A Heartfelt Post About The School

[Jak Angelescu]

Okay so this may be a corny, sappy post but it’s something I’ve wanted to talk about for a while but I’ve been a little too afraid to do it. Anyway, here it goes.
To Syn and Papa Gates: This school has not only improved my guitar playing but it has improved my life as well. The community feeling and vibe is exactly what every musician should have in their corner, and I thank you both for making it a possibility. Papa Gates: I know I comment on your FB videos all the time about how amazing you are live, but I really mean it. There are very seldom musicians and artists these days that move me in any way and more often than not I find their performances to be mundane, shallow, boring and just unmoving. But I’ll never forget when you posted up “Blackbird” live. I had been having the shittiest day in years and I decided to watch it because it’s one of my favorite songs. Your singing and playing took me back to my happy childhood days of my dad singing and playing in coffee shops. And all other songs I just hear this amazing soul in both voice and guitar that I don’t hear often anymore. Watching your videos has encouraged me to really let go when I play. Even if I hit wrong notes, or I dunk a few things, I play with a lot more feeling, confidence and passion than I ever have after watching your videos. Your comments on my videos and words of encouragement have given me what I always wanted from people but never got from anyone other than my singer. I guess you could say it like “A million people never noticed, but only the ones that really matter did.” I look back on all those times I was turned down from auditions and felt I was never going to get anywhere and none of those mean anything to me now that I’ve been a part of this school and have had the amazing support from you and everyone else. You’re an amazing musician and an amazing teacher in all aspects of more than just music. Just want you to know that.
To Syn: I had a hard time out in Los Angeles because I couldn’t shred and I wasn’t perfect. Sweeping came badly for me and I never really cared for it. I was placed up against great MI graduates and always lost the auditions because I flubbed some notes. I was more of a punk rock/rock n’ roll guitarist. But when I discovered you, I read interviews from you that said things like “I still have so much to work on.” Or when you recorded the solo for Scream you said, “I have no idea how I’m going to play that live.” I hear where you started at, and I see where you are now and I learned from you that it’s okay to not be perfect, just to realize your flaws and work on them. Learning that about you, quite literally, saved my guitar playing. Also, your extreme melodic approach to solo writing made me feel better that having a good sense of touch and melody is ok and that you don’t just have to mindlessly shred to be good. I love how unlimited you are with your playing. There are so many things that I wanted to try but didn’t think was possible and then when I discovered your music a light went off and I was like, “I CAN do that!” The fact that you and your dad created this school not only saved me loads of money, but it gave me a place where I can ask everyone for help if I need it, and you and your dad are so approachable and wonderful at giving advice. I thank you for this.
To the community: I’ve always been a big girl. I’ve struggled with my weight since I was a child. And when I moved out to LA with my singer I lost out on so many gigs because of it. I easily recall a time when I tried to audition for an all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band and before I fully got in the door, the manager said, “What size pants do you wear?” Thinking it was about stage wear, I said “Size twelve, why?” Back then I was a size 12, but I was barely eating because I was poor and I was walking 5 miles everyday and running three on top of that. He responded with, “Um, we need someone who’s slender. Sorry.” In Los Angeles, I was up against the label of being a “super hot female shredder” as those videos are plastered all over YouTube and it’s a hard idea to keep up with. So when it came time for me to post up my videos, I was always super paranoid about being called “fat” or shamed in some sort of way. Every day in LA I was told “You may get more gigs if you lost more weight”. The fact that everyone on here has said nothing about it is still quite relieving for me. For once in my life, I’m noticed for my guitar playing and not my weight. I’m incredibly thankful for that. You all have been the support that every musician should have. I am so grateful for being able to share this school with all of you. I always love reading everyone’s struggles and the kind and supportive responses in return. After being mauled to death in the piranha pits of Los Angeles over every little thing, this community has given me back the spark my singer and I needed so badly.
All in all, thank you guys. I love all the support we give each other. I also love seeing everyone grow. I can’t wait to see where we all get at the end of the year!
Keep rocking,
Jak

 

[Elton Breaux]

Fuck the people who discriminated because of weight. It has absolutely nothing to do with your skills. If they were like thata then there was no point in auditioning because they’re not worried about music. Here in sgs i find you are one of the most contributing members and are very good and i have learned things from you already. Which i thank you for. @syn and papa gate are proud of you. I see it in the fb post syn put out and know it because this is what they made this guitarist safe haven for. You’re a badass @jak. And here your talents shine

 

[Ed Seith]

A brave and sincere post. Unfortunate realities of anything in the entertainment field (except radio) – looks sell. On the bright side, it’s nowhere near as bad as it was in music in the 80s when MTV started hitting its stride, but it still sucks. I struggled a bit back when I was trying to make it, but at 47 now, no one’s gonna be knockin on my door any time soon, and adding the extra 50 pounds I’m toting around wouldn’t help the issue either.
But like you said, HERE no one cared/cares, and that’s awesome. All that matters is that you want to rock better!

