By: Rick Landers
Ryan Roxie, guitarist for Alice Cooper – Photo credit: Victor Chandler
From one generation to the next, music cascades down to others who have an interest to make their lives more interesting, more creative and more nurturing, when they too can mentor younger music enthusiasts. Step in, those with the skills and teaching experiences like Alice Cooper’s guitar master, Ryan Roxie, to lead the way.
The art of learning to play guitar demands patient repetition, developing muscle memory and learning to slow dance on the fret board before speed of light shredding on stage becomes a reality. It can be a tough and frustrating road to travel without a mentor holding the map and pointing out challenging curves in the road.
Roxie’s earned his stripes as a guitarist performing as a soloist, as well as working with Alice Cooper, Casablanca, Gilby Clarke and Slash’s Snakepit.
But, his musical inclinations must have been naturally sparked having a father who played trumpet and his mom, a drummer in a marching band. From those early days, he studied and practiced guitar, doing the heavy lifting necessary to unleash the magic of playing at a world-class level. And now, Ryan’s game to pass what he’s learned on to us all.
With his new Kickstarter launch, Ryan’s looking to gather funding to invest into a new line of work, teaching. He’s enthusiastic about passing along his own lessons learned, with thoughtfully developed new on-line instructional system that he’s developed.
Ryan’s System-12 Guitar Method aims to help novices and advanced guitar players to unravel the mystery of the fretboard, the ways and means of practicing and learning, and unleashing the sheer beauty of playing the guitar.
In our interview with Ryan, he offers us a few insights into his work with his current “boss”, Alice Cooper, his own journey learning the guitar and insights into his own professional motivation or the reasons for wanting to help others learn the musical instrument many of us have come to love – the guitar.
CHECK OUT RYAN ROXIE’S SYSTEM-12 GUITAR METHOD KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN HERE!
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Rick Landers: Let’s start with your introduction to the guitar and when you figured out or began planning to make playing guitar a career.
Ryan Roxie: Luckily for me it came early. I wanted to be like the posters on my wall growing up, that simple. So, in reality I was always surrounded by bands like KISS, Cheap Trick, Van Halen, and Alice Cooper.
Rick: I see you’ve got a Kickstarter campaign to enable you to establish a guitar instruction venture. But, let’s focus at the road you took learning and studying guitar playing, including inspirational moments, epiphanies when you got to “aha” moments and “got it”, and challenges, like figuring out how to navigate the fretboard.
Ryan Roxie: My first live ‘aha’ moment came again, early, at a talent show in our small suburban town in Northern California. The band, Starfire, beat out a magician and a dancing Disco duck. I figured if we could win talent shows with rock n’ roll, why not continue onto bigger shows.
With the guitar, one of my biggest epiphanies is when I discovered the instrument only has 12 frets and 12 notes total , not as many as you actually see on the guitar, so it’s much easier to learn everything once you’ve taken that mystery out of it. This is all broken down and explained simply in our Kickstarter Guitar Lesson campaign, but more about that later.
Ryan Roxie, guitarist for Alice Cooper -Photo credit: Victor Chalfont
Rick: How did you meet Alice Cooper and how did he approach you to join him?
Ryan Roxie: Alice had heard about me when I was playing with Gilby Clarke of Guns n’ Roses, in his solo band. Luckily Alice thought I would fit the bill for his band and recruited me over. He was there at the audition, and has always been there giving it 100% onstage ever since!
Rick: I’d imagine working in the midst of an Alice Cooper gig or tour is an education in and of itself. What have you learned, what role do you have in the logistics side of the business and have you got any great lessons learned to pass on to others?
Ryan Roxie: I’ve learned so much more than just playing great music with Alice. He’s taught me about the ‘music business’, and allowed me to make a career out of it. I include a lot of the ‘life hacks’ of rock n’ roll in my System-12 Guitar Method, because let’s admit it, there’s more to this business than just the music, otherwise we would never make it out of our garages.
Ryan Roxie: I think it’s important to have mentors and people you look up to. But, don’t copy them, observe and study what makes them great, and then search for the things that make you great and bring them to the stage. You’ll never be nervous or insecure if you are being 100% yourself onstage.
Rick: What’s it like to work with Alice and has he ever given you advice on your golf game – assuming you’ve even been on a course ?
Ryan Roxie: Alice has allowed me to tour the world playing music, with a golf bag always included in my tour luggage! [Laughs] We’ve been lucky enough to play some of the best music venues, as well as golf courses in the world. And, yes, Alice has taught me everything I know about golf.
Rick: What hands-on experience do you have giving guitar lessons?
Ryan Roxie: I started teaching lessons when I was 16 years old in Northern California where I grew up. I have always had a knack for explaining the guitar in such a way that simplifies rather than confuses.
