shatnershairpiece

Bandcamp Friday is back on Sept 5! This is the only way I make music income anymore. Youtube pays pennies for views. Download all my studio and street work and help support the dying art of improvisation. Audio is MUCH BETTER than what you hear on compressed youtube videos. A lot of track in 24 bit.

thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 16

shatnershairpiece

thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/

After 3 long months off, BANDCAMP FRIDAY finally returns on August 1! I've posted many new jams and albums over the summer. On Friday, I don't get charged the usual 15% fee on purchases.

Why should you support me?

1. I'm making music in real time, spontaneously. This is something that NO ONE does anymore, at least not to my extent. It's called improvisation. Improv is extremely rare in 2025. It flourished from the 40's to the 70's, starting in jazz, then moving to rock/fusion bands in the 70's. I try to keep it alive. I currently hold the world record of a single non stop 'musical' guitar solo at 4 hours straight. I once joined a competition on a popular youtube guitar channel to improvise over a backing track for ONE minute, which is extremely short. The channel got only 4 responders. One of them was Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster cult. One of them was me. The channel guy told me that he gave up the idea as no one was interested in improvising. He was shocked.

2. I'm the ANTI AI. Fake music has taken over everything. It's all over youtube, it's all over spotify. I hope that one day, making actual music will have value again. Right now, AI music making is like a new toy for the kids and the corporations are taking full advantage. It's fun, it's easy, requires no study or skills, and you can even make a fake spotify account and upload nothing but fake music. There is NO WAY this will end well.

3. I've played guitar since I was 10. I'm still playing at 62, and playing better than ever. I'll play until my last breath, or until my fingers can hold out. I can't play in a vacuum. As much as I enjoy playing, I enjoy it even more when I hear from people who enjoy what I do and support by buying some albums or leaving a tip. Right now, my favorite thing is taking video song requests at $100 each. I jam MY version of a cover song, or do a complete original. Full video with dedication to anyone.

4. Live music is dead. No more gigs. I started busking in 2015 because the clubs all closed down. Now busking is also dead. I had to give it up last year due to the ever increasing apathy of the public and the violence I was subject to on a daily basis. My number one comment on my youtube videos was "Why are people ignoring you all the time?" I did it for ten years. I'm lucky to be alive. But that means I get no income from the street anymore, as little as that often was. This means BANDCAMP and PATREON and TIPS (www.patreon.com/Shatnershairpiece) are my sole means of making music income. Please consider subscribing on Patreon to get ad free access to all my street and studio content, that won't be on youtube. For $9 a month you get access to everything. You can even subscribe on youtube for $5 dollars a month, but youtube takes 50%. (Patreon takes 10%)

5. Keeping my youtube videos going takes a lot of time. One video, the performance, the editing, the processing, is usually a minimum 8 hours start to finish. I'm competing against AI bots now, that are making click bait garbage for millions of views. Long form channels like mine are getting pushed out since youtube now uses AI for its algorithms for years. It also refuses to run ads on my videos because it sees them as 'one long uninterrupted piece' with no room for ads. This means Youtube ad views are pennies per month.

6. This is music therapy. I've got hundreds of emails from people who use it this way. Relaxation, headache relief, better sleep, hospice care, (nurses using it for alzheimer patients), road trips, hobby, study, and work background. When I heard from people who said they decided not to commit suicide after hearing one of my jams, I realized what incredible value improvised guitar music can have, how playing from the SOUL in REAL TIME can make a huge difference in people's lives. For me, this would be the pinnacle goal of being a musician.

Give the gift of REAL MUSIC. Keep this dinosaur alive!


🍓 Give the gift of music. $100 gets you a video jam request of your choice!
😎 Patreon (videos you won't see on youtube) www.patreon.com/Shatnershairpiece
🎸 Bandcamp (audio downloads) thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/
🎁 Paypal tip: www.paypal.com/paypalme/6milliondollarguitar?local…
👍 Google pay tip/Apple tip/cc tip: busk.co/30027
❤ Tip with 'buy me a coffee' www.buymeacoffee.com/RobinSpanell
👕 T shirts! www.redbubble.com/people/robinspanell/shop
🎭 Follow me on X for updates! x.com/

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2 months ago | [YT] | 24

shatnershairpiece

Today, July 15/2025, is my 19th year anniversary of being on youtube. I considered doing a 19th nervous breakdown video, but I've had way more than that. My first video in 2006 is still up. Believe it or not, I didn't get any decent views (over 30 per video) until 2020.

Live one hour chat video at 5pm pacific tonight!

2 months ago | [YT] | 63

shatnershairpiece

https://youtu.be/5dlgdN7kafk

Here's a look back at a classic that I posted about 14 years ago. This was one of my first extended guitar solos and was recorded in front of an actual amp. More jazzy.

4 months ago | [YT] | 17

shatnershairpiece

Bandcamp Friday returns on May 2. thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/

Download my music and I keep the 15% fees bandcamp usually takes. I've been on a creative run the last two months, writing, recording, every single day. Glorious pro audio in 24 bit. I've immersed myself into pure music making and keeping improvisation alive. Busking is over due to street violence, youtube is over due to guitar music not getting any views. Patreon and bandcamp is where I am.

All these studio jams and busking videos are now also on www.patreon.com/c/Shatnershairpiece to view. For $9 a month you get access to all of it including years of busking videos from 2016 to 2024, with no ads. Complete 4 hour street shows with no break. Patreon support is REAL support. I'd rather have 60 paying fans there than 130,000 fake/dead/troll subs on youtube. None of this will be on youtube. Youtube from now on will be one short clickbait video per week (all that YT promotes) and one long chat jam every second Thursday at 3pm pacific time ONLY because I love the interaction with my 3 real fans.

