During a conversation with Ultimate Guitar's Justin Beckner, guitar legend Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big, Racer X) talked about gear, playing guitar, younger bands, and his online rock guitar school supported by ArtistWorks. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Gilbert: "Most of my life these days is existing at my online school at ArtistWorks. If anyone reading this has never been there, you won't believe what it is - it's really cool. The system of video exchange. I think what most people hear about it they think it is a Skype lesson or that it's a bunch of videos that are pre-recorded and they just watch those. Although there are pre-recorded video lessons and whole courses that you can take that way, the thing that makes it a living breathing entity are these video exchanges that students send in.

I do a thousand of those a year or more, so there is so much content. It's actually better than a live-lesson because I get a little while to think about my answers and the answers are better. In a live situation, you can tell someone to hang on for five minutes while you think about it. The way the school works, I really do think about it and I think about if this student was in my band, what would I want them to play in order for the song to sound good or what will make them happy - I can tell what they're into and I can show them stuff that will help them further down the road they want to go down.

I think through those and try to give them something that works and something that's in reach. That's something when I was a teenager and I was teaching, a lot of times I was just showing off and my hope was that it was inspiring, but it was stuff that was my own little niche and comfort zone. My tight custom-made pants are only going to fit my body. So these days I try to think of stuff that is within reach, that they can actually play in the next ten minutes and have a transformative experience. I want their hands to feel something and their ear to hear something that they didn't know they could do because of something that exists inside a certain phrase. So I get excited about it because I think it's some of the best teaching I've ever done and it has helped me to do some of the best playing I've ever done."

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For information on Paul Gilbert's ArtistWorks lessons go to this location.