Tom Hess - my experience as an ex client

octatonic · September 2017

digitalscream said:

Sporky said:

And how slow the creeping weirdness needs to be. You don't launch straight in with full-bore crazy. You sneak up.

An excellent starter is to get the person to do a small favour for you as early on in your acquaintance as possible - because this establishes that you are a person they do things for. This tactic has worked very well on all of our new neighbours.

I can confirm that this definitely works. I got that firmly established with my next door neighbour when they moved in, and now (six years later) he always helps me fix my car and steadfastly refuses payment every time.

Maybe he's just a nice bloke.

PolarityMan · September 2017

Wasnt Levi caught up in some kind of astroturfing scandal years back? Wonder if its a bit pot calling kettle black stuff.

JezWynd · September 2017

PolarityMan said:

Wasnt Levi caught up in some kind of astroturfing scandal years back? Wonder if its a bit pot calling kettle black stuff.

You grassing him up?

Sassafras · September 2017

Can any of us truly say they have not sinned.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

guitarfishbay · September 2017

Sassafras said:

Can any of us truly say they have not sinned.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Image: http://content.maltatoday.com.mt/ui_frontend/thumbnail/684/0/19_life-of-brian-stoning.png

Sporky · September 2017

mellowsun said:

Sporky said:

And how slow the creeping weirdness needs to be. You don't launch straight in with full-bore crazy. You sneak up.

An excellent starter is to get the person to do a small favour for you as early on in your acquaintance as possible - because this establishes that you are a person they do things for. This tactic has worked very well on all of our new neighbours.

Presumably you do favours for them in return or is this a Derren Brown-esque mind control game?

Not into Derren Brown territory, but it sets the relationship up on the right basis.

I'm not mean to them to their faces, which takes considerable effort, so I'm pretty much doing them a favour every time I see them. One of them we nicknamed Moby when he was viewing next door, and the other is called Old Man [deliberate mispronunciation of his surname] and we pretend he has a glass eye.

Gassage · September 2017

The last time I saw so much bitching from two precious lambs as Hess and Clay was on the Manchester Rubbermen Gay Page on Facebook the day after Mancs Pride. Honestly.

fields5069 · September 2017

I did a search on Tom Hess, and watched the first 30 seconds of a Levi Clay vid, in which Tom Hess reckons he has no first or last name, just a name "Tom Hess". 2 words, 1 name. I then got to wondering how awesome it would be to be taught guitar by Terry-Thomas. He also had no first or last name, just a name. Perhaps Tom Hess should be Tom-Hess.

Gassage · September 2017

fields5069 said:

I did a search on Tom Hess, and watched the first 30 seconds of a Levi Clay vid, in which Tom Hess reckons he has no first or last name, just a name "Tom Hess". 2 words, 1 name. I then got to wondering how awesome it would be to be taught guitar by Terry-Thomas. He also had no first or last name, just a name. Perhaps Tom Hess should be Tom-Hess.

Terry-Thomas added the hyphen by Deed Poll to accentuate the gap between his teeth. That's a fact.

mellowsun · September 2017

This is the guitar equivalent of GamerGate isn't it?

As a result, I predict we'll see the emergence of a new tribe, the TJWs (tuition justice warriors)

Blaendulais · September 2017

Gassage said:

fields5069 said:

I did a search on Tom Hess, and watched the first 30 seconds of a Levi Clay vid, in which Tom Hess reckons he has no first or last name, just a name "Tom Hess". 2 words, 1 name. I then got to wondering how awesome it would be to be taught guitar by Terry-Thomas. He also had no first or last name, just a name. Perhaps Tom Hess should be Tom-Hess.

Terry-Thomas added the hyphen by Deed Poll to accentuate the gap between his teeth. That's a fact.

He's quiet for a while and then returns with startling facts !!

PolarityMan · September 2017

Ahh I remember now, it was a mysogoneeeeee thread back from 2015*

*by remember I mean..used the search

Bridgehouse · September 2017

Gassage said:

The last time I saw so much bitching from two precious lambs as Hess and Clay was on the Manchester Rubbermen Gay Page on Facebook the day after Mancs Pride. Honestly.

Are they Morris Dancers? Please let them be Morris dancers...

guitarfishbay · September 2017

PolarityMan said:

Ahh I remember now, it was a mysogoneeeeee thread back from 2015*

*by remember I mean..used the search

I have also remembered this thread. Made me sad randomhandclaps doesn't post photoshopped pics here anymore.

