Hiya, Thanks for watching and for all the really great comments. I've been reading all of them. I thought I'd share a little more info here The guitars I have had over the years are: 2004 - My first cheap, beginner Encore guitar 2005 - A cheap knock-off version of a Flying V worth about £70. I can't remember the brand but it definitely doesn't exist anymore 2008 - A budget Jackson Randy Rhoads black with gold pinstripe. ~£230 2009 - Ibanez RG350EX 2011 - Ibanez EGEN8 2014 - Schecter Demon-7 7 String guitar. I had this for a couple of years but sold it. 2017 - Ibanez RGDIX6PB If you want to support me, you can go to my Bandcamp: rysmusic.bandcamp.com Any and all support is appreciated ❤ Edit: sub to Ezra, former singer of 22 Dropout www.youtube.com/@EzraBriggsMusic ❤ Edit 2: A few people have brought up the fact that it's not necessarily about amount of years played, but the amount of hours. This is absolutely true. I never really had strict practice routines so I can't give a totally accurate number of hours - but at a guess I'd say I've clocked 15-20k hours in 20 years. That's an average of 2 to 2.7 hours per day. Edit 3: Didn't realise my Discord server link was broken this entire time. If you want to keep up-to-date and chat shit, join the server ✌👇 discord.com/invite/qk7M6QBYky

How many guitarists watching this laughing because Smoke on The Water was the very first song you played, and exactly like he was doing it?

This dude had a lot of phases.

Starting young helps a lot. My son and I started playing at the same time and he is light years better than me.

Playing Dragonforce at 13 is wild. You have some serious talent that you never gave up on and it was worth it. It's honestly motivational. Rock on!

And that boys and girls, is what 20,000 hours practice looks like.

Could’ve bought a house in 2004 but you decided to play guitar

I love this. This showcases that "gifted kids" and "natural talent" are just bogus. Every good musicianship you see in someone (not only technique and good timbre) is the result of years of practice and dedication, self-taught or not.

I am 53 years old and just learning to play the acoustic guitar. This video is very inspiring. Thank you for sharing it. Amazing!

Just wanted to say, as Mum, this was a real love. I had no problem at all encouraging my son learning to play music. He spent many, many hours on something he really loved and enjoyed. It's been great watching all the improvements over the years. I had no problem with the noise, sitting listening to rehearsals, being a roadie and turning up to all the gigs. It's been brilliant. This all took a lot of practice, time and patience but it's all fantastic 😊 PS: I can play the first few notes of Smoke on the Water ...maybe that's where it all started! 😊

Bro’s hands start teleporting after 2 years

for a 54 year old watching this, its just beyond adorable, thank you for showing how rock gods are made

Tears me up to be able to witness a kid achieve his dream in real time. Good stuff bro I hope you never lose that passion.

Moral of this story: NOTHING good happens overnight 👍

dude's been playing for as long as i've been alive

Every pro was once a beginner. Every legend was once a novice.

The thing I love about playing is 1. You never stop learning and 2. You can't buy it from a shop, there is only one way to get this and that's hard work and personal determination and motivation....

And people still can't imagine the hours of practice between each of those recordings. Congrats man! This is so wholesome

You at age of 9 was better than me at my 29 🤣 I'm so lazy jesus christ!

This is for me, one of the most inspirational KZfaq films I have seen in recent years!! As of 2011 you already mastered the guitar. Seeing your progress is mindblowing. Especially adding to that, that you took it upon yourself to master a very complex genre: melodic heavy metal and jazz fusion. You certainly deserve every guitar you have ever owned. Aside from that, it is very refreshing to see behind the scenes of the making of a musician. It always looks so easy, but the years behind that and the dedication...awesome to see.

Your hair style journey was really fun to watch

This journey is exactly the same one many of us took, even joined a band and opened for some bands, played some venues. some of the best years & times of my life. Now I hear and see my sons taking this same evolution. Hearing the screeching of strings when they first started to now yrs later, they sound awesome. Good job, never stop.

As a complete non-musician but lifelong lover of music this has absolutely enthralled me. I've watched this video 3 times start to finish. It's hard to look away when the playing is this good. Thanks for sharing this.

the fact that it is self taught truly shows the motivation, determination and patience to truly become better version of yourself.

