Competition Upload Thread, How to improve GMC! Options

[Marek Rojewski]

Well I am unsure is this a good idea, but anyway:

GMC RADIO/PLAYSTREAM

How often did You listen to one lesson many times in a row, just enjoying how great it sounds? I did this multiple times, sometimes even setting the loop function to listen to it for something like an hour.

It could be done in multiple ways:

1. in a radio fashion - You can open a window with a player, and it will play some lessons randomly.

2. You can type the lessons You wanna hear, I am not a programmer so I don't know how it could be implemented, simplest thing would be to copy/paste url's of the lessons You want to listen to "somewhere" so it would connect to them in a certain order, but it also can be done in more professional web-design manner for sure.

Of course it could be also both of those and more, for example: if You are a guest, You can listen to the basic radio thing - random lessons. Maybe choose what style of lessons You want (we already have all the lessons grouped in different categories). If You're a member, than You could construct Your own playlist.

What is more, many people don't check all the lessons, because of limited time. Yet if You would listen to such "radio" You could suddenly hear something You like very much, and check the name of the lesson in the "player".


In sum I think such an little application would provide everyone with quite much help and entertainment.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[playaxeman]

He there:

Add GMC tools like
1) chord library sorted on A, B, C etc with open chords, barre chords, slash chords Showing the fingering in a diagram with the notes that are part of the chords the related scales and the possibility to do a chord search, print the chord sheet and to save it to my personal library (and deleted them in time)

2) scale library: all major, minor, pentatonic, modes all sorted with a key in a central place. Including the formulas, the patterns, the theory behind them and the possible chord that can be used in that scale. Also put a a link to related lesson

3) Backing track library: all the GMC lesson backing tracks sorted by style so you don't have to go to a lesson but access the BT just by style (Rock, blues, funk etc) This makes jamming along more easily

4) Make a new private zone that is called "my stored lessons" and make it editable so I can say for myself how much I have progressed (0-100%) for a lesson so I can see which ones I mastered and which one I have to work on.

5) add a "theory behind the lesson" tab. Here the instructor can explain how he constructed the solo he just did. Now I am playing some great solo lesson without having any idea why such and such scales have been used or why it sounds so good. We just don't want be be "copy cats"but in the end we want to improvise our one solo's with confidence in any chord progression in any key.

6) Add a Technique tab at the lesson; in the tab the instructor can comment on the lesson (tips & tricks) and focus on a guitar technique rather then just showing what notes to play lets say a fast legato part, or a tabbing part or a chord or how to count the beat/r

7) Always add the chord progression and rhythm patterns (DDUDU) with a solo lesson

8) Personal boards for every instructor so you can interact with them easily

9) Slowdown the main video without losing the pitch to make it comfortable to play along at slow speed

10) A better way to renew the subscription

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by playaxeman: Apr 6 2010, 09:57 PM

[Fusar]

Playaxeman, I love your points 5) and 6), I think about this almost every time I look at a lesson!

Furthermore the funk week with Ivan was awesome. We have so many great instructors, so I think it won't be too difficult to have a certain regularity on "special weeks" (one per month?). It simply could be an instructor week, not about a specific style. Chats, collaborations, lessons...maybe other people will come up with more ideas how to design these weeks

Finally, I'd love lessons about ukulele, banjo, mandolins and dobros!!

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[zen]

Another quick idea:

We can consolidate or form a collection of every member's myspace or youtube channel in One Page for easy access.
It will help all GMC users to easily view each other's music and connect to each other and form a bigger network.

Some of us fail at advertising including me (have 23 subscribers on Utube ), so this could prove helpful in finding and supporting each others music.

Sorry if this already exists somewhere on the site.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by zen: Apr 7 2010, 11:45 AM

[kaznie_NL]

My very doable idea.... A random lesson button!


How many times have you been wandering in the lands of GMC, searching for the next lesson to practice? There are so many cool lesson, I'd like to be able to just get some random lessons to listen to!

It'd look like this for example, oversimplified since I suck at paint

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[Santiago Diaz Ga...]

This is a great idea. I'm sure that lots of cool projects will appear

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[thefireball]

Sorry for spamming, I have got another one here.