Drew_TNBD · September 2017

guitarfishbay said:

PolarityMan said:

Ahh I remember now, it was a mysogoneeeeee thread back from 2015*

*by remember I mean..used the search

I have also remembered this thread. Made me sad randomhandclaps doesn't post photoshopped pics here anymore.

I was chatting to him last night. He's happier away from here me thinks.

Wazmeister · September 2017

Gassage said:

So, my first thought was- honestly, what a crock of self-promoting, narcisstic, self-absorbed pointless preening shit.

And my second thought was also honestly, what a crock of self-promoting, narcisstic, self-absorbed pointless preening shit.

Utter nutcases, the lot of them.

But it is all very weird. Literally weird.

And that bloke is an awful guitarist from that clip. It's horrendous.

Bang on.

Why anyone would want to play, and sound like this (bum notes aside) is truly beyond me

nikharrison · September 2017

TimmyO said:

When I first saw some of Levi's early rant videos on this subject, I didn't care for them - I thought the vibe they struck was overly aggressive and sneery and it all seemed a bit unnecessary. It probably didn't help that as they were the ones generating the most comments they were the Levi videos getting suggested to me by YT's algorithms so it was easy to think this was all he was posting (he actually posts a lot of really good educational stuff too).

I actually ended up unsubscribing (probably on a whim when one too many popped up)

More recently I went to his channel to watch one of the educational vids and ended up watching another of his Hess-related videos and the general tone seemed, to me, to be calmer, more measured and said that there were now insiders helping to expose some of the more extreme bullying and brainwashing (for financial gain don't forget) of members of Mr Hess's programs.

I don't know if Levi has deliberately shifted the tone or if it's just coincidence that it seemed that way to me but in either case I was interested when the recent longform video appeared (helped by the fact that I count Nik Harrison as a friend so it was doubly interesting.

I think it's a shame the video weighs in at the length it does, because even as a partly-motivated viewer I couldn't do it in less than 3 sittings and that is a shame because some of the stuff in it is fucking terrifying!

It's far more than him (Hess) seeming to be an aggressive marketeer - I challenge anyone who watches the whole thing (or dips into the timeslots that Levi / @missmisstreater has indicated earlier in this thread) to not come away convinced that Hess is deliberately employing bullying and mentally abusive tactics (the whole 'cult' angle) to bully, belittle, shame, and coerce people (some of them young, including trying to convince them to distance themselves from any loved ones who disagree, or pay to bring them too to the brainwashing seminars) for the financial gain of Hess and his other members.

I DO now think that any community can and should do what they can to call this sort of crap out. It preys on the susceptible and it has NO place or benefit in or to the community.

Levi's methods won't be for everyone, but if I *do* detect a deliberate toning-down then imho that's for the good - the message is terrifying enough that it doesn't need to be yelled so loud and risk putting people off.

I say all this knowing that Levi is someone who genuinely seems to welcome commentary and other opinions, and that he won't be phased by any one person expressing an opinion about his stuff.

If I ever needed any measure of reassurance that my participation in that video was the right thing to do, it's this post. Tim, thank you very much for this.

For the record: Levi and myself are not 'best of mates'. We are networked with each other within the guitar community, and on balance, we've probably had more arguments with each other than any 'communal self-congratulatory discourse'. However, there has never been any absence of respect between us, and that has made for a healthy 'professional relationship'.

I was initially reticent to contribute to this video (as I actually mentioned in the video more than once), I also mentioned more than once that I wasn't a fan of Levi's rant videos, although when certain information came to my attention, my view changed.

Levi and myself briefly spoke about making a video together, closing ranks and addressing issues together, and based on the information that I came into possession of, I agreed.

At some point, we've got to make a choice as to where we stand on important matters and for me, this was important. I was a kid for whom the guitar was an important childhood sanctuary from a number of unpleasant things that I would not like to recount. I can only play what I can play on account of extensive practise (which for me was a massive sanctuary from everything else that was happening in my life).

Tom Hess is directly targeting the same kind of kids today with a very unsavoury approach to 'teaching' them, and he's leading them to believe that his standards are the standards of a community which he has no interest in being a part of, or contributing to, and I take exception to that. Hess' outlook is not consistent with what the guitar community that I know and love is all about.

So I'm on the video... With a guy called Levi Clay...

And where we have had our disagreements and heated debates, I've found myself closer to him, and with strengthened respect for him and his work.

xpia98jf · September 2017

Hess is a complete and utter nutjob even by American standards.

nikharrison · September 2017

pia98jf said:

Hess is a complete and utter nutjob even by American standards.

Couldn't agree more.

Veganic · September 2017

I've got P. T. Hess D.

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Tom Hess - my experience as an ex client

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