Hi, I'm Mike, the creator of the BluesBlock© learning method. I am a professional educator with 30 years experience. My interest in education has always been finding different ways to help students understand new concepts by breaking down traditional methods in order to find new paths to success. While I have done this for many years in the field of technology, engineering and design I have now turned this approach to my lifelong passion and developed a totally unique method for teaching students how to construct and play slow, soulful and sophisticated blues solos.

For many years I was a student of the Blues and trod the familiar path of learning pentatonic scale diagrams, copying licks from my favorite players, trying to learn from disjointed lessons on the internet and enrolling in countless online courses. Despite all of this, I still found my ability to solo with skill and soul lacking. I then decided to do a deep dive into music theory hoping to find that "missing piece" to my learning. I studied different scales and modes but felt these took me away from the feel that I was trying to achieve. The journey through music theory, for me, was fascinating and helpful. But I was still not there. I felt that, while I had found some major pieces to the puzzle, I still needed the final piece; I was close. This is where the universe decided to conduct an intervention.....

I was on the search for a new guitar and was inspired by the guitars of my blues guitar heroes. I spent time pouring over images of these guitars when I was suddenly struck by a common element on all of them. Neck wear patterns!