As this guitar boi’s partner of 10 years it’s amazing to see how much he’s grown as a person and artist. It’s truly inspiring to see his unwavering passion for music ❤️

Watching this makes me wish I was given an electric guitar instead of acoustic. Went to school of rock for a free consultation, touched an electric, I can’t go back and I have cravings now. It’s like 10000000x easier to press on the strings. It almost made me cry.

Love the Intervals cover! Got a chance to meet Jacob and Aaron a couple months ago after one of their shows. Great band, great people.

You are lucky to have recorded these. A lot of people don't realize how cool it is to look back on stuff like this.

I was playing guitar hero, you were becoming a hero.

I wished mobile phones were around in the 70's when i started.Great stuff lad. Thanks for sharing.

The fact that you have all these videos is awesome in itself...but what it documents is incredible. Killer, dude.

It's cool we live in an age where you can have this entire experience documented and formatted in a way for us to enjoy it like this. Incredible content.

As a 45 year former touring Guitarist I must say this (Documentary) is priceless and reminds me of so much. I’m 60 now and still love playing to my Grandchildren. When they see vids of me all through the 80s- early 90s they can’t believe it. Excellent Video!!🙏🙏💯💯

So much fun to watch the progression. A 30 year guitar hobbyist myself, I never even came close to this level, but still love playing every day and watching both daughters find the same love for it as I did.

I think “Too young to fall in love” was the second song. Big props.

I am a self-taught guitarist. Started during my 17th year, on a Takamine acoustic/electric guitar. Continued to improve all the way through my military career as a helicopter pilot/instructor, up until 67 days before my 26 year retirement, from the US Army, when I was partially paralyzed in a training accident. My right arm and hand ( my strumming hand ) are totally paralyzed. I have a wall full of my guitars, just hanging there, and praying for a miracle, a miracle that I know will never happen. To all of my fellow guitarists, play your hearts out, as if it were your last day of playing. To this young man: Brother, you are beyond awesome, with a God given talent. Simply amazing!!! 👍

I can tell this man loves that guitar. He's been playing it for 8 years and I imagine more to come. Beautiful partnership.

Such a cool video man.. I've seen and heard a lot of guitarists in my life, but man, you are definitely hands down one of the best I've seen.. just phenomenal.. that transformation from 2004 - 2024 was just simply incredible.. and self taught i might add.. Just wow man.. so good..

what a cool thing to document.awesome man KEEP ROCKIN'

That's 20 years of deliberate practice, not just passing through hoops. Dude, that fact alone is applaudable. Cheers to the metal community \m/

This is one of the best things I've ever seen. Not many people have a record of their development as a guitarrist, much less the time and will to put it together and upload for the world to see. You're amazing, keep at it!

MAAN.. LOVE this!! its like watching myself grow up learning how to play, like I did ..except if I had kept going like the crazy amount of trooper you are man! proof of practise and being that determinant right there! never stop

I was late to the game when I picked up a bass guitar. It's been 21 years now. Felt like I was relating to the progression I was watching in you. Respect to you for your time and commitment. You've reached status-level amazing.

This was fascinating. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a well documented study on progress from point A to point B. Incredible and kudos to you for sticking with it and sharing this time capsule.

We practically just saw this guy grow up, good work there 🫡

20 years later, you're still staring down at the fire in the sky.

One of the best things in life is watching another human being grow and improve, this was a great watch thank you!

This is so dope. Makes me want to start practicing more technical stuff! It's so cool to have all these memories on video. keep shredding, bro

Remember when you got your first really good guitar, all of the sudden it was playing itself. You know when it happens when you suddenly play better than you did. And when you finally learned that solo it made you so confident you never want to stop playing. Nice presentation, Respect.

i went through a 2 minute unskippable ad for this it was worth it

I've just watched this video and I really loved seeing your evolution. I don't know you, but now I will look for your work to enjoy and praise your good job. Congrats from Brazil.

What an amazing journey, thanks for sharing. The one thing i saw from 2004-2024 was your confidence from day one, the passion, patience and commitment. great attributes to gain success. 🎸

From my childhood i loved guitars more than anything but sadly my parents were anything but supportive. I bought my first guitar at the age of twenty after having seen Earth Wind and Fire in concert. The lead guitarist played the Voodoo Child solo and within a week of seeing that, and the sound of voodoo child still ringing in my ear's i went and bought my first guitar. So grateful to have done so. these days i'd probably be suicidal if i had'nt of followed that dream of learning to play.

