Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Steele.
Hi Jordan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started playing guitar when I was 10 and instantly knew this was what I wanted to do for a living. I didn’t have a roadmap for how to become a professional guitarist, but I knew I wanted to do whatever it took to make a career out of it.
I began learning guitar through YouTube, which eventually inspired me to start posting videos of my own—song covers, guitar lessons, gear reviews, and anything else guitar-related. A few years after I started playing, I joined a local band and began gigging at bars around my hometown. That’s when I realized how much I loved performing in addition to simply playing guitar.
Not long after that, I met who I consider to be one of the best guitarists in the world, Andy Lee. I started going to weekly jam nights that he hosted and tried to learn as much from him as possible. Being primarily self-taught up to that point, he became my first true mentor. That experience made me really hone in on my playing and inspired me to start practicing 8–10 hours a day, even while I was still in high school.
After high school, I attended community college, where I studied some jazz guitar. Being surrounded by so many other musicians taught me that I needed to develop into a great musician, not just a great guitar player.
In 2020, I realized that if I actually wanted to make music my career, practicing nonstop wasn’t going to be enough. I needed to start creating opportunities for myself. I began taking YouTube more seriously and posting more consistently, which eventually led to me starting an online private lesson business.
I moved to Nashville and soon after joined a wedding and corporate events band. That was the first time I had the opportunity to travel and perform on a weekly basis. I was surrounded by some of the most talented musicians I had ever played with, and being in that environment forced me to grow tremendously as a musician. It also helped me see a career for myself beyond simply teaching guitar.
In 2022, I married my wife, who has been my biggest supporter throughout all of this. I decided to take some time away from Nashville to focus on growing my online presence, reevaluate my goals, and develop as an artist and find my own voice, so we moved back to my home state. During that time, I released several original songs, continued growing my YouTube and Patreon channels, and created guitar courses.
Then one day, I received a message on Instagram asking if I would be interested in playing guitar for a touring artist. I sent in an audition, and a week later I got the call that I had been selected as the lead guitarist for Blake Whiten. Four days later, I moved back to Nashville to begin rehearsals.
At the beginning of this year, we opened for Bailey Zimmerman and played arenas across the U.S. and Canada. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better than playing arenas, this summer we had the opportunity to open for Morgan Wallen at four stadium shows.
Having the opportunity to perform at this level is something I will never take for granted. I’m incredibly thankful for every opportunity I’ve had so far, and I’m excited to see where this journey continues to take me. I still feel like that 10-year-old kid who just wants to play guitar for a living—the only difference is that now I get to do it.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think one of the biggest challenges has simply been that there isn’t a clear roadmap for making a living as a musician. I knew from a young age that I wanted to play guitar professionally, but being a good guitar player and actually building a career around it are two completely different things.
For a long time, I thought that if I just practiced hard enough and became the best player I could be, the opportunities would eventually come. But especially in a place like Nashville, there are so many incredible players, and being a great guitarist alone isn’t necessarily enough to build a career. At some point, I realized I couldn’t just wait for opportunities to happen. I had to start creating them for myself. That meant putting myself out there online, learning how to make videos, building a teaching business, networking, moving to Nashville, and saying yes to opportunities that pushed me outside of my comfort zone.
This career can be unpredictable, and a lot of the work you put in doesn’t immediately lead to something tangible. One of my buddies once told me, “You like living on the edge.” He was referring to the amount of time and effort you have to put into pursuing a career like this—especially in the beginning when you aren’t making much money—while having faith that you’re eventually going to get where you want to be. You can spend years working toward something without knowing exactly where it’s going to lead.
Looking back, though, some of the opportunities I’m most grateful for came when I was least expecting them. I think one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that you can’t always control when an opportunity is going to come, but you can control how prepared you are when it does.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
For work, I wear a lot of different hats, but everything revolves around guitar. During the early part of the week, I create guitar lesson videos and courses, as well as gear-related content. My gear videos are usually focused on things I genuinely find interesting or useful, and I’ve also been fortunate to partner with companies to demonstrate and create content around their products.
On the lesson side, I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to build an audience around the style of guitar playing I’m genuinely passionate about. I specialize primarily in blues-rock lead guitar, whether that’s teaching licks and concepts I use in my own playing, sharing my overall approach to the instrument, or breaking down the styles of some of my favorite guitarists. I also teach one-on-one lessons online to students all over the world.
Later in the week, my work looks completely different. I’m typically on the road traveling around North America and playing lead guitar for Blake Whiten.
I think what I’m most proud of is that I’ve been able to build a career that allows me to experience so many different sides of being a guitarist. I can spend one day at home teaching someone a lick or creating a video about something I’m excited about, and a few days later be onstage playing that same instrument in front of thousands of people. I’m especially proud that the career I’ve built still revolves around the thing that made me want to do this in the first place: I just really love playing guitar.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Thankfully, playing music is both my job and the thing that makes me happiest. More specifically, I think what really makes me happy is creating things. I love making videos—the process of coming up with an idea, learning and practicing whatever I want to share, and then bringing it all together through filming and editing. I also love writing and recording songs and getting to watch an idea turn into something that didn’t exist before.
But as much as I love the creative process, there’s nothing quite like being on stage and performing. There’s a feeling I get when I’m playing guitar in front of a crowd that’s hard to put into words. In those moments, I’m completely present and not thinking about anything else. The time I get to spend on stage truly feels like the peak of my happiness.
I also think part of what makes all of this so meaningful is getting to share it with other people. Whether someone learns something from one of my videos, connects with a song, or is simply having a great time at a show, knowing that something I love creating can bring some amount of joy to someone else makes it that much more rewarding.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jordansteele.store/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordansteele__?utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jordansteele?si=vhglnLRfDDMhk1GD