4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 15

shatnershairpiece

Bandcamp Friday returns March 7/2025. The schedule for 2025 is May 2, August 1, September 5, Oct 3, Dec 5. thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/ Download all my pro studio audio and live work.

I'm moving 99% of my videos to Patreon paid subscription levels as they now have video uploads. I'm no longer stuck with youtube.

Everything NEW from the last five years and going forward, goes on PATREON. That's busking seasons 2022, 2023, 2024, 500 pro studio jam videos, and all my live band gigs going back to 2008. For $9 a month you can access busking and studio work. Hundreds of hours of pure music therapy for the cost of a coffee.

The only videos that will appear on youtube are PAID JAM REQUESTS and a live jam chat video every two weeks on Thursday nights for my 3 dedicated fans who regularly join in to socialize.

Why Patreon? NO ADS, NO AI PORN, NO INTERRUPTIONS, NO SKYNET ALGORITHMS, NO COPYRIGHT STRIKES, NO interference, EVER. Freedom to create, with no limits. ZERO TROLLS because there is a PAYWALL. Unlike youtube, you WILL get notified of every video I release. I am done giving away all my hard work for free on youtube for no views, 30 second watch times and dealing with psychopaths as a bonus.

Youtube is not musician friendly. If you appreciate REAL music, in REAL time, please support on PATREON with a paid subscription.

6 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 15

shatnershairpiece

Bandcamp Friday is back Dec 6! thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/

Time for those stocking stuffer jams! Here's what I uploaded in the last month:

thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/album/day-o…
thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/album/the-s…
thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/album/im-th…
thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/album/this-…
thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/album/i-see…
thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/album/blues…

How can you support? Bandcamp and Patreon membership. I post a Youtube video tonight at 6pm advertising my shift to Patreon for ALL my extended studio jam videos and why you should sign up there for 'special access'. 4 clips of studio work are in the video. Due to no views anymore on youtube for anything other than 20 second clickbait, this transition away from youtube is necessary. The 'give it all away for free' model is NOT WORKING. (View income from ads amounts to $1 and generally pisses everyone off)

The studio jams will never be shown on youtube and I talk about the numerous reasons why. I will be posting 500 studio jams from the last ten years on Patreon 'special access' level, and they are currently being posted there at a rate of one per day. I think of it this way: It's better to have 100 dedicated paying fans than 130,000 bots that don't even watch the channel.

As for youtube, I've cut back to live chats with an extended street video every second Friday, and I found that it made no difference in views. Average of 10-15 people watching it while broadcast. I thought cutting back from ONCE a week would make a difference, but no change. This tells me there is little interest in these long jams, even when occasionally posted. So for those 10-15 who DO enjoy my chats, please consider supporting on Patreon. You will get access to so much more.

9 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 16

shatnershairpiece

I'm going to cut back on youtube videos for now. I'm finding the extremely low view numbers are not worth the work I'm putting into it. I had my 15 minutes of YT fame in 2022, and that is long gone. I will be doing the live chats once a week on Friday nights. My last live chat upload got 300 views and had about ten people watching it live. (I have 130,000 subs) It's obvious most people don't care about guitar or improv. I will keep doing one shorter video on Monday or Thursday night.

Since my extended 'music' uploads don't get many views, I have decided to move the pure jam videos over to Patreon to a paid level. All my extended studio jams from last 5 years will now be posted there on the $9 a month ‘special access’ tier and every tier above that level. That means NO ADS. No copyrights. I may even start posting ENTIRE busking shows up there from the last 3 years so you can see the whole show in ONE video. There is no way I can catch up to my busking or studio backlog with youtube alone.

www.patreon.com/c/shatnershairpiece

If you enjoy improv, music therapy and my instrumentals please go to patreon and sign up there to get access to the REAL music. Bandcamp will continue with all my audio jams and the next bandcamp Friday is Dec 6. You can support there as well!

Unfortunately, Youtube has become the land of 'outrage and negativity' and I am not going in that direction, so that means I don't get any views. 99% of my videos are pure music, but most people do not ever see them and then complain to me that all I do is post negative videos. HINT! That's because they get promoted to you by youtube.

10 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 95

shatnershairpiece

thesixmilliondollarguitar.bandcamp.com/

Bandcamp Friday does NOT arrive on Nov.1 (Just found out) Next one is DEC. But please download anyway!

By supporting me on bandcamp, you are part of the last of the sites that still respects musicians There is no insane 0.00000001 cents per stream in this world. Bandcamp is the LAST refuge for artist/fan connection where musicians can actually get paid a decent amount for their work.

You get WAV or FLAC or MP3. The best quality there is. When I pour my soul into every jam, it makes me very happy to hear from fans who are getting therapy out of what I do, and understand what I do, which is IMPROV. This is a dead art. And has been dead in the mainstream since the 70's. I'm trying to keep it going. My motto, my life lesson, is NEVER REHEARSE. Live in the moment. That is what you get on every jam I do. REAL TIME CREATION.

11 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 32

shatnershairpiece

My Schecter banshee elite 6 string is still for sale. This has the amazing sustaniac pickup that lets you hold notes forever. That was the main reason I bought it. ONE PIECE BODY is the closest you can get to a Parker fly construction for a lot less money. Feedback loop amount/intensity/harmonics totally controllable with switches. Stainless steel frets last forever. Floyd Rose tremolo. This is made from a rare wood that is no longer allowed. Bought in 2017, used only for a few studio jams. Like new. No marks or scratches. Sustain pickup runs off a 9 volt battery. Make me an offer. I only sell this because I use my Parker all the time now. I paid $1870 in 2017. No payment plans for this. It's cash, online payment, or e transfer.

Here is the guitar in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRcPh...

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11 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 45