 

[idssdi]

Hey Jak, Here nobody really cares about looks it’s just about guitar(and Syn and papa gates will probably kick everyone who actually comments about someone’s looks in a bad way). You Rock and your comments and videos are pretty much always great. The unfortunate truth is that record labels(and companies in general) always just want to sell stuff so if they feel like something won’t sell they won’t invest but keep it up and maybe someone will actually hire you!

 

[Jen Hapke]

I totally agree with all of you.
I’m getting kind of angry and disappointed in the society when I read about people like you being discriminated because of weight which has nothing to do with skills.
It is like beeing discriminated because of being male or female by any group.
It’s as unreasonable as it would be to tell a secretary, that she/he can’t have the job because of green hair or what ever.
Jak, I love that you are participant of this school. I have watched the hail to the king tutorial several times and it helps me so much to focus on accuracy. (muting the b-string is so tricky)
It is fun to read your comments and all the comments here.
I love the school so much because its about the content and the community and it’s not about fancy looking videos or the best sound quality like most youtube videos are.
So thank you to Syn, Papa Gates, the whole backround team and the whole community.

 

[John Tierney]

Jak, you and I have been ping ponging comments to one another for a few days now and I couldn’t agree more with how much this community has influenced me. When I took some lessons back home in January to see how I’ve progressed, the teacher toward the end of the month said that I use my hardships to one up people like its a competition (goes w/o saying Ill never see him again) this community and the lessons have taught me and built me up more in a few months than he has EVER. Furthermore, this community is so nice to one another I feel like I could share anything (within reason) from my guitar skills to us just simply picking each other up. I feel safe here.
Also to you directly, every day I read the comment you sent me where you say, “Your advice was super helpful” but the one that I always look at is when you said I have a kind heart. I’ve never had my first girlfriend and Im almost 23, in high school they tolerated me but one actually openly told me to kill myself and my self esteem was so low that…… I almost did. In college its no different, just that Im a metal head and like that kind of thing and not the heavy bass drop party songs or gangster rap I automatically am in a league of my own.
Jak when you send me that kind of thing saying I’m helpful and am a kind person and a decent guitarist. That kind of thing especially coming from you, a female guitarist who enjoys metal who CAN shred that honestly makes my day consistently. I am blessed and honored to say you are my friend

 

[Josh Wright]

Jak I 100% agree. This is a very brutal world, but I want to say one thing. You are beautiful. It doesn’t even matter though because you are a fantastic guitarist. You have impacted me, you are the reason I posted my first video on here because I saw you encouraging someone else and it encouraged me. I haven’t really been exposed to the world to much, but I have seen others torn down. I thank syn and papa for making this wonderful community because I was so self conscious that I would post videos but not show me, I would just post a black video with me playing guitar. Through this community I gained the confidence to post myself here.

 

[idssdi]

@john stuff like this always makes me kinda sad no one should ever think about killing themself. Are you feeling better?

 

[Josh Wright]

John I hope you are doing better, my pm’s are always open if you need to talk.

 

[John Tierney]

@Ids @josh Yeah Im fine now that was like 5 years ago but I know that there is support here for you. My main thing now is seeing me surrounded by kick ass players while Im meh. Ultimately this community is great for players to share ideas with one another

 

[Elton Breaux]

@john. I know how you feel seeing people who are awesome here and its a little intimidating at first but then you realize that here, the great players are propelling people like us who just got started and gives us an opportunity to work on our skills and become one of the greats. This school is one of a kind and Im estatic to be part of it!!!

 

[Jak Angelescu]

It would take me so long to respond to all these awesome comments! It puts the biggest smile on my face to know that I’ve inspired some people because sometimes life sucks and we all need someone to help us stand up, brush the dirt off and continue on because too many people have to face this world alone, and they shouldn’t. Depression is a freaking disgusting thing. No one should go through it alone. I have a friend who is VERY dear to my heart and watching someone go through that is the worst feeling in the world. The only thing I could do for her was to be there in every way I could and tell her, “I won’t let you give up.” And that’s the way I feel towards people with depression or negative views of self-worth. To everyone on here who feels like they’re never going to be good enough at anything, I say the same thing to you. I won’t let you give up. Every single person in this world has something INCREDIBLE to offer, some just don’t know what it is. And that’s one thing I feel strongly about. I had a FB video about reaching out to people who suffer from it. I’ve been fortunate enough to only suffer from depression for a total of about two weeks in my entire life. And you physically and mentally feel sick. It’s a frightening thing.
To those who feel they’re not good with guitar: You’re doing what you love and that should make you happy. There are so many people in this world who have no outlet and they lead their lives unfulfilled. So it doesn’t matter if you can barely tune your guitar or if you are a virtuoso. Art is passion and passion is art, no matter how simple or complex.

 

[Bartosz Tkaczyk]

Great post, in my opiniom it doesn’t matter how you look, where are you from, what religion you are etc. We should help each other if we can. People who criticise, judge or whatever, usually have nothing to offer and they have to do something to get recognition. Don’t give up & do what you love and show them all you won’t be beaten. I know it sounds like cheap motivational speech but that’s just the simple truth. Keep rockin’!
“We fight, ’til no one can fight us
We live, and no one can stop us”