It's about the lick of the day. For now, there are only 30 or 31 licks and, correct me if I am wrong, they were all recorded by Kris.

The goal here is to change the concept's name and call it "Licks of the day" because 31 licks is not a lot and certainly not enough.

But more than that, the goal is to make it closer to the community by allowing Instructors and Students (Members) to upload licks. But because we want to keep the idea of having one lick per day (well, let's say one instructor's lick and one student's lick) we need a bit of improvements.

Bellow, I designed two new page, the first one is the new lick's page with the instructor and student's licks. You can see a + button that allow any student to add their own video in response of the instructor's lick.

The student's video shouldn't be the exact reproduction of the instructor's lick but the student's interpretation with his own composition and creativity.

Then, we can have a lot of student's replying to an instructor's lick of the day but only one will appear on the frontpage. So we add a rating system so other members can rate the instructor's lick and the student's lick. The best instructor and student's licks will appear on the frontpage at the given date.

Let's say Emir (sorry Emir, you're exemplar ) uploaded a video on the 5th of April 2010 and Kristopher uploaded another video on the same day in 2009 we will only display the best rated video on April 5th 2010. And the same for the student, except that students reply to existing licks of the day.

Perhaps we can add other criteria as well. For example, an instructor's lick will be first if it has more replies than another one even if its rating is lower. Or some other trick to make it more funny !

Fortunately, by clicking a link, we will be able to see all the other instructor's lick, using a calendar or some list displaying every year and uploads.

Well, enough said :

[attachment=20550:lotd.png]

And here's the upload page where we can upload a video or add a Youtube link.

[attachment=20551:upload.png]

EDIT: Google Link = Youtube Link

So after a few months and years we will have a complete calendar full of licks and answers. But the access to the Licks of the day will still be as easy as Funk because we only display two of them.

That's enough for a first shot but when creating those few image another idea came up in my mind...

That's cool that you used my video picture as an example!

My very doable idea.... A random lesson button!


How many times have you been wandering in the lands of GMC, searching for the next lesson to practice? There are so many cool lesson, I'd like to be able to just get some random lessons to listen to!

It'd look like this for example, oversimplified since I suck at paint

The random idea lesson is a great one!!

OK, here are a few more coz these have affected me quite a lot as I reside on the other end of the planet.

People in this part of the world seem to miss out on most of the live activity especially the video chats.

Since we've experimented quite a bit with video chats now to be confident to put some schedule around it. So my recommendations are:

1. A monthly calender - published on the main page. The highlighted dates on the months calender will depict some sort of collaboration deadline, video chat organized by some instructor etc .. This will act as 'key dates', so serious students/member around the world can adjust their schedules accordingly and not be left out of other key activities. Not everyone uses the "view new posts" feature. So sometimes, key announcements are missed out. I know the "workshops" section covers most of this. Maybe we can incorporate the gmc calender there along with a CLOCK, so we're not browsing time conversion sites to see how many hours are left to the next chat

2. Structured video chats - Would be a great idea if instructors announce the major topics being covered in the next session. Of course I love the current format where anyone can drive the direction of the video chat, so definitely not eliminating it completely. Just a minor tweak. For example if I desperately want to learn sweeping and I know that a lot of this technique will be discussed in the next video chat with x instructor, I'll make sure I can attend, rather than attend and spend most time listening to other topics.

3. Record video chats - Please record and post video chats for us poor b@#$%^&s living on the other side of the world. I wake up and realize I missed out on 2 chats in the night. .. I think this one is the easiest and the quickest to implement and a lot of us will appreciate it

4. MTP Improvements - Needless to say that new MTP rules sucked major donkey poo. They were not well received by anyone. The new joiners should be given a priority to pick their instructors and after this process is complete, the old batch should be able to choose form the instructors left with no students or very few students. A break in MTP is doing me no good unfortunately. I miss it and I'm sure a lot of people support this thought.

5. Moderators in chatroom - For the same reason we have mods on the forums. Some higher privileges should be given to some regulars. Things can get complicated at times

I like the recording video chats idea!

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by thefireball: Apr 8 2010, 02:24 PM

[ruben_mcn]

How To Improve GMC ??

