A missing piece of the puzzle?
I guess. It’s kind of funny, I saw Conner’s videos and took a lesson with him. Then saw his account was deleted. Then I mentioned to my productivity ai that his account was deleted and it started talking about plagiarism and I was like “what the hell are you talking about” and then I found this forum and the Reddit post. Anyways, I think it would be interesting, helpful, or maybe just appropriate to share this. It’s a message from Conner himself giving his perspective on the whole situation. I don’t think at the core of it he’s a bad guy, just someone who made a mistake when things got tough and knows it. here’s what he sent me
Hello,
I thought I would put this text here rather than typing it all out in one email. Hopefully you will see why this is the case in a moment.
To clarify, yes, I have removed my Instagram page entirely as well as all my other social media pages (YouTube, TikTok etc). The reason for this is due to extremely poor decisions I made around the time I started producing those lesson videos on that page and started to pick up more viewership on social media.
The vast majority of the lesson videos you saw on my page and that were used in private lessons (more on this point later) were plagiarised. Some videos in particular, such as the ones on “economy of motion,” were lifted from Thomas Gilroy’s lesson material on Troy Grady’s Cracking The Code forums. Other videos, such as lessons on the picking hand, were lifted from Anton Oparin’s private lecture material, which he hosts strictly in his guitar academy. I not only did this without asking any permission or giving any credit whatsoever, but I also presented my videos in a way that misled viewers and potential students, making it seem as though the research and work shown in the videos was my own. This is not the case - the research and work presented in the majority of those videos is not my own and is purely the work of Anton Oparin, Troy Grady and Troy Grady’s CTC instructors, especially Thomas Gilroy.
I understand that my actions are completely disgraceful and wholly unethical. I’m deeply sorry for doing what I did and misrepresenting myself so egregiously. At the minimum, this level of plagiarism in any serious academic setting would be grounds for immediate expulsion - not just from the institution itself, but from the entire academic community - and had I continued to publicly host this material and misrepresent my social media content using others’ intellectual property the way I did, there would also potentially be rather severe legal repercussions for myself.
I knew deep down that this was the wrong decision to make from the start, but continued anyway. Like others on social media, I personally “felt” that I “deserved” more online recognition after a long period in the past spent scouring every resource I could think of, acquiring a good amount of mechanical and compositional skill, posting honest content regularly, and ultimately getting nowhere. I was willing to go to any length to receive the recognition that, in my mind, I “deserved” and was going to just “give to myself,” regardless of who I had to step on to achieve that goal. I had hoped that once I had launched my social media and gained viewership proper, I could then build the remainder of my career on my own merit as a composer and performer. I understand that this way of thinking was completely wrong, shameless and again, unethical. I’m truly sorry for this. Moreover, I understand that this plan would never have worked out long-term anyway; if not Troy Grady/Anton Oparin/Thomas Gilroy, someone else would have ultimately caught on to this later down the line, where the consequences would have been much more dire.
Once the initial high of receiving more viewers, followers and positive messages from guitarists I admired had worn off, and I had fully grasped how damaging this already was and could be - not just to myself, but to the people mentioned whose work I plagiarised, and to potential students and viewers - I made the decision to remove all of my social media accounts and the content therein. If you would like the full context, please read Thomas Gilroy’s posts on the matter (@tpgilroy on Instagram).
On the point of private lessons, I have been informed that the few students who paid to take lessons with me after seeing and being impressed by the videos on my Instagram page were very dissatisfied with the lessons, noting the disconnect between my actual teaching style and the “teaching” style demonstrated on those videos. The reason for the disconnect was simple: my “brand,” up to that point, had been built on a misrepresentation of my own abilities as an instructor, setting expectations that were simply too high to ever be fulfilled, using the hard work of others which I simply did not understand well enough to effectively teach. This hurt the most, and was what prompted the making of this text document. Even if you were in fact satisfied with the lessons you were given, I would still not be comfortable conducting more lessons; I’ve brought myself back down to earth and realised the gravity of the situation enough to say that it would be an incredibly bad idea, and that more importantly, it would be wrong to do so.
If you wish to learn more, please go to the sources mentioned above, as they’ll do a better job than I ever could. Read Thomas Gilroy’s lesson material. Read Anton Oparin’s lesson material. Read Troy Grady’s lesson material. I harbour no ill will or hard feelings against any of them, and honestly believe that their perspectives on technique will change the guitar world for the better. I suppose I also just wanted to be a part of that history - I was never much of a competent teacher in the end, even when I had made my start doing simple and honest work in schools. I never had the same creative drive, thinking skills or ability to “be somebody” that others seemed to show so effortlessly. I understand how frustrating it may be for you that I’ve made this apology in writing, rather than speaking it to you out loud on a call, and I profusely apologise to you and those other students especially.
I expect no sympathy and I fully accept any and all consequences for my actions. As it stands, I have no plans to return to making this type of content on social media at any point, or to even return to social media on a public-facing scale at all. I also understand that my reputation and trust among the online guitar community will likely have taken a big enough hit that I would never be able to do so again regardless - posts regarding the matter have received a fair bit of attention online. This would mean a loss of potential income; as an average freelance musician, it’s important in today’s climate more than ever to be able to take on multiple modes of work and multiple streams of income outside of simply playing and writing for your instrument. Rest assured I have reaped little to no benefit acting the way I did - in fact, quite the opposite now. I also accept this consequence. My content and presence will remain unpublished and unavailable for viewing on any platform, indefinitely. It’s the least I can do.
Given how quickly and unpredictably word can spread online and spill over into the real world, I’m not even sure at this stage if I would be able to build up the nerve to show my face again to friends I know personally in my local music scene. The past few days, as you can imagine, have been unpleasant. To take the decisions and actions I took is deeply embarrassing.
I accept that you may do with this information what you will, and that at any time, you may pass this information on, or publicly share it on your own social media or otherwise, or simply delete it as we go our own separate ways. Going forward, I will do absolutely anything and everything possible to keep holding myself accountable so that nothing like this ever happens again. This situation was born from a dedication to my craft and what was initially a good-faith effort to understand it better. I wanted to make my own improvements and pass on what I learned to people I knew that were struggling with the same issues. I allowed my dedication to spiral out of control into obsession, and in a moment of desperation and god knows what else going on in my head at the time, I allowed it to devolve into plagiarism of the people and work I admired so much. In the process, I’ve burned bridges that I really ought to not have burned, just so I could wake up every day and see numbers increase on a screen. It is completely indefensible, and once more, I truly and deeply apologise for everything I’ve done.
I hope I can resurface one day in the far future and carve out my own separate niche in the online space without needing to rely on the work of anyone else but myself - I still consider myself a more-than-capable musician, at the very least - but I know it’s not as simple as just apologising and going offline until forgiven. If you have to take anything away from this text, please just don’t make the same mistakes I did. I was once one of those people who saw the advent of “miming,” fake guitar playing and people stealing videos of other guitarists on social media back in the day and told myself, “That’s so scummy! I would never do anything like that!”
It’s so easy not to do, but so easy to do at the same time once you’ve become invested in the rat race, and look at where it got me. Don’t do it, it’s not worth it.
- Connor (formerly @connorlynnguitar)
22/04/2026
