Welcome to Thrive Guitar: Unlock Your Full Potential Here!

Welcome to Thrive Guitar! I’m glad you’re here. This website is for beginner to intermediate guitarists who want to become highly proficient and master the instrument. Are you interested in playing like your favorite guitar heroes? I am, and that is why I created this website…to pass along everything I’m learning with you, and share my journey in hopes that I can help you reach your goals.

Are you tired of calling yourself a beginner guitarist? Have you learned the basics (open chords, power chords, and a few songs) but feel ready to move on to the next phase of your playing? Are you ready to tackle rock, blues, or jazz improvisation? Are you looking to build speed, proficiency, even mastery? Do you want the freedom to play whatever you hear and express yourself freely on the guitar without restriction?

If you are, good: I am too. I am currently in pursuit of reaching an advanced (dare I say, virtuoso?) level on the guitar. I’m trying to learn to master my technique, expand my vocabulary of licks and riffs, and build a wide repertoire of songs.

What You’ll Learn Here

Follow along with me as we conquer the following areas of musicianship together.

• Music Theory – Learn the basics of music theory as it applies to the guitar. Knowing theory is your biggest friend when it comes to building confidence. You’ll know the why behind the how of what you’re playing. You’ll also be able to write songs easily. Wouldn’t it be nice to know which chords make sense to play with each other and how to create a certain mood with what you’re playing?
• Guitar Fundamentals – To become an advanced guitarist you have to have a very thorough understanding of the instrument. This is how you’ll be able to freely express yourself and play what you hear. This includes learning the notes, chords, scales, arpeggios, and other frameworks specific to the style you want to play in.
• Practice and Technique – This area may be the most important of them all. Without learning how to learn, and learning proper technique, you’ll get frustrated and quit. I’ll discuss how to build the proper practice habits and build proper technique. The emphasis is on practicing smarter not always harder.
• Rock and Blues – The most common first stop for beginner guitarists is to learn some rock, blues, or metal riffs, tunes, solos, etc. Believe it or not, hard rock, classic rock, metal, blues, and even pop music all have a lot of things in common with each other in the structure of the music. In this category, we’ll cover the theory, technique, chords, scales, and how to get started with conquering rhythm and improvisation in these styles of music.
• Jazz – Are you looking for a challenge? My long-term goal is to become a proficient jazz musician and improviser. If you have an interest in this as well, invite you to follow me in this pursuit. We’ll explore popular jazz tunes (standards), theory as it relates to the tunes, chords and accompaniment (comping), and of course, improvisation.
• Chord Melody & Solo Guitar – This is the fine art of playing chords and a melody at the same time. This is a popular skill used by many famous jazz guitarists. This style is popular in many jazz ballads. This is my ultimate goal: to be able to play many of my favorite Christmas tunes in this style, but others as well. This style of guitar is special to me because I used to play these type of tunes for my children to help them get to sleep. (Sometimes I play it for myself still).

How This Site Will Help You

This site will help you learn practical knowledge and skills. I’m not too interested in giving you fish, but teaching you HOW TO FISH. It’s better to learn why things work rather than me just showing you what to play. I strongly believe in teaching the WHY behind everything I teach. This makes you a more versatile musician.

There is so much noise on the internet today. It’s not uncommon for me to be looking up how to do one specific thing on YouTube, then get distracted with 5-10 other things within a couple minutes. Those videos on the side get me every time!

I’m not trying to pull you away from YouTube, but I’m offering an exit ramp from all of those distractions when you need it. If you want to goof around and learn a song here and there on YouTube, go for it.

But if you’re looking for structured, intentional advice, that you can apply to multiple musical situations, in the style you’re trying to master, I think I can help you!

Courses, Roadmaps, Frameworks, Guides, etc.

Eventually I will be packaging up everything I know and structuring it into courses. I believe in structured learning and that is what I intend to provide here. Check back and I’ll let you know when those are ready.

In the meantime I will be offering you free guides, roadmaps, and frameworks that I like to use for reference in my own playing. Check back and I’ll have plenty of material you can download for free!

What You Won’t Learn Here

I wouldn’t ever try to steer you away from my website. But, I will be genuinely honest with you when I tell you that I probably will not be covering a lot of material about the following topics or styles of playing.

• Classical guitar or any style heavy on fingerstyle
• Singer-songwriter types of music
• Hip-hop
• R & B
• Flamenco guitar
• Acoustic rock

I’ll update this list as I think of them, but if you want to sing and play, you’re probably not in the right place. I love Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and James Taylor as much as anyone, but that’s not the type of music I’m focusing on here.

Let’s Get Started!

I hope you’ll decide to hang around here and check out some of my tips and advice! To recap, I’m pursuing a high level of proficiency and skill on the guitar. I want to be able to shred and shred very well! I’m also looking to build up an impressive vocabulary and repertoire of music to play.

If you have similar goals as a musician and would like to reach a highly advanced level of playing, join me in this pursuit! Check out my articles and let me know if you find anything that is helpful to you.

Thanks!
-Brandon