How to survive your first 5 years in Nashville, as I celebrate mine. transcript

[music] >> All right. Good day. Uh Rue here. Um for those who don't know me, I am a gigging guitarist here in Nashville. I do sessions, I play around town. Um I don't know. I teach, I build guitars. Um buy them and then regretfully sell them. Um >> [clears throat] >> Look, today is a pretty big day for me. Today is 5 years in Nashville. It's my 5-year anniversary here. Celebrating um by doing a gig tonight. Practiced what I wanted all day.

Having a uh Waterloo raspberry nectarine. Had my favorite dish in the entire world, which is a butter chicken. And yeah, I just kind of wanted to reflect on 5 years here. Oh, and um >> [clears throat] >> I got these prototype Ruecaster pickups in from AA Guitars in Sweden, which is cool. Um I'm officially under 100 kilos for the first time in about 8 years. So, yeah, it's a lot a lot's going on. Um and I'm fortunate enough to be playing a really nice guitar.

It's not mine. Belongs to Mr. Porter Burton, but he's left it at my house, so I'm playing it. Uh look, I wanted to reflect on 5 years in Nashville and what that looks like. Um I have to tally it up. I've done 2,000 2,800 gigs roughly since I've been here. Um Yeah, that's a lot. Uh been a workhorse. Uh started teaching a couple weeks ago. I've got about six students. Really stoked about that. Would love to teach more if you're interested.

Uh drop a comment. Message me on Instagram real Roo Caster. Um I've had a lot of ups and downs. I've met some of my heroes. I've played with some of my heroes. I've gained gigs. I've lost gigs. Um You know, I'm actually starting my fifth year in town. Um I'm having one gig ended and another guy kind of Well, he didn't miscommunicate. He just straight up lied, so you know, lost out on a lot of gigs there and a lot of work, but um that's kind of the beauty of this town, right?

Is nothing's certain. Um No matter how mind-blowing you are, how good you are, there's work and determination that's involved and has to go into this, right? Um And in the end of the day, it's also just right place right time um in a lot of cases, you know. I'm going to do another video um as well and a few blogs I've promised you. I'm going to make a video about my favorite tele pickers in town. Bruce tele city. Something like that.

Anyway, look, um 5 years is a long time. I've gotten married in that time. Um I've bought some guitars. I moved here with a tele, a 335, uh HX Stomp and a Zen Drive. That was it. Uh I had my first gig. It would be Today's Monday. So, yeah, tomorrow morning it would be 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at um Paradise Trailer Park, which doesn't exist anymore. Um So, 5 years ago today I moved here and I walked down Broadway and I met this bloke I'd seen on YouTube uh Mike Boke.

Big fellow playing pedal steel and guitar walked into AJ's and went, "Oh, dude, you're Mike Boke." He went, "Yep." >> [laughter] >> I was like, "Okay." I was like, "Oh, I love your playing, blah, blah, blah. Add me on Facebook." He said, "Oh, cool. Okay, great. Um come to my gig tomorrow." You've got a gig. So, I sat in and played and blah, blah, blah and ended up hanging out the whole day and it's kind of the beginning for me, right?

Um soon I had my own gigs that I got through friends and connections I made. I had road gigs. My first road gig was a bloke named Chase Beckham who won American Idol. We're still mates. He's a lovely bloke. I think he just got engaged. Got engaged. I think he might just got married. Uh poor French but my bad. Great bloke. Um super fun to gig with. We did this great run down to Texas where I was playing pedal steel, he was on acoustic.

And uh he woke me up and we were in the middle of like the desert in Texas outside Lubbock. And uh Troubadour by George Strait was playing and it was just like it was like a beautiful really beautiful moment. I'll always remember that. Man, this you know, reflecting on it, there's so many memories, but I guess I wanted to you know, I can't reflect on everything. There's been so many ups and downs, so many crazy stories like I just wanted to give some advice about how I've made natural work for me.

Um I want to say first and foremost, a lot of times I'll tell a story about my life people go, "Nah, it's not true, mate." But it But it is. And I usually have the proof. The thing is I don't have that mental block on me to not go for something. Um I want to live life to the fullest and experience everything. Uh I want to experience the extreme highs, the extreme lows, uh the mundane and the overwhelmingly exciting. And by having that, it's kind of led me into a lot of crazy situations.

Some bad, some good, mostly good. Um where I've been able to do things and you know, um experience things I've I never dreamed of. But at the same time, I've been really fortunate that a lot of blokes have taken me on and um helped me. So, I want to give some advice for maybe your first 5 years in Nashville. Firstly, uh don't be afraid to move here. Like um if you haven't already and you're planning on it, like there is no or next year.

It's You've just got to do it. Secondly, um be a good person. Word spreads. >> [laughter] >> It's not hard. Um you know, we don't need any more hate in this world. You know, so much vitriol. Let's try and get some unity and love happening. You know, when you get here, make sure you go around and meet people. Find out what you want to do. I'm 5 years in and only just starting to realize what I really want, you know? At 31, realize what I want in life.

And that looks very different to when I moved here. And you know, it's a constant journey of self-discovery. But when you move here, um don't be afraid to perhaps admit to yourself that what you wanted isn't what you actually want. Ross Campbell just made a great video on this. He said like, "Oh, I thought I wanted to be a sideman, but I want to do my own band and focus more on YouTube." And good on him, cuz he's he's doing great.

