with a lot of students and you can book a Zoom lesson with him and you don't have to sign up. Usually at the music school, you have to sign up for weekly lessons. For my online students, I do allow them to book off one-off lessons if they want to. So if you're learning and you just want someone to give you feedback for an hour or a half hour, um, you can book a lesson. His name is Armand. He's a— talk about fingerpicking, he is a fantastic— he's, he's a classical guitarist and he is a phenomenal fingerpicker. So if you really want some great fingerpicking lessons, Armand is your guy. Um, but I've worked with Armand for a number of years Um, he teaches at the, the Medford Music School, but he does lessons via Zoom. Um, so again, just email info if you want information on that, info@laurenbateman.com, or you can go to my website lbmusicschool.com and fill out the form there. But you can always email info@laurenbateman.com. Carolyn, who helps me in both businesses, will probably get back to you and can point you in the right direction, at least if you're interested in, in doing that, Rick. Yeah, sometimes, you know it isn't— it's helpful to get that, that one-on-one feedback with someone. You know, I wish I could do more of it. I do teach intensives. Um, so like in January, February, I had some intensives that I taught for people. And you know, it's a small group, um, that I've done Zoom. Uh, but I don't do, I don't do one-on-one anymore. Uh, it's mainly larger, larger groups that I do teaching. But if you can find a local teacher that will allow you to pop in and get and get some feedback, that's great. That's great. But understand that there's also like, there's good teachers and there's bad teachers. And that's why I said like, you know, I've hired tons of teachers at this point. And I would say there's not many on the guitar side that meet my standards. I don't hire most of the guitar teachers who interview with me because I think they're so caught up in what they want to do versus what the student wants to do. So that's very, very important. And we're in Boston. So think Berklee, okay? There's a lot of Berklee teachers. They think they're the best thing since sliced bread, and they're great guitar players, don't get me wrong. They are phenomenal. They could play me under— I don't know, under the table, under the desk. I don't know. I don't know what the word, the phrase is, but they could destroy me as a guitar player. They absolutely could destroy me, but I can destroy them as a teacher because I can go back to what it's like to be a beginner. And I think for, for someone who plays at that level and plays that advanced, I think it's really, really hard for them to go back and be a beginner. I think it's more frustrating for them. And for me, I love it because for me, that's, that's where I get my joy and my happiness is, is working with someone who's like, oh, like, I can't even change these chords. And then they play their first song and they're so happy, like me, that brings me so much joy. Even if it's something simple like Horse with No Name, and it's just like— and we're doing this, you know, we're just doing one strum per chord, but they're happy because like, oh my God, it sounds like music! Like, I can maybe do this. And for me, that's super exciting, and that brings me a lot of joy. It is, you know, when I get messages from students who are in the course and they're like, My spouse just came in from the other room and told me I was sounding good, and my spouse came in from the other, other room and, um, you know, told me that they recognized the song that I was playing. So stuff like that gets me excited, you know. Shredding up and down the fretboard doesn't get me excited. Um, helping you guys do something that you love gets me excited. Um, Tim said, look, maybe I missed what's up with your cracked Taylor. Yeah, Tim, there's going to be a video coming out next week. I'm going to tell you, I don't know if it's next week or I I filmed a complete video on it, Tim. I did take it— just a little update on the cracked Taylor— so I did take it to a luthier, so it has been stabilized. Um, but I did review a video. I almost wish I could see when it's— I'll look on my phone. I don't know if it's this week or next week, but it— you'll see the thumbnail says I cracked my guitar. So, uh, so there's a whole video I'm doing on that, um, as well as what you can do to one prevent that from happening. That was partially, that was partially my fault. And two, if that happens, like what you should do to take care— because you can look at my Crafter. I don't know if you can see it here. Maybe if I can get the light in the right— oh yeah, there we go. So see here, there's this dark line. That's a crack. That wasn't from it being dried out. That was from me. This