This just inspires me to keep going, I’m 7 years in right now, started playing in 2016 with a cheap acoustic, did 3 lessons, learned G, C and D major chords, E minor, and then I stopped with the lessons and immediately tried my hand at learning songs. In December of 2017 I got my first electric guitar, gracefully handed down to me by my grandfather before his memory faded due to dementia, along with a Nova 500 Tube Amplifier. I played that guitar as much as I possibly could, through many many frustrating nights where I wanted to break the thing, but I kept pushing. I suddenly got a hunger to play, and with the coming of my first paycheque from my first job at 15, I bought a new guitar of my own, an Epiphone Les Paul 100 in vintage cherry burst. It happened to be hanging on the used guitar rack at Long & McQuade down from William Shatner Avenue in Ottawa, Ontario, in a “small” city called Kanata. The according to the salesman I bought the guitar from, a guy had come in, bought the guitar and returned it not even 3 days later. No damage to the guitar, it was mint condition. Marked down to $308 before tax. My mother begged and pleaded with the salesman to take a chunk off of the price, as it was my first guitar purchase, and she didn’t want to see me paying too much for a guitar that may have something wrong with it, obviously this didn’t turn out to be the case, and so my faithful Les Paul became ‘The Beaut’. Now down the road I’ve played the guitar so faithfully and so roughly that the selector switch no longer clicks into the neck frequencies, and two of my tone knobs are loose and well worn. In 2019 I bought my first amplifier, a Fender Mustang GT100. It’s an electronic amp with 200 amp setting slots that you can customize with EQ, Pedal effects, filters and pretty much everything else you could ever want to dial on your amp for a tone. I am still using this amp and am having a hard time deciding on my next piece of equipment, so I guess it’s gonna stick for a while. Sorry for the ‘life story’, I just felt a huge smile spread across my face as I was listening to you play “Forsake Not The Dream” by Trivium. I just learned Matt Heafy’s solo last year and am working through learning a lot of the songs featured on “In Waves”. I encourage anyone who feels like throwing out their guitar, or giving up, or breaking their equipment, to just put it down, walk away, and come back later. Do that as many times as it takes to accomplish your first song, then keep going. You CAN do this. No matter who you are. I am 7 years into playing and still struggle, I still get frustrated, and I still get mad and want to smash my guitar because “it doesn’t play right”. It’s a frame of mind most of the time. For those of you who physically can’t play, I am sorry that I don’t have a solution and I hope you still enjoy music in some form. I personally don’t know what I’d do without the ability to listen to music, and I truly take it for granted. Being allowed to take this journey and reflect on where we started is part of the reward, thank you for posting this video. Please remove my comment if you feel it’s spammy, I appreciate anyone who took the time to read. 🤘🏻

2013 was a major upgrade in musicality, as was 2021 onward. thanks for sharing. guitar nerds everywhere are enjoying. ❤

Being a self taught guitarist is the superior method, nobody to tell how to play or telling you the "correct" way. You just being yourself and learning and developing your own style. I'm self taught for 10 years and happy with the progress I've made so far. I'm able to play along and keep up with my favorite bands.

Wow. Finally, someone adds an actual Guitar progression video thats realistic and you didnt become SRV after 12 months 😂 (just after 6 yrs 😉). Awesome to see such progress over a lifetime. I dont feel so bad for sucking now after 3 years lol.

You’re a living breathing example of the answer to the question I’ve heard so many times. “How do you do that?” Except I’m a drummer. This is proof that finding your passion and feverishly practicing it is the only way. I’ve heard some people claim you’re born with it. 😂 They can only be referring to the passion it takes to be obsessed enough to spend years on muscle memory. Music is a sickness and you definitely have it man. Seriously, thanks for sharing. I enjoyed it tremendously. 🤘🏻 Don’t ever stop

How different your style changed in all the years. Crazy. And its also nice to see progress with the guitar. I`m in year 3 now in guitar school with acoustic guitar and I learned a lot and I`m so motivated to learn more and more. Now I switch slowly to e-guitar and its a hell of fun. And I`m very excited to see my self in 5-10 more years. To see people with that progress after years motivates me more to give my best to learn techniques, the fretboard, music theory, and the most important thing: The songs :)

Hey man, you’re incredible. Loved watching your progress over the years. I started playing when I was 14, I’m 43 now, I put it down for many years unfortunately, but have picked it up again in the past few years. I wish I stuck with it and was as dedicated as you were/are. Also, when I was learning, my main influence was Kurt Cobain, who I still love, but as you probably know, he’s not a technical player and was more known for his songwriting. So my ability never advanced a whole lot. Anyway, I’m trying to get better and better now, and just want you to know you’re a huge inspiration to this old guy. Haha great stuff man, keep it up! I will definitely follow everything I can by you. Fan for life now! ✌️

This video should be shown in all schools from now on to teach pupils how you can achieve anything you want to in life through perseverance & commitment. This doesnt only apply to music, it applies to art & anything else you would like to learn in life. Well done 👋👋👋 (self taught bassist).

