Don’t Trust Me,
I’m an Expert.

Confessions of an INFJ.

I’m a multi award-winning music lecturer with over 30 years of teaching experience, 10 of those years being at one of the UK’s largest colleges. I studied classical guitar, piano, and music theory (all to the highest grade) at the world-renowned Royal Schools of Music. Then I moved to Los Angeles to study contemporary guitar and vocals at the world-renowned Musicians Institute.

On top of that, I’ve made music with Grammy winners and multiplatinum artists, including Serj Tankian (System Of A Down) and Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine). So with regards to making music and teaching music, it’s safe to say that I’m an expert. But if you want to learn how to make music, don’t trust me! Wait… What?! Let me explain. But first, we need to take a little detour.

On average, people can be divided into 16 personality types. This is known as the Myers-Briggs (or MBTI) system, and it’s based on Carl Jung’s model of the eight cognitive functions. It’s an utterly brilliant system that will change your life, if you take the time to learn it. You can start by simply discovering what your personality type is. To do this, I recommend Dr. Dario Nardi’s free online test, which you can take at: keys2cognition.com. Invite your friends and family to do it, too. Then, if you want to learn about the 16 personality types, I recommend going to the source and reading the book “Gifts Differing” by Isabel Briggs Myers and Peter B. Myers.

Okay, the detour’s over. So now, what’s personality type got to do with not trusting me? Everything! That’s the short answer. The slightly longer answer is this: Personality type has everything to do with everything! And that’s not hyperbole.

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If you’re like me, then you’re also constantly looking around wondering why we can’t all just get along by respecting each other’s differences and beliefs. In fact, one of the countless reasons I deleted all my social media accounts 10 years ago, was that I couldn’t take any more angry arguments. Just look at any social media thread, and you’ll see how obvious it is that those people are talking (or shouting) past each other. That’s because they have very different personality types, and therefore, very different perspectives. They’re never going to agree. They can’t.

And arguing over which perspective is correct is in actual fact arguing over which personality type is correct. But that’s a meaningless pursuit, because no one personality type is better than any other. Each type has its unique gifts. And each type has its unique perspectives. The only discussion worth having is which perspective is best suited for each personality type. A healthy society needs all the personality types and their differing perspectives, otherwise it loses its balance and harmony. And then descends into intolerance.

Now, here’s the life-changing conclusion you reach when you learn about personality types. Are you ready? You might want to sit down for this. Okay, here it is: Every perspective will always be wrong for 15 out of the 16 personality types. In other words, every perspective you have on every topic will be 94% wrong according to all the personality types.

If there’s only one thing you take away from this post, please let it be that. Every perspective you have is 94% wrong. And every perspective I have is 94% wrong.

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With this realization comes a whole truckload of humility! Because, how could I possibly think that my perspective is right for you? Especially considering that my personality type, INFJ, is the rarest of all the types.

Okay, here’s a broader way of looking at it. Half the personality types have the cognitive function of intuition in their top two preferences, while the other half have sensing. But, intuition is far more rare than sensing. It’s estimated that only 30% of the population are intuitive personality types, while 70% are sensing personality types.

So if you’re wanting to learn how to make music, my unique Song-Whispering method will deeply resonate with you if you’re an intuitive type, but if you’re a sensing type, then it probably won’t. And let me be clear, the method will work for everyone, but it will seem very strange to the 70% of people who are sensing types.

And this is true for everything. There’s literally no topic that you can’t find equally qualified experts with diametrically opposed perspectives. Even when they agree on the same data points, their interpretations lead them to polar opposite conclusions. And I’m not exaggerating. Even topics we think are settled, are not.

For example, did you know that there are medical doctors who say DNA does not exist? Or, did you know that there are physicists who say atoms and subatomic particles don’t exist. These things are supposed to be the building blocks of life and the universe, but doctors and scientists can’t even agree if they exist! So, when it comes to music, good luck trying to find a consensus as to how it should be made and taught!

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Having said all that, it’s absolutely vital to understand that this is not a problem. This is the beauty of diversity. Whatever experts say who have the same personality type as you (or a compatible type), will probably resonate with you. And whatever experts say who have incompatible personality types, will probably not resonate with you, no matter how much evidence they can present to support their claims.

On that note, I invite you to visit HackMusicTheory.com and see if my approach to music resonates with you. If it does, then you can help yourself to a free download of my book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. It only takes about half an hour to read, then you’ll have a solid foundation of the basics.

If you’re ready to go deeper, though, then I invite you to enroll in my onli