was my gigging microphone and microphone, my gigging guitar, and I had a microphone in my gig case, and when I shut my trunk, it smashed the— it smashed the microphone into my guitar and cracked it. This thing has been cracked, I don't know for how long, at least over a decade. It still plays fine. I, I, I show you in the video that I'm gonna do in, in a week or two, I say Willie Nelson plays a guitar that completely has a hole in it just from strumming. Even this guitar, I'm missing pieces of wood um, just from strumming and stuff. So it's normal. I mean, I don't want to say it's normal, it happens. Let's say it happens more, um, than you would, you would think. And I was talking to a, um, person over at Dia Dario. Your joy shows, that's what I love about you. Thank you. Um, and they were talking about Taylor guitars and how that, that's actually, it's pretty common, or it's more common in Taylor guitars, um, due to the design. Because I guess The tops on some of the Taylors are a little bit thinner. They, they make them a little bit thinner than some of the other guitar brands, which makes it more likely to dry out and crack. And that's what happened. I got a little like in these bends because wood does not like to be bent. There's a lot of pressure in these areas. Um, so I got a crack right here in the bend. All right, now you can see I've had this Taylor now I don't know, maybe 15 years. Not Taylor, sorry, Crafter. Wow, my brain. I need more coffee, guys. Um, and I have this one crack, but I did that. There's no other cracking from it being dried out. Um, the Taylor is the first guitar in— how old am I? Almost 30 years. Um, that I've ever had crack on me. Um, so it's just, you know, I moved up to New Hampshire. The weather up here— this was a very, very cold, very dry winter. It dried out much earlier than it usually does. So I kind of kept everything in this room. I shut the door, I kept the heat, I got a humidifier, I re-humidified the guitar, um, and I show you how to do that in that video. I talk about that. So thanks for asking the question, Tim. It's coming out probably in a week or two, so definitely, um, check that out. Hello, Germany in the house! That's another place I want to go to— Germany. I'd love to go to Germany. Uh, so thank you so much for being here today. Sorry about the audio issues. Early on, but I just wanted to pop on since we're not going to be, uh, posting a lesson today. I wanted to come live, say hello to you, let you know some of the updates. Just a quick summary if you missed the beginning: Memorial Day promotion going on next week. Okay, go to laurenbateman.com, join the crash course, and you will get those emails. Um, the new shop with my guitar straps, t-shirts, and mugs is back up and running. I pinned the link here, shoplaurenbateman.com. You can go check that out. The two events we have: Toronto, August 24th, August 25th. Scotland, December 7th through December 11th. That information's on my website. If you go to my website, in the navigation at the top, there'll be something that says live events. You can click on that to learn more about it. And then my Camaro, I'll get you more updates as soon as I have updates. I haven't seen the car in about a month other than he sent me a picture with the tires recently, so I'm hoping I'll get some bigger updates by the end of this month. And maybe I'll be driving her in June. As soon as I get her on the road, I'll let you all know. We don't have to worry about drying out in Louisiana. Yeah, so in Louisiana you guys have to worry about dehumidifying the guitar. I talk about that in the video too. Um, so have a wonderful, wonderful weekend everyone. You know, be kind to yourself. This is not easy to learn. You can do it. I know you can. If I could do it with, with no instruction, no help no nothing, no musical talent. No one else in my family plays a musical instrument. I didn't go to music school. So if I can do it, you 100% can do it. I know you can, and you have help here. All right, I didn't have YouTube many, many moons ago, you know, just like I didn't have 8-track. I don't have 8-track in the Camaro. I might get a new radio, but, you know, I didn't have YouTube when I was learning. So you guys have that resource. The great thing about YouTube is there's a lot of information. The bad thing about YouTube is there's a lot of information, and you can kind of maybe feel like you're a little bit all over the place. So if you're looking for more of like a step-by-step system, go to my website, check out the 7 Level Guitar System. Um, would love to help you all out, and happy practicing. Have a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you all in a lesson real soon. Bye-bye, everyone. Now I gotta figure out how to end the stream. Okay, they moved the button. Bye.