Damn! Nothing more gorgeous than watching someone playing the guitar from nothing to super kick ass! Practicing pays off! CONGRATS!!!!

You've progressed beautifully! Your tone, vibrato, phrasing is phenomenal! Good job man!

What a cool overview and time lapse. I hope your playing brings you satisfaction and an avenue for you in life.

One day you'll be as good as me source: I've been playing two weeks Update: I quit and now play bass

Dude, I've been playing Bass since 1975 and my wife and I just ran across your video. Clicked on it for fun. That was a fun ride watching you grow from the always faithful smoke on the water to a surgeon. I love your style and sound. Really love your precision and dedication. What got you to think to record all those years is beyond me but one of the most entertaining backgrounds to your story. Keep it up man. You have earned every damn bit of what's coming as you continue to grow and clearly entertain the masses. Hats off man.

Gday from Downunder mate. I sat down to eat dinner scrolling through youtude and this popped up, so i thought why not. Enjoyable to say the lest. Then 2013 arrived and i honestly thought that guitar was gunna catch fire. 2016 2017 The clarity is amazing , and from 2020 wt. thank you so much RYS, you made my evening, you now make it look so easy, Take care and best wishes You deserve it.

Honestly, watching that journey was fantastic. What a guitarist. You're brilliant mate.

I will come back here when this video will have 100 million view.

This makes me wish I had continues learning the guitar. It's 20 years ago I got my first guitar, and im still stuck at the badly played smoke on water part 😂

I’m 67. When in my teens I played the drums. But my true love was doing what you did. Guitar. You stuck to it and became very proficient. You should be proud. 👍👍

Wow bro - that is awe-inspiring. I bet after you compiled all these videos into one, even you was struck with the WOW!! That’s great man. You became a professional through hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. What a proud moment. Thanks foe sharing friend

Mom must be very proud of her little boy...👏👏👏👏👏

You just became one of my favorite guitarists. @17 year mark is where you REALLY start to shine.

Oh bro this brought so warmth in my heart and tears to my eyes! Wishing you the very very best and don't stop brother!!!

You were born for this. Amazing hard work, well done.

You worked hard for this viral hit of a video. Good job, and thank you for sharing this.

He found the meaning of life through guitar. When we have proven to ourselves what we are worth that’s when we realize life is worth living.

Dedication for sure . It’s awesome you have kept up and can go back see it from the start .

this video is pretty awesome. I started playing guitar when I was 16 i’ve been playing guitar for 39 years now it makes a big difference when you start younger than 16 and you are living proof of it. You’re really good guitar player. I made it to the point of being able to tour and see the world luckily enough I’m sure you’re gonna do great things.

