Yes, I love it, very inspiring story 🙂
❤️❤️❤️

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this Richard. I think Brian’s success can be summed up in. ‘As you give so shall you receive’. Everyone wins!

James

That was very interesting, Nice find Richard and great share.
Deep insight in to Brian the man and what motivates him to keep producing lesson after lesson each week.
$75,000 dollar question now is, which one of us on here is Dan Blank?.

I know I’ve not been much of a participant of late, but I do appreciate the hard work Brian and co put into trying make me a guitarist.
Thanks all at Active Melody.

Richard,

Thanks so much for sharing, never would’ve heard this very interesting review. I think Brian’s personality goes a long way towards attracting a certain kind of member – older, serious about playing, non-judgmental, folks, who in turn have created a very welcoming community.

As a followup to my previous reply -DUH! Guess if I’d of read my email from Brian on this week’s lesson I would’ve seen the link.

Good evening Richard, yes I read it a few times here before this recent interview you disclosed..Sure Brian did the right thing because I’m enjoying his lessons.. yes Brian has a gift for teaching beginners for sure and even more advanced players can learn here at Active Melody! I just returned home from a vacation.. I look forward to practicing last few lessons I have yet to checkout!

Billy wrote:

That was very interesting, Nice find Richard and great share.
Deep insight in to Brian the man and what motivates him to keep producing lesson after lesson each week.
$75,000 dollar question now is, which one of us on here is Dan Blank?.

I know I’ve not been much of a participant of late, but I do appreciate the hard work Brian and co put into trying make me a guitarist.
Thanks all at Active Melody.

Brian paid Dan 75,000 dollars? Come on really Billy?

Great story…thanks for sharing Richard.

It was a good interview, with a lot of good humor also. Well worth listening to. I came away thinking “well I’m glad Brian is happy with his business model and isn’t planning on quitting and going out to become a session musician”.

sunjamr wrote:

It was a good interview, with a lot of good humor also. Well worth listening to. I came away thinking “well I’m glad Brian is happy with his business model and isn’t planning on quitting and going out to become a session musician”.

He did mention many Nashville session men are are up and running on YouTube these days.

Thank you, Richard.
I listened to the whole Interview, but unfortunately they spoke too fast for my poor English level.
So I understood only 20% of the text. But I understand 100% – Brian’s riscs to decide being a professional music teacher, his enormous work, to built it up to the present level, his unbelievable creativity to compose super Songs in different Styles week for week and last, but not least his great love playing and teaching music from deepest heart and not only for money. I enjoy his lessons and I still will do this for a long time.

Dieter

Great interview and inspiring story. To think Brian has never sat down one to one and taught someone guitar in the physical space is astounding. Do what you love and love what you do and it will reward you many times over.

This interview reveals Brian in exactly the way I’ve come to understand him over the years. A few years back Bryce tried to organize a small group Active Melody masterclass and was surprised at the resistance he got from Brian, completely understandable from what Brian divulges in the interview. I’m happy taking Brian any way I can get him.
I laughed out loud where Brian discusses his lesson editing process, “if you could watch the whole thing…..it’s hideous”. Maybe for the 10 year anniversary we could be treated to a complete unedited lesson, I recall Brian’s blooper reel was hilarious.
John

best of Brian’s comments (for me) was “power of edit” – good phrase to remember when that terrifying red recording light comes on.

re: interviewer’s comment about “lots of guitar players” down there; reminds me of Roger Miller’s line in Nashville Cats:

“Well, there’s thirteen hundred and fifty two guitar pickers in Nashville
And any one that unpacks his guitar can play twice as better than I will …

And to interviewer Dan, can we see some of your postings? Come on man, there’s a 7 year old who can play twice as good but there’s also a 77 year old who plays twice as worse.

Great interview. I can completely appreciate Brian’s feelings of working a corporate job and being a bit introverted. Where he said he was about to do a presentation and was painfully nervous… totally relatable. My question to Brian would be, how does this translate to being on stage? Do you get just as nervous when playing guitar live in front of a crowd? Or is it much easier since it is something you love?

Richard G wrote:

Brian’s interview confirmed to me his unique ability to engage with his online students on all levels which, I believe sets him apart from his teaching counterparts on YouTube.

Interesting to note that Brian has never taught to a live audience given how good he is at it. In my experience it is much harder to relate naturally to a cold inanimate camera lense than it is to a warm live audience. I’ve seen veteran and seasoned trainers collapse completely when faced with a camera crew and the dreaded red light.

I’m glad Brian thinks that the ActiveMelody creative and business model is sound and here’s hoping it will continue.

