Mike O'Cull

We are all one and the same. Human. Alive. This is what I believe and is the overall theme of my work in any medium, music, writing, art, or whatever I'm doing. I was not always like this, however. I started out like a lot of other people do in rock and roll, writing songs about girls, usually ones who didn't like me. Lol This was my level of development at that time. All I could see was what was in front of me. I didn't have the consciousness needed to let my vision of life expand. Not yet. I was stuck…

Learning to play is not easy. What is also not easy is learning that there are certain auxiliary skills that must be mastered if one is to reach the goal of becoming a performing musician. No music school teaches these skills, but we all learn them by doing them. One of the first is the dreaded Cold Call. No one likes calling someone who is not expecting them and asking for something. It's important, however, to develop the calm confidence that's needed to call a stranger and do business. It doesn't even…

Day 8 - YOU’RE GONNA SUCK FOR A WHILE! 

One of the hardest parts of learning guitar or trying to make improvements in your skills is mentally negotiating the gap between where you currently are and where you want to be. You have…

The music you are meant to play is the music that activates you emotionally. You need to feel a connection to what you play; it has to be more than an intellectual exercise. I have spent too much time playing music I don't care about for money and it kind of ruined me. I became cynical, which is the worst thing that can happen to a musician. To fully develop as a player, limit your exposure to that kind of thinking and develop your vision. The only sure reward in playing music is the actual playing, so…

We all get Junkyard Wise, sooner or later. We all start out fresh off the assembly line, full of promise, potential, and miles yet to drive. Even as we start down our roads, we see the wrecks along the shoulder but can't see how they relate to us. After a while, we stop feeling so shiny and new and start thinking about where this is all going. We realize that newness will never come again and we just hope to not end up in the ditch. Sooner or later, though, we learn that the ditch is coming, no matter what…

I miss the days of being able to get up and leave when it was time to leave, of being able to reinvent myself or any part of myself that needed changing. My heart will always be that of a 20-something of the 90s, as that is what I was. In those days, I came and went from people, places, and things like the Chicago wind, always looking for the thing that would take me to the next part of my future. I had faith that something better was out there, better than my bland suburban town and my dateless and stupid…

Ain’t no love in the ways of man. 

Look at the ways we live out our days 
As long as it pays, that’s what we all say 
As long as I get something better for me 
You get to keep telling me how I’m really free. 
Free to be lost and never get found 
Free to work cheap til I’m under the ground 
Free to go die fighting somebody’s war 
But not free to ask what I’m fighting it for. 

AIn’t no love in the ways of man. 

I’m afraid of the police, I’m afraid of the phone 
I sit in my house, in the dark, all alone 
Waiting…

WORK FOR THE DEVIL 
 (The TV Preacher Blues) 
  
I used to think of myself 
As a happy man 
Getting on in this world 
Had myself a good plan. 
But then I took some kind of detour 
I made some kind of wrong turn 
When you work for the Devil 
You really feel the burn. 

I tried to keep my head up 
Asked for Gods’ own hand 
To help right my wrongs, 
Help me make a stand 
But when I called to the Big Man 
He just didn’t show 
But when you work for the Devil 
You never feel the cold. 

CHORUS 
When you work for the Devil 
You…

DON’T DRINK THE WATER  

Trust in God but vote for fools 
Watch tv and follow the rules 
This is the new American way 
Keep your mouth shut and you'll be ok 
Don't rock the boat or speak truth to power 
Don't mind the gunman up in the tower 
Just keep shopping, pay it no mind 
Wait your turn, keep standing in line 
Camp out for a phone or a cheap computer 
Who really cares about an active shooter? 
Soon the sheep will go off to slaughter 
And if you go to Flint, don't drink the water.  

Let's put a businessman in…

I’ve written a fair amount of blog posts on different topics relating to guitar lessons and guitar playing. So have a whole lot of other folks. I stopped doing it for a while because I felt like there was nothing I could offer that wasn’t being offered somewhere else. I mean, there’s so much lesson content out there that it boggles the mind. How many ways can you teach someone to play? I know my methods work because, unlike a lot of new jack online teachers, I’ve taught live in person for more years than I…