11/09/2026
🎸 **STUDENT SHOUT-OUT — BJORN** 🎸
A massive shout-out to **Bjorn**, who has taken on the challenge of preparing Steve Vai’s **“Die to Live”** for an assessment.
This is not a simple piece of music. It demands technique, control, phrasing, timing, dynamics and, above all, patience.
What I really want to acknowledge is Bjorn’s willingness to keep working at it — going back over sections, identifying what isn’t quite right, refining the details and putting in the time required to make the whole performance sit properly.
And a huge **thank you to Bjorn for allowing me to share some of that process**.
Because this is the part of learning an instrument that people rarely see.
On performance day, an audience sees a few minutes of music.
What they **don’t** see are the hours spent isolating a difficult passage.
They don’t see the repetitions.
The mistakes.
The adjustments.
The frustration.
The slow tempos.
The tiny improvements.
The constant process of asking:
**“How can I make this better?”**
That work may never be seen by anybody outside the practice room.
But you hear it when the player finally steps onto the stage.
That’s musicianship.
That’s the process.
And Bjorn deserves enormous credit for committing to it.
Keep going. 🤘
**CONNECT • CREATE • TRANSCEND**
**Alien Guitar Secrets**