Richard
Agree 100% Richard, Brian is a true guitar instructor to say the least! .. This morning I followed along and really enjoyed EP 329 on my acoustic.. I canplay it with a pick but like what I can do with my fingers even though he emphasized using a pick.. man ragtime is cool either way!

I bought a Focusrite Scarlet 3rd generation 2i2 boxed with a mic and basic recording accesories,, still need to take the the time to learn DAW but meanwhile I will continue using a simple camera audio youtube accout showplay

I’m curious though to see how much better recording through DAW is going to be but not overly too excited knowing learning how to play is more beneficial than any showcase audio or video etc.

sunburst wrote:

Billy wrote:

That was very interesting, Nice find Richard and great share.
Deep insight in to Brian the man and what motivates him to keep producing lesson after lesson each week.
$75,000 dollar question now is, which one of us on here is Dan Blank?.

I know I’ve not been much of a participant of late, but I do appreciate the hard work Brian and co put into trying make me a guitarist.
Thanks all at Active Melody.

Brian paid Dan 75,000 dollars? Come on really Billy?

Pretty sure that Billy was saying “The big question is, which one of us on here is Dan Blank?.” By saying “The $75,000 question” was only a colloquialism, a metaphor.

We have to keep an eye on Billy, he’s quite the trickster LOL

Billy wrote:

Hahaha, there used to be a game show, an American game show shown on tv here in the U.k. when I was a child. The big money question was announced as “The $75,000 dollar is”…No idea the name of the quiz show, the phrase stuck for years and could be heard uttered in conversations when no one knew the answer to a given situation..
So no underhandedness on my part.

Billy you got me thinking, what if Dan Blank is some big time studio executive and perhaps bigger things going forward like even bigger prizes!!! heck maybe even 75,000 dollars grand prize for annual challenge! hahaha

I know every time I log into these quick link forums I noticed very new newbies so many newbies are joining from all over the world! If We can get enough to pool in, with help in kind like Danny Blank and some.. perhaps we can have “King of the Blues” challenges with enough entries! Any man just have fun hoping you are still practicing man!

Hey Billy I guess the demented seal reaction is a good thing hey?

HA!

Richard G wrote:

I tried to find who was behind this interview and indeed if any money changed hands but I’m afraid I drew a ‘Blank’

Richard

lol

Okay ..i’m the real Dan Blank lol Billy you win the Grand prize 75.000 cash,, now you have the cash.. behind one of these three doors in a 3,000.000.00 the other two doors either washer and dryer combo or a years worth of Active Premium membership…

Only should you decide to continue playing lets make a deal!!! hahaha

Gee, I posted a comment and usually I make a copy. This time I didn’t and I clicked SUBMIT. Then I went to another AM page and was asked to log in again. Furthermore my post is not on the thread. That’s a shame because I thought it was a good submission. Oh, well. Next time, I will be sure to copy before I hit Submit. Thanks, though.

Thank you so much for posting this! However, I’m more than just a little disappointed that Brian made zero mention of who’s really the driving force behind this (Arlo…)

All joking aside… This is such a great interview, so very riviting to listen to how he arrived at the decision to quit his day job. He is certainly blessed to have found that magic formula. I can certainly understand his reluctance to change what’s working so well but I’m sure even Brian will agree that as with any successful business, he will likely continue to refine and innovate, which we all will benefit from.

I certainly shared this on my FB page, hopefully I can attract a few of my acquaintances to AM!

I loved the interview, interesting and inspiring. Thank you for sharing.

I actually came across this interview before I joined – And it made me look into Active Melody more seriously. I had previously just watch odd and end YouTube videos. I thought it was very interesting also.

Hi I took the time today to listen to the podcast, very nice interview and interesting facts from Brian. His goal of the twenty minutes foc lessons was us to fall in love with him – he succeeded for sure! After this interview even more. Thanks for sharing Richard and thanks to Brian, he is really doing in awesome job and he deserves all the success.

And thanks to Dan for the interview.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention Richard. I found it very informative and interesting. It has wetted my appetite though. I would love to see Brian do a video of his studio set up and take us through the process and the time lines that he works to.

This is great, thanks Richard! I’m just getting started (of course, I know it’s going to be great). When I’ve heard the whole thing, I’ll probably comment on the blog itself.

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing! I feel like I know Brian already 🙂

Thanks for posting this Richard! Listening to Brian talking about how he started doing this makes me think about how it was probably one of the best decisions he made in his entire life… And how learning from him is one of the best decisions of mine

I really enjoyed this

I’ve just listened to the interview on Brain’s journey very inspiring story, thanks for sharing Richard.