To Improve the Lessons:

In order to improve GMC´s lessons we Could use new lessons by Kris or more lessons that are taught in the same way Kris teaches in his old lessons. Cause they are so entertaining and easy to follow that motivates us to learn more and more ( and since he interacts w/ the viewer it Gives a much more realitic feel ).. SO ON FUTURE LESSONS THE INSTRUCTORs COULD :

- Try to Interact more w/ the viewers
- and if possible keep it fun

And Also More Lessons of real songs instead of in style of i think students prefer this ones ( and it would maybe help more people to Join Gmc , The Main Videos of these lessons could be posted at youtube w/ a link to the Free Sample of the lesson and maybe the could be a Big Sign Up shortcut on the right side of the lesson or bellow the lesson somthing like that (and if the lesson is fun and entertaining like i sayd before even more people will like it and therefore more people will join GMC ) )

We could also have a better search engine.. cause sometimesit fails when you try to find somthing

A Backingtrack data base (This has already been said ) would came in really handy or Maybe the Backingtracks could have a link to be downloaded from on Lessons "Main" page.. This would make it easier and faster to get the backingtracks and start parcticing right away...

And at last but not least the Tabs ... There are a few lessons that don´t have Tabs .. If they all had it would be a lot easier to learn the lesson

P.s: What if you got an new Drum instructor for GMC ??? Some new drum lessons might inovate the site and w/ advertising maybe guitarmasterclass could also be the place for drummers to hangout

To Improve Video Chat:

We Could Have different Chat rooms within the Gmc Chat in wich there could be diffrent video chats ... For instance Emir and Ivan both want to give a video chat at day X at X O´Clock normally One of the VideoChat sessions Would Have to Be canceled , BUT WiTH THIS WAY THEIR COULD BE SIMULTANIOUS CHATS..

SO if YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY SOME AWSOME NEOCLASSICAL STUFF YOU COULD GO TO EMIR´S CHAT AND IF YOU WANT TO GET FUNKY YOU COULD GO TO IVAN´S CHAT .... or even go to one for a while and then go for the other ...

And in the addition to the idea of Quibanez (wich had the idea of having a video chat for students in orthe to be seen and helped by instructores ) we could have a room just for students videochats this way more experienced students Could pass their knowledge to those who need it.. or even students who are having trouble W/ something could broadcast and GmCrs that are in the Chat can give him a hand ...( IF necessary they could even broadcast them self to help the Gmcer in trouble w/ somthing )

To Improve the Community:

- We Could have more Competitions these really push the students a lot cause since its a competition they work their asses off
- Their Could Be A section in the forum were People Could put what they have to sell (and maybe reduce the price to the fellow Gmc:ers )
- Have More Events like Funk week (and maybe advertise them somewhere on the web those events migth also atracto more people to gmc )
- Maybe there could do some discounts for Gmc:ers who have been at the site over an year or somthing like that ( ex: take 3 bucks of the price of every month ,if they pay by the month ; if they pay 3 in 3 months take 10 of the fee and so on ) this would help the comunite continue at gmc cause i think that some people get off cause they can´t pay

PS: GMC has some nice bass lessons why don´t you guys advertise it like you advetise that you teach guitar w/ those awsome kris videos??

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by ruben_mcn: Apr 10 2010, 12:21 PM

[zen]

Ive noticed the only time I spend on other guitar sites other than GMC is to look for aspects like rhythm, eartrainig, theory practice etc.

Yes, we do have a lot of theory here on GMC but we need to practice that theory, not just read it.
It can be made a bit more interactive and fun

GMC Theory Practice Room

After loggingon, the following Sub-sections are presented:

- Quiz Yourself - 3 levels - this can have randomly selected theory questions each session, selected from a wider pool of questions in the database. Whoever's sat for a prometric IT cerification knows what I'm talkin about .. Multiple choice answers.

- Ear Training - This can have various examples played back and the student can be asked a question rellated to it .. for instance if it's interval training, then the questions can be around what kindda interval did you just hear (major 2nd, minor 7th etc etc) .. Not confined to interval training though, can be expanded into endless sub categories .. like recognizing major, minor, harmonic minor scales ... modes etc etc ..

