Dave Birnie is guitarist, guitar teacher and moderator for BLIM course. He is Justin’s friend who replaced him as guitarist in Counterfeit Stones. 
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Dave is great, he and Richard provide killer feedback on questions and videos. I dont belive a single video that has been presented failed to have a solid informative critique given. One of the best things about the class.
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I am wraping up Blim 2 right now i will give my assesment. I am hoping it will help others make a decision. I started this because I had a bunch of time on my hands recovering from am injury, and needing PT and I was not very comfortable play my electric guitar at all or posting video. I had been playing acoustic a little over a year and wanted to get better with electric. I not so much looking to be a bluesmen but I do see the importance of the roots of rock and punk. My family has a geographical tie with the Delta of Mississippi and It seemed like a cool thing to jump into. When I started the class I was consolidating grade 3 working a bit of grade 4 and playing a bunch of power cord stuff also with acoustic.
When they say immersion that is no joke. It is very immersive. You never feel like you get it all down and thats ok. Toby was correct, I felt the best way was pack as much in during the unit and then move on when the next unit comes out. Its important to stay with your cohorts.
I have put in some serious hours but it has absolutly paid off. I have completely overcome my angst of videoing myself and I dont even think twice about that now.
My playing has increased in quality a ton. Its frankly amazing. I may moan and complain that I have not had time to play my favorites like Alice in chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana or other stuff and I haven’t. But what I have been learning has directly givien me the ability to play that music at a much better level. I know this for a fact. Just last weekend I went into my old project of learning all the songs from the Singles sound track and just picked a couple including State of Love and Trust. I was having a tough time with it before the class. I just nailed it right away, I was really shocked. I can not wait to use these skills toward my other music. Everyone that I saw who took the class and took part in the work and stuck through it gained considerable skills and that was clear from the uploaded videos. The teachers commented on it as did Justin during our challenges and Q&A sessions. It is a great feeling to have them notice this.
Having Justin, Richard and Dave watch my video and seeing their approval and a little nod and smile or reading the stoke in their comments really made the difference in everything and fueled my fire to keep the hard work going. You can tell when they are excited about your progress. They really get to know you.
It is unfortunate that so many people have disappeared, I totally understand why of course. But blim2 class was just not as active in the forums as the first class. Its too bad because the Q&A were fantastic. The staff left amazing answers and even wrote out barrs of music to help us. How could you ask for more? Unfortunatly it was underutilized by some. You will only get out of it what you put into it.
So this brings me to my dilemma do I renew? I am pretty certain I am going to. I need the direct support from the instructors. Thats super important for me. I do feel a bit of burn out. And will branch out some and finish my other course work with Justins other classes. But I know that the second time around will be less intensive. But I look forward to another round of challenges and special guests, also firming up some of the things I have questions about.
Those were some of the highlights for me. Also the interaction with the class members. I gained some good friends and met some great artists. It really is cool seeing people on their own journey, people whonare different from me and from different cultures. Then making connections with them. Thats the way its supposed to be.
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Ontime, great insight and suggestions. I’m late in grade 2 right now. My playing is coming along at an acceptable to me rate. The only thing currently keeping me from signing up for the class starting in July is, in the writeup on the course it says to be at the end of grade 3, or close to the end, and while I can grasp the information thus far, and some of it easily, I feel I have a bit of a ways to go with a few things. It’s definitely on the list of todo’s however. I may check in again near December for BLIM 4. If I feel I’m ready, then I’ll go for it. I can always get the review material after signing up as well, so that’s a huge plus. Justin’s overview of BLIM yesterday was extremely helpful.
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