where you were after only 3 years is amazing

I’m impressed man, you steadily improved, stuck with it and became a killer player. Not a lot of people have the will and drive to stick with learning an instrument. The time, practice and dedication it takes makes it fairly difficult. As a fellow guitarist, I’m really proud of you man and you are well beyond where I ever was. I started playing at 12 and was dedicated to rhythm playing. Metallica was (and still is) my favorite band and I idolized Hetfield, so I really wanted to model myself after his playing. Like you, I learned everything by ear. Since I’m an old fart, I was learning using cassette tapes, which wasn’t easy. Thankfully CDs became popular not too long after and made life a lot easier. At maybe 4 years I could play Kill em All straight through to the end of Justice pretty flawlessly, the Rhythm parts at least, I didn’t touch solos except for Fade to Blacks beginning solo because it was easy and some smaller solos in Orion. I learned the Black album when it came out also. Peppered in I learned entire albums from earlier Anthrax (like Among the Living), Megadeth (Rust in Peace), various Iron Maiden, Motley Cru, Guns and Roses, etc. just random songs I liked here and there. In High School I’d spend a minimum of 3-4 hours a day playing. I was bullied heavily in HS, and guitar was my escape, my emotional outlet. If I had a particularly bad day, I’d actually play the first 4 Metallica albums, in order, without skipping a song. That was usually a 5+ hour session, but by the end I felt better, all the anger and hatred and everything else just melted away. It saved my life, literally. I did become a fairly proficient rhythm player. Unfortunately for my guitar playing, I got married young at 21, had a kid at 22 and my playing time took a huge hit. I’d still play sometimes, I’d record some stuff, but work, a kid, a wife….i just stopped playing regularly. Then I had to sell all my equipment to pay bills when I became disabled and couldn’t work, I was left with nothing to play. Every time I’d manage to get gear and start again, something would happen and I’d have to sell to cover bills. Now I’ve been without a guitar or amp for at least 7 years, and I miss playing. I really miss that emotional outlet and just playing in general. I have some arthritis in my hands, so I don’t even know if I could play, but I want to try one day. When that will be I have no idea, we live paycheck to paycheck, since I’m on disability which pays like a joke. Losing 2/3rds of your salary when going on disability isn’t really conducive to being financially secure. I do miss it though, a lot. I’m hoping someday I’ll be able to afford something like a Harley Benton and an inexpensive modeler or maybe software and start playing again. I want to learn new songs, I want to relearn old songs I used to know so well. Either way, amazing journey, I wish we had a video camera for me to document my progress, but I started playing in 1985 when those were really expensive and my parents were never into the whole video taping thing.

Ok....The 2018 groove lead was effing sick. This is one of my favorite all-time KZfaq videos.

Thank you for letting us follow along on your journey. Very heartwarming.

In the late 70's I was blown away when my neighbor played Smoke on the Water on my front porch, and I was determined to learn guitar ever since lol. I have no recordings, we were dirt poor back then. Now I'm still jamming, praising God by His love & mercy (my biggest fan and the best, in my case) - Keep it up, your chops, composition and timing are top-notch ... Way to go on your progress and thanks for sharing!

Watching YOU GROW Up with the guitar as your appendage was absolutely amazing bro. Hope you and your band go far

watching this was so weird because I've been playing guitar for about 19 years now, and its almost like a mirror in a way. One of the first songs I learned to play was Smoke on the Water. Then I was really into metal music throughout middle/high school. Where we differ is that in late high school I got really into more jam oriented music like Chon, Intervals, and Keller Williams. I got really frustrated once I got to the point of sweeping and moved on to learning other techniques, so you have massive respect for me on that one. I can sweep nowadays, but not as clean, and definitely have strayed from my roots of playing metal music. Great work, great progress. Thanks for sharing

I really enjoyed watching you progress from the clanking sounds you made when you first started playing all the way to the beautiful crisp sounds you now play. Truly amazing.

It's crazy how different you look from 2007 to 2008. Puberty is crazy 🤣. I graduated high school in 2006, started dating my wife of 17 years now in 2007, In 2008 my father died from cancer just before my 21st birthday. Crazy to think back to those times. Besides losing my father, those were some of the best, craziest and most fun filled years of my life. Keep rocking on brother 💪🏼

25:11 the veins in this guys arms is crazy 🤯

This video makes me pick up my guitar and practice for 6hrs straight.

It’s a good thing that technologies in the camera quality tried to keep up with him. If frame rates and HD did not happen it would have been a blur past his wrists. All we would see is his style. He entered metal, metal entered him and it never left. !m!

This is very touching. My son started at your age, but that was in 1984. He went through the same progression. Now, in his late 40s, he is a thrilling virtuoso, and has never put it down. You brought back so many beautiful memories of our life with our growing virtuoso, from being barely able to hold his Kramer, to the face melting guy we are so joyful to have in our family today. Thank you

You’re the embodiment of the saying ‘Practice makes perfect’

great video, im 52 and i started learning guitar when i was 50 great inspiration for me,just got myself a PRS 24/08 and im loving it but i wont get rid of my first guitar,keep up the good work pal

I'm saving this and will show this to my kids any time they want to give up on themselves when learning new things. Incredible!!!

Comment feeding the algo..every child learning to play an instrument needs to see this

this is absolutely beautiful man, wow. to see you go from the age of 9 to a complete monster through the years edited together like this is eye opening. i have an 8-year-old daughter, this made me emotional to see the possibility of potential through time.

This shows that having the right motivation to push yourself is important. Kudos to your journey.

Intervals-Leave No Stone is such a cool groove. What a wonderful record of your journey and progress...BRAVO!