- Fretboard training - I just saw this great sub section of another site (Thanks skenny) that I had missed where it randomly shows you a note on the fretboard and you have to answer what note it is. This can further be timed and a student can test himself on it. The more profficient a student becomes, the timeframe to answer any question can be reduced further.

- Rhythm/ time signatures training - Various excersies can be presented to the student and questions can be structured round it. For example, after hearing a bar, a question could be put forward around the rhythm and time.. Options being 8th notes, 16th notes and their combinations etc etc.. You get the idea..

Sorry, no visual representations from me in mspaint.. just no time

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by zen: Apr 9 2010, 06:15 AM

[Praetorian]

My idea is to make a video chat for students too, so tutors can watch and comment the playing of the student.
Those with a webcam or built-in camera can start to 'videochat', and ofcourse, only one at the time.
Tutors can stop the connection if necessary.

It's not yet 100% complete and I don't know if it is even possible, but it would be cool

+1000000000000 on this idea!

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[TheOneFromTheSky]

Some of the sugestions are very good and I can't agree more with them.

But I think we need a hands on section. Some may say that they could be incorperated as lessons, but I think that they would be better suited to their own section under the knowledge base.

Now, I have only been on here a matter of days but so far people seem to lack some skills in areas to do with the practical side of guitars.

These wouldn't be lessons as such, but more "how to's" and guidence. These could include things such as;

1) How to adjust your action - Truss rod setup, correct string to fretboard distance, preventing fret buzz etc
2) Tremolo setup - Correct adjustment for complex systems, such as Floyd Rose, how to compensate for thicker strings etc etc
3) Intonation - obvious? probably under action, but worth mentioning.
4) How to change pickups - Basic soldering skills required, dos' don'ts etc
5) Basic electronics skills, different sounds generated by using different components and how to swap these components

I mention this as some of these are very simple but people don't feel they have the confidence to do it on their own. Perhaps with a little help from us it will encourage people to become more attunded to their instrument, and have more confidence to accomplish some of these tasks without having to spend copious amounts of money taking it to a guitar shop to complete, what would otherwise be, a relatively simple task!

thanks,

Jody

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by TheOneFromTheSky: Apr 11 2010, 10:54 PM

[thefireball]

This idea isn't really anything fancy, but I think it might be nice to have the average of lessons difficulty for each instructor.
We know that each lesson has a difficulty assigned. So if you averaged all these numbers together, you could get an idea of what level the guitar teacher teaches while browsing. I think this is a good idea because sometimes I wonder - okay, what level does this instructor teach on mostly?....Do they give lessons for the advanced? If so, their number would be close to 10. And if the number read 5.0, it would show that the instructor has a good spread out difficulty in their lessons. Their lessons' difficulties may not range from 1-10, but it would show they didn't focus on just easy-peasy lessons or super-duper hard lessons.

If this was implemented, one would know at a glance which difficulty guitar teacher taught mainly on a an average. The website would automatically configure it, and reconfigure it when the instructor posted another video. Maybe this is impractical, but I think it's at least pretty cool.

The average would be rounded to the nearest tenth decimal. Please know that when i averaged these figures it was on April 10, 2010. Figures may not be accurate if an instructor added another video since then. Just an example - but even still, i wanted to get it right for the current time.

Notice in the attached picture that the averages are off to the side and not in your way. They could also be implemented to when you mouse-over the picture of the instructor as it is when you mouse-over a lesson to see the difficulty.

I may not be in the best place to give an idea since I've only been here a month!

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by thefireball: Apr 21 2010, 12:37 AM

[intemperateContr...]

Not sure if this will apply as an official entry, but I submit the following thread started by me.
This subject might have more than one facet and apply to more than just one side of things,
but I think the idea is simple enough to understand. The decision of course must go to Kris.

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=34596

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[Tgo]

Hi,

I Have two ideas:

1 - I think that if you put a subtitle in the videos more peaple can take your lessons around the world. Especially if you put subtitle in more languages.

