The Real Secret to Making Money in Music: Lessons from Brett Papa's Blue-Collar Hustle

From Amp Shop to Online Guitar Education

Plenty of great guitar players reach their mid-thirties and wonder whether a life in music is still possible. Brett Papa was one of them. In this episode of Playback Sessions, recorded at Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville, Brett tells host Spencer Handley how he went from building amps at Divided by 13 to running a thriving education brand that works with players like Tim Pierce, Tom Bukovac, and Guthrie Govan.

His story is useful for any guitarist who has wondered how to make a sustainable living without headlining stadiums. It also ends with a practical lesson on the CAGED system and pentatonic scales that explains how Jimi Hendrix strung chords and licks together so seamlessly.

The Wild West Days of YouTube

Brett reconnected with his high school friend Marty Schwartz at an all-night steak bar where Marty was playing a gig. Both were in their thirties and trying to figure out how to earn a living in music. Marty had started posting guitar lessons on a platform most people barely knew about yet: YouTube.

After a few months, Marty invited Brett to film some lessons. Brett, a self-described Ozzy and Van Halen fanatic, taught a hard rock song and realized he enjoyed it. More importantly, he saw a way out of trading hours for dollars in a physical location. When he delivered his first small course and got paid, it was the biggest check he had ever received as an adult.

It was the light bulb of, okay, I can be the master of my own destiny at this if I figure out my own lane.

Marty drilled the business side into him, especially email acquisition. The model was simple: teach something useful on YouTube, then invite interested viewers to opt in for a deeper lesson off the platform. Those viewers became what marketers call warm leads. Once Brett had a few thousand emails, he had a real business, because every new course had an audience ready for it.

Three Jobs and Four Hours of Sleep

None of this happened easily. For years, Brett worked at Divided by 13 from 6:30 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon, drove home, spent time with his new baby, and then filmed lessons in a friend's office from 9:00 at night until about 2:00 in the morning. On weekends he worked at an alternative medicine clinic. He often worked 20 days in a row on roughly four hours of sleep a night.

Marty's advice was to film a video every single day, and Brett followed it. He believes that consistency is what built his early channel, long before anyone talked about algorithms. Today he posts far less often because the email list and collaborations carry the business, but he is clear that beginners need to show up on a regular schedule and pay attention.

Your Student Is the Hero

One of the most important mindset shifts Brett describes is borrowed from Donald Miller's StoryBrand framework. When you teach, you are not the hero of the story. Your student is. You are the guide who solves their problem.

That mindset also turns YouTube into free market research. Brett reads and responds to every comment because viewers tell you exactly what they want. When Guthrie Govan told him backstage that his fretboard knowledge came from something called the CAGED system, Brett went home, studied it, and posted a video. Within a day there were hundreds of comments from players having breakthroughs. That single topic became a cornerstone of his career.

The 10-to-1 Ratio of Creating Value

Spencer shares a principle from a mentor of his: making money is a value exchange with the world, at roughly a 10-to-1 ratio. If you earn a dollar ethically, you likely created about ten dollars of value for someone else. Brett's business reflects that idea. He treats every collaborator as a true business partner and gives them a larger share than they would get elsewhere.

My goal is in one year of working with somebody to make them feel confident enough that if I kept doing this, I could quit everything else.

He learned that generosity from Marty, who taught him everything with no strings attached. Brett did the same for Tim Pierce, helping him launch his YouTube channel simply because he offered, expecting nothing in return.

The Hidden Nuance of Pro Players

Brett often functions like a record producer for education. With improvisers like Tom Bukovac, he picks a topic, lets the player talk and play for an hour and a half, and then turns those ideas into songs so students have a real application. He also stresses meeting people where they are. Some players are sensitive, and making them comfortable on camera is what brings out their best.

Filming Tim Pierce weekly for two years taught Brett that the magic is rarely in the notes alone. It is in how a player picks, fans chords, and controls note duration. Kenny Wayne Shepherd's right hand did so much that Kenny himself did not notice until Brett slowed him down. People dismiss players like that as just playing pentatonic, but as Brett points out, getting thousands of people out of their seats five times a night is about communicating emotion.

Take Initiative and Be Specific

Brett's advice for anyone who wants a career in music is direct. Know exactly what you want, be specific about it, and take actionable steps. Saying you want to make it as a guitar player is too vague. Make it doing what, with whom, and by when? He also encourages professional players to stop dismissing teaching. Building your own brand gives you income, freedom to turn down sessions you do not want, and an identity that does not disappear when a bandleader replaces you.

The Lesson: Connecting CAGED Shapes to Pentatonic Scales

To close the conversation, Brett explains why learning Hendrix songs like Bold as Love, Little Wing, and Castles Made of Sand is one of the fastest ways to improve both rhythm and lead playing.

What the CAGED System Is

CAGED is a way to play one chord all over the neck using five familiar open chord shapes: C, A, G, E, and D. Imagine your index finger as a movable capo. Shift an open A shape up the neck so the root lands on C, and you have the A shape of a C chord. Do the same with the other shapes and you can find any chord in five positions. Brett notes that this is really a bigger-picture version of triads, organized around chords you have played your whole life.

Focus on the E, A, and D Shapes First

According to Brett, the E, A, and D shapes cover about 90 percent of what you will use in solos. To make them minor, you only need to lower one note: the third.

See the Pentatonic Around the Chord

Hendrix's approach comes down to three things: know the chord shape, know the pentatonic shape that surrounds it, and use the notes around the chord to create double stops, hammer-ons, and connecting lines. Because the notes of the chord live inside the scale shape, you always know which notes will resolve and sound intentional. Moving to the next CAGED shape up the neck, you can chain double stops from one position of a chord to the next.

The G Shape Unlocks Major Pentatonic

Many players learn the A minor pentatonic box at the fifth fret, then slide it down three frets to get A major pentatonic. The problem is that they keep playing it like a minor scale, so it sounds like F sharp minor. Brett's fix is to superimpose the G shape of the A chord over that box. Same notes, but now you start and resolve on the A chord tones, and it finally sounds major.

Think in Chords, Not Positions

When Brett asks session players whether they are using the fifth position pentatonic, they often have no idea. They simply see chords all over the neck. If you know the chord shapes and the notes around them, you can navigate a progression in an unfamiliar key, and the I, IV, and V chords are always right under your fingers.

Practical Takeaways for Guitar Students

• Learn the E, A, and D CAGED shapes for a single chord in every position before worrying about all five.
• For each chord shape, learn the pentatonic box that surrounds it and identify the chord tones inside the box.
• Practice ending phrases on chord tones so your licks sound intentional over the progression.
• Use the G shape to stop your major pentatonic from sounding minor.
• Learn a Hendrix tune like Little Wing and watch how he moves from chord shape to chord shape using pentatonic fills.
• Pay attention to nuance: picking, note length, and how you bend. Brett's advice is to learn to feel the bend before chasing more scales.
• If you dream of a music career, write down specifically where you want to be in one year and the first step you will take today.

Final Thoughts

Brett Papa's story is a reminder that a fulfilling life in music can take many forms. His own path came from relentless consistency, generosity toward collaborators, and a genuine love of helping players improve. As he puts it, every hero we admire was inspired to learn and then inspired to create, even when it did not sound great yet. Do not be afraid to be bad at something on the way to getting good.

If you feel stuck on a plateau and want to know what is actually holding you back, book a free Sonora Guitar Skills Assessment. In about 50 minutes, a coach will run an 18-point diagnostic and give you a personalized 30-day practice plan.