Sam Blakelock

Hi! I'm Sam, Co-Founder and CEO of Pickup Music, an independent education technology company based in Los Angeles.

I started Pickup Music while studying jazz guitar in New York City. From 2015-2018, I grew Pickup Music to become the leading online community of musicians with over a million Instagram followers. It has since evolved into the top provider of music education with over 20,000 members.

I lead the content, curriculum, and engineering teams at Pickup Music.

Posts

October 2025

Learning has to be fun

My thoughts on curriculum design and why gamification isn't the answer.

1 min read

July 2025

Pickup Music is on the App Store

Excited to announce the Pickup Music iOS app released today and has debuted at #77 in the Education charts.

1 min read

June 2025

New site!

It's been a while since I had my own website.

1 min read

December 2015

Grant Green

Grant Green's role in the development of jazz guitar has often been overlooked.

3 min read

December 2015

Wes Montgomery

The genius of John Leslie 'Wes' Montgomery is undisputed by critics and guitarists alike. Just as Charlie Christian blazed a trail in the late 1930s, Wes was the leading force in jazz guitar from the 1960s onwards. Wes built on Christian's innovations to form a playing style that quickly became the defining sound of jazz guitar.

4 min read

October 2015

Instagram

I grew my Instagram from 300 to 1300 in two months by posting good content and using smart hashtags. In this story I'll share a few thoughts I have on how to use tags to grow your following, hopefully you can put them into use.

7 min read

October 2015

College

You’re 13-20 years old and you’re considering studying music at college. Is it worth the tuition fees and time?

5 min read

September 2015

Jazz Standards

List of 20 Jazz Standards (Often Called at Jam Sessions)

3 min read

September 2014

Cruise ship gigs

How To Play Guitar On A Cruise Ship (and get paid)

4 min read