2 - Put a Flag in the videos when I can select if I already watched it.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[RobK87]

My only two cents would be to improve the REC program scoring. Make the rank based more on the instructor grade you have received than on the number of posts you have entered or high level lesson. It makes it so that the players who play a lesson of the best quality have a higher rank. (also, I doubt many will get to upload 81 videos to get to the "Ultimate" Experience Level).
What a goldmine of ideas though! It just goes to show how much the community of GMC really cares about the website.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[kaznie_NL]

So very simple and very important idea here.

I'm not going to win anything with this idea, because it's jut very practical and nothing flashy but this should have been implemented a LONG time a ago, actually it should have atm of the design change.

The idea:
The new design looks great, I think everyone agrees. The front page is very nice so the following happens. A new guy comes a long, sees Kris screaming, his heart hangs on, and he surfs along on the site.... after a few return visits Kris stops shouting at you, and you don't see him anymore. Then the student thinks "hey, let's subscribe!", but he thinks that in an enthousiastic rush, he then wants to click the subscribe button and.... THERE'S NO SUBSCRIBE BUTTON!!!!

How weird is that? GMC makes money out of subscribers, but there's no button to subscribe!!! You have to go all the way down

The whole purpose of a site like this, in the end, is nothing more then making money. The way to make money is to get people to subscirbe. GMC makes it hard for new members to subscribe, that's just... sorry to say but... stupid!

Instead, new visitors shouldn't have to search for a subscribe now link, they need to automaticly see the link! It should follow them everywhere around the site

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by kaznie_NL: Apr 17 2010, 07:12 PM

[dunlop654]

This web site is the best one that i have used. The only thing that i could suggest is more song lessons. Every time i go to find tabs online for anything, they always come up somewhat correct, or maybe not. The lessons on this sight are excellent and could be even better if ther was a way for people to request songs to be created into lessons. Possibly break up the catagories into bands or somehting. I have seen a few Metallica songs on here as well as Megadeath, and Guns N Roses. It would be awsome if more of those type lessons were availible.

Thanks,
Dunlop654

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[zen]

My next idea is very simple, helpful to many and will take less than a minute to implement:

PLEASE put this SEARCH ENGINE LINK on the Forum main page ..

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo....php?act=Search

So we can get into advance searches (using the more options link) and really find what we're looking for, like we used to before

Cheers

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[thefireball]

Here's another idea I have....

How about having another feature in chat....Notice that i've added the feature "view member's profile". I'd like to be able to click on somebody and see them right way... instead of searching for them. The graphics aren't that good, but you get the idea.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by thefireball: Apr 21 2010, 12:38 AM

[stratman79]

Here's my idea:

Its to replace or revamp the REC program.

I think it would generate more interest if it worked towards something rather than website kudos.

The idea is to base it on a music examination syllabus, so you have grades 1-8 and maybe lower diploma (lv9) and higher diploma (lv10). The way the most exams work is that you learn 3 pieces and then you have to do technical exercises, ear tests, sight reading and general musicianship questions. It would be tricky to do this (sight reading and ear tests) but you could look into doing a performance certificate where you have to learn 5 pieces.

So you have to submit 5 pieces of the same level within 6months to obtain the 'grade'. What would make this really work would be if you could form some sort of alliance with ABRSM. Where they are recognised as a grade and you get UCAS points that would count towards university and it could be put on your CV that you have obtained GMC level 8 for example (which is affiliated to ABRSM and is equivalent to grade 8). [Grades 4 and upwards should allow for sections of improvisation]

I think currently the grades on the website are harder than grades, level 6 on here would be grade 8. Also the pieces would need to be longer, the instructors would need to extend the pieces, a grade 1-3 piece would need to be about 1min-2min. Grades 4-5: 2min-3min and grades 6-8 3min to 4min and Grades 9 & 10 5 min+

You would need to employ/train a few instructors to be markers/invigilators. That way the marking would be consistent. If you wanted to enter the REC and get your grade when completed you would have to pay a fee for the examiner to mark ($30 for example, but if you get a recognised certificate I can't see a problem), you should also get a written reply explaining your mark.
The mark system would be as follows 70% = pass, 80% = Merit and 90% = Distinction.

I think this would give more focus to the REC program and also give students something to work on in there MTP programs.

Overall I think the most important thing would be affiliating it to a music exam board making it recognised qualification.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!