He's, you know, um we haven't met, but I've got mutual friends and I've always seen him to be a bloody lovely bloke. You know, another thing is don't hold yourself back from opportunities. A lot of people I know, are like, "Oh, I won't go talk to them cuz I'm too scared." or or I don't I don't know if it's a good idea if I should go to that. But like, what's stopping you, you know? Um rather to live it's better to live a life, in my opinion, that is marred by perhaps the shame of a mistake than the regret of not even an attempt. >> [snorts] >> Um go see the Time Jumpers.

Go see Vince Gill. Go to the Ryman. Make sure you go to every bar downtown. Make sure you go to all the guitar stores. Um Transcribe some cool solos. And just like keep a good outlook. Cuz look, this is the thing about this town. This town ebbs and flows. You know, I um I said 5 years ago I met Michael, and he's still one of my best friends. And he's been there for me through I don't have money for rent, through "Hey man, I don't even have a car." Like, first few months I didn't have a car.

He was driving me to my gigs. He'd pick me up. Caught the bus down the Broadway the first time. He was like, "Where'd you park?" I was like, "I caught the bus." He was like, "Okay, what the hell?" Um me sitting on the bus like, "Oh, I'm going to go sit in on Broadway." Dude. What how times have changed. Um you know, I called him last night. I was like, "Oh man, I don't know. Like, I've got many gigs this week. It's all over.

I started week with one, and now I've got 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. >> [snorts] >> And hopefully I I would love to have eight students. I think I have four on this week. I'd love to have eight. That would be really nice. Um look, I think the biggest thing about this town is it's going to be what you make of it. Like anything in life. If if you never even try to move here, and and you keep saying, "I've got to get better. I've got to do this." Like, no, you'll inherently get better by playing with better musicians, which is what you'll probably find here.

I moved here the worst musician in town. I remember he's a friend of mine and I won't name him, but he said this about me and I caught wind and I was very upset, but he was right. He said, "Oh, nice bloke, worst guitarist ever." And that was really hard to hear, but I had to forego my own ego and go, "Okay, I've got a lot of work to do and a lot of time to put in." I still do, you know? I'm still not nearly there. But it's all part of having some skin in the game and having fun.

You know, we can't all be the best and there are some cats in town who are the best and I look up to them and I I revere their playing in many ways, you know? I revere these guys who can play so fluently and with such beautiful timing and phrasing and it really is just amazing how many beautiful musicians are in town. And that's another reason to move here. You will be surrounded by mind-blowing musicians. You know, there's just so many cats here who are just like stupid good.

And there's the ones you haven't heard of who are like even more insane. So, yeah, that's my reflection on 5 years. I didn't make a YouTube video the past couple days. That's okay. Um maybe I won't post every day. I'll slow down a little bit. But look, I want to say I'm thankful forever thankful for anyone who's watched, subscribed, commented, like, blah blah blah. Um but I'm thankful for people who've listened to my story and um I'm thankful to those who've reached out.

Um you know? And I still like if you want to reach out, just chat, that's fine, you know? If you're interested in a lesson, reach out. Um I don't know. If you want to go to Bills, reach out. Bills, get coffee, whatever. Um the thing I love about Nashville most is that we all support each other here and if you're not really like that, you're probably not going to do too well. Um this is a town of love and care and other musicians recognizing that other musicians need help as well, you know?

And um I'm very thankful to the people who've helped me and the list is too long to name. But I've had some really life-changing moments in this town and um I'll never forget that. So look, before I ramble on and get too into it, I'm going to go do my gig. But uh here's to five incredible years in Nashville and um yeah, here's to five more. Cheers. I'll leave you with a a cool uh practice kind of thing that I've been working on.

Um so there's there's four ways to play the major scale from one position, right? Eight one fret. And I want to I'm just going to play them quickly and I'm going to suggest that everyone goes and checks this out cuz this is a big thing that I work with my students that a lot of people missing. But you can play it uh say an A A major scale from first finger, right? >> [music] >> That's great. But there's other ways to finger it, right? >> [music] >> Great.

And people go, "Oh, I know I know it." It's like, "Okay, let's do it from the second finger." >> [music] >> Different fingering. >> [music] >> And then like, "How about let's play it from the third finger?" >> [music] >> Another fingering. >> [music] >> So That's the fifth. And then you go from the pinky. >> [music] >> A big thing I talk about in my lessons is uh fretboard fluidity and really knowing this thing, man.

Like really just being able to go like, "Oh, I want to play I want to play in thirds movement harmonically but down pitch-wise." Um major scale triads. >> [music] >> Stuff like that. Like good examples or like, you know, just being able to uh >> [music] >> Just little things like that. Um just knowing the different directions and moves you can take, how to play horizontally, how to play vertically, how to play um crossways, you know, diagonally.

Diagonally, alley. You know, I know that's not what it's called, but I'm not the biggest Harry Potter fan. Star Wars bloke if anything. Anyway, look, check that out. Um just something to think about. Uh I'll leave you to do the rest of the work, right? Yeah, I want to say cheers to everyone for um as the joke we have downtown is following my following the journey, you know, I've got this Aussie mate we always run into each other and we go, "Oh, I just Hey, mate.

Been following your journey." And we always have a giggle. So, on that note, um cheers. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll answer them in the next video or something. But I just want to say thanks, everyone. Um I'm really appreciative of this milestone and just really excited to have another 5 years under my belt. Thanks.