Site Suggestion

I tried putting this through the contact section via email, but it keeps rejecting it, so "Sorry", but it was a lot of typing and I would love to get an answer.

Here is my suggestion:

Hi, love guitar tricks by far more than jam play and any other sight I have tried. The biggest draw for me is the quality combined with the structure. I have been meticulously following the core programs and have completed 1 and 2 and have now been working on blues 1. Here is my only complaint, but for someone like me looking for the structure, it's a pretty big one. I think somewhere in each lesson should be a note, symbol, or instruction explaining exactly what Guitar Tricks or the instructor think you should be able to accomplish on that lesson before moving on. Christopher seemed to be better about this in the core portion, but Anders, not as much. Great instructor and still love him. I have been hung up on several sections. One part was examples of the different types of blues. There was the tab and everything just like the other lessons, but it seemed really hard. I finally wrote him and he responded back that "that part was only intended to demonstrate what you will be able to do later and different styles" not that you should be able to play that yet, but I spent days on end in utter frustration. Now I am on Lesson 5: "The most important notes" and he says "I'm going to show you some super simple (uh ha) lead and you can see it's just the same notes you have been practicing in the blues scale", so it's one minute and 35 seconds of lead with some very, very fast sections (some full sections have 1/16 notes which at 85 bpm is around 340 actual counted notes per minute and in the same run some part count 3 to the one beat and then in the same run switches to 4 to one beat, how do you count that or set a metronome to try and do that?), no way that is super simple. There is tab and a backing track and you should be able to play at 85 bpm, but I have tried everything to learn this and can't get past the first 8 beats. The counting the actual notes is almost impossible from the tab for this level and there is no way to slow down the video or backing track to try it that way. So I get having tab for people who want to give it a shot, but is this seriously recommending that I should be able to play that whole lead at that speed to feel like I have passed this section, or is he again, just showing us what we will be able to do someday if we keep following the lessons and practicing. So to wrap it up, a lot of people come here for the structure as a selling point, you emphasize the structure as one of your strong selling points; I really think it would make the whole site and experience a perfect 10 (not joking on that part at all) if in each section it simply stated what you recommend the student be able to do (like passing a test) before moving on to the next section. You should be able to play the tab at the recommended bpm before moving on or you should be able to feel comfortable playing this section with the backing track before moving on to the next section and in cases where it's just a demo of things to come, then state that so no one is stuck trying to learn something well beyond their skill level for that point. Everything else for me is literally perfect, that one improvement would just ace it for me.

Part of your ideas may be great for a one on one with a real life instructor.. To me some of your concept would require interaction between student and instructor.
As for me I don't like testing as I've been out of school and away from the need for public certification for many years. Guitar Tricks for me is the fun playing guitar.
Just my point of view. Hopefully you'll get some good response from others. There may be many that share your point of view.
For the future, if you break down you large paragraph into several small paragraph, or present ideas in outline form it would be easier for people to follow.
Good luck with your guitar quest..

Sorry about the rambling paragraph. I typed it much better as an email to "Guitar Tricks" and not a post on the forum, but after all that it gave me several error messages, so I just copied and pasted into the forum so as not to lose the whole thing.

I totally understand each player having different wants and needs. I am very analytical, as you could probably tell. I do want to clarify that I was only suggesting what they recommend to advance, but was not suggesting that you wouldn't be able advance if you want to skip around. Just some clarification on each section from the instructor either saying "this is just a demo for fun, give it a shot" or "this is pretty important in your development, you should be able to do this in order to tackle future lessons"

Thank you for reading and your response.

I agree with a lot of your suggestions, and you've provided the solution too.
Let the student know if "this is just a demo for fun, give it a shot" or "this is pretty important in your development, you should be able to do this in order to tackle future lessons"
I'm currently in the 'Rock 1' section, and have been wondering the same, but I'm content with assuming that, with practice, I'll be able to do 'that' one day, and trying to not get hung up on the one thing I can't do yet.

I agree with what Crtang is saying about the blues course. I know there are parts where it gets too hard and am not sure what to do about it. The new rock course doesn't do that, we have learned our lesson and aren't repeating the mistake.

Crtang, if you could help us understand exactly where the problems are, we might be able to fix it for future students. If you can help me make a specific list of the places where you run into trouble, we can review them and edit the videos or reshoot them.

Is this the series you are referring to?

Intro to Regional Blues:
http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=14485&c_id=4&ch_id=75&s_id=947

Or is it farther along?

Jon

Yes, that was one specific spot. Because tab was provided with the demo I thought I needed to play it before advancing. I finally re- listened to his intro a couple of times and made the assumption that he was only demonstrating these styles and not expecting you to play it yet. After advancing it became very evident that assumption was correct.

Now I have completed Blues One and the next section on lead was incredible. I loved it so much and for the first time in my 40+ years of guitar I can understand and play some ad lib lead. I am now advancing through Rock 1.

Still love the sight, worth every penny and giving it 9.5 out of 10 for me. 10 would be a simple note somewhere in each lesson overview just plainly stating what Guitar Tricks recommends the student accomplish before moving on.

Thank you for the response, customer care and most of all for helping me achieve a goal in my life I had almost given up on.

Hi Crtang.

Thanks for the reply.

I am thinking an easy solution for now would be to edit the lesson text to say something to the effect that "you don't have to get this 100% to move on." Was it just that spot and no other spot? Or can you point me to some other spots as well?

Jon

Jon,

I read this thread a few days back and thought about it and came across it again today. I think everyone has made good points, but I still wonder how can you cover something like this. So below is an idea for a disclaimer I came up with.

"Lessons contain both advanced and student level playing. The advanced is presented so students can hear and see what the lesion is trying to teach. The student level is to show what they will need to complete, before they can play and barrow from the lesions."

To me wording kind of like what I presented above address the problem in a way that would cover the site, while respectfully presenting information to readers.