I’ve done private lessons, as well as online lessons for many years, that’s why I’m so excited to get this new System-12 Guitar Method out to people that really want to learn and understand guitar quickly.
Alice Cooper with band members Ryan Roxie, Glen Sobel, Chuck Garric, Nita Strauss, and Tommy Henriksen – Photo credit: Victor Chalfont
Rick: Tell us about your prospective business and how you differentiate your approach to guitar lessons that sets you apart from others already on-line.
Ryan Roxie: My approach is simple: Take ‘old skool’ methods and fundamentals, but combine them with modern day technology and have it taught with someone that has the experience, and you look up to, hopefully in this cast that will be me. Learning guitar from me should be as fun as playing video games. Well, almost! [Laughs]
Rick: Given the current virus we’re all dealing with, especially when gigs being cancelled and the frustration of having the time you’ve invested to be for naught, working musicians are looking more to different revenue streams to pay the rent. And this came on fast…Is your new venture a response to the virus or has the idea to teach on-line been cookin’ for awhile?
Ryan Roxie: The honest truth was this Kickstarter Guitar Lesson campaign was going to come out in April, while I was on tour with Alice. But then, as we all know, the world changed. Once I saw that people were going to have to be stuck indoors for an undetermined amount of time, I immediately knew we had to push up the release a few weeks and give people the opportunity to learn the guitar the best and quickest way out there. Let’s face it, one can only watch so much Netflix per day.
Ryan Roxie, guitarist for Alice Cooper – Photo credit: Victor Chalfont
Rick: So, sell us on your Kickstarter project with some insights to the kinds of instructional modules, the step-by-step approach you are looking to employ, maybe mental challenges to learning etcetera.
Ryan Roxie: We call it the System-12 Guitar Method. Why 12? Well, it’s a 12 lesson course which will have you learning and playing 12 songs and riffs over the course of about 12 weeks and more or less depending on how far you want to travel on your guitar journey. By combining the fundamentals, my mentorship, and using the amazing technology that allows us to combine synchcronized video, tablature, and even a ‘virtual guitar neck’ to learn from, this is truly something unique.
Of course, you can go onto YouTube and find millions of guitar instructional videos, but I guarantee none of them will combine all the options that we have been able to.
The entire goal of our System-12 is to get you playing and understanding the guitar as fast as possible, so you will in turn become our true ‘brand ambassadors’. There is so much to be said by word of mouth success and we are confident that once you learn from this particular system, you will want to tell others to do the same.
Rick: How do you plan on handling quality control of your on-line lessons and are you working with guitar players at various levels, from novice to advanced, to work out possible glitches before you launch?
Ryan Roxie: The System-12 Guitar Method is focused on the novice level of player, but that doesn’t mean that more experienced players won’t appreciate and be able to apply the techniques we employ. If you are already a proficient guitarist, odds are you have put in the time and it has become a bit more personal for you. This course is perfect for those that have always wanted to start or continue their guitar journey, but need some guidance and ‘life-hacks’ taught by someone with over 40 years of experience helping people discover the guitar.
Ryan Roxie, guitarist for Alice Cooper – Photo credit: Victor Chalfont
Rick: What else is happening with you and Alice and other projects you have percolating, and what’s the toughest part to get to the finish line on them?
Ryan Roxie: As soon as we can get the green light to get out there and start touring again, we will. My luggage, and golf bag, are packed, the equipment trucks are ready, and nothing will make me happier than being able to perform onstage again.
But in the meantime, I’ll be keeping myself busy with the Kickstarter Guitar Lessons campaign, as well as my podcast which is called, In the Trenches with Ryan Roxie. All of which you can find at www.bit.ly/RyanRoxieGuitarLessons.
Rick: Being a working performer and a business entrepreneur can be a tough road. Any advice to those on the cusp of making the hard decision to get into the music industry, the crests and the troughs of the high seas of rock ‘n’ roll?
Ryan Roxie: The three P’s: Practice, Persistence, Patience and things will happen and you will get your shot. Learn you instrument, keep doing something everyday to move towards your goal, and have the faith to know that you will get your shot. And when you do, you will be ready!
Rick: Any shout outs to anyone who’s stuck with you over the years, inspired you to put your head to the grindstone and not give up on your music or your good intentions that are tough to accomplish?
Ryan Roxie: Always thanks to Alice Cooper for being the best ‘boss’ a guitarist could ask for, and Steve Philips, the first guitar teacher I ever had. You see? Mentors are important! Cheers!
CHECK OUT RYAN ROXIE’S SYSTEM-12 GUITAR METHOD KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN HERE!
