Daniel's Mentor Clinic. Options

[Daniel Robinson]

Hello all you Mentors and Mentoree's.

I am sure you are wondering what the purpose of this post is going to be, so let me explain.


Since the mentor program got underway i have been following it closely. I want to say that I, as well as all the other instructors are very pleased with the level of professionalism that all you mentor's have been giving so far.

I am sure those of you who are mentoring, and those who are being mentored can already see the benefits of this program. I am also quite sure that there are going to become some close friendships with this program as well, which is a side benefit of the whole program.

There is a wealth of information exchange going on, this is very encourging. With that being said it has been discussed with Andrew and Kris that we all agree that we want the Mentor's to have complete control of their own program. Teaching guitar is like any other teaching process it requires a level of trust between the student and teacher.

With that being said, rather than cluttering up the indivdual posts between Mentor and student with idea's, praise, encouragement and or guidance that we would like to keep this separate from the teaching posts.

Andrew has asked me to keep a watch on the MTP boards so that the Mentor's have a net so to speak that they can fall back on. It is my determination in this thread that will be stickied later it will serve as a place where the Mentor's can post questions they may have while learning the ropes, as well as a resource link between the GMC instructors and the Mentors in the program.

I will endeavour to answer any questions in this thread pertaining to the MTP, as well as be a sounding board for idea's you may have for lesson planning, and implementation of your goals and idea's. If there are questions that i cannot answer i will forward you to those in the community who are better suited to answering those questions.

This post will also serve as guidance for the Mentor's. I will try to stay on top of all new information here and give regular updates about the state the MTP. As i said earlier we do not want to interfere with those in the program, so my comments may be vague or general. I do not want to single anyone out. Unless the Mentor's ask a specific question in this thread it will be broad spectrum of encourgement, thoughts and ideas, praise and will serve to facilitate the continued success of the MTP, without interfering with the indivduals in the program so that they are free to assess and learn how to Mentor as they go, but also allow them to have a resource they can go to if they have any questions about any detail relating to the MTP.

So far the Mentor's have been doing a really awesome job, and the effort they have put in has been topnotch. I think this trend will continue and this will become a deep rooted part of GMC in the future.

So without further ado, let the Mentoring continue.


Daniel Robinson

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[Tolek]

Very nice that you want to help us!
I´ve already got a question. If I look at the other mentors, I feel that I don´t write much. In general, I don´t speak/write much, that´s always been my problem. I think that my teaching method is very similiar to my classical guitar teacher´s who learned me so much! I´d recommend him to everybody on the world. The other Mentors write so much that I feel bad, sometimes... Is this a bad sign? Or is my method a good one. I only have one opinion and that is from my nice mentoree valentino. He´s pretty satisfied with my work. Could you check out my methods and give me some hints, maybe? I don´t want to ruin my chance by stupid things, it means a lot to me and I try to work hard to be one of the best, not only here, but also in music school, etc.

Now, I´ve said a lot.

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[Ajmurrell]

Thanks Daniel, I'm sure we all have a lot of questions and suggestions regarding the MTP!

I like having the freedom to choose our own syllabus, that makes a lot of sense as we can use our own judgement on what is applicable for certain students, and what is not.

My main concern is that at the moment this is a competition phase, and with singlular mentor's its easy to become a little focused on personal tuition, which I'm not sure if this is what is intended. At the moment for example, we're all pretty much making use of the GMC lessons and our own personal lessons, via video recording. I think the emphasis should primarily be on existing high quality GMC instructor lessons, and for more individual technique or specific queries that are best answered via video response and personal exercises, then thats when to use our own material.

The other problem with using our own material is it simply won't be manageable when more mentoree's are introduced. However as this is a competition phase its obviously a good way to show your ability on guitar and individual areas of strength that will help being part of the final mentor 5.


I also wanted to suggest, for the future... As it might turn out to be handy idea! That we keep an index or library of mentor/student interaction. This would be most easily done if we use the practice agenda, which I believe we will be using after this competion phase?

My reasoning would be that say a mentoree would like to improve his alternate picking, from beginner level, over 5 weeks. That 5 week's of mentoring, if kept simple in its post structure (i.e. Lesson one, comments, lesson too, comments etc opposed to praise and general chat) then that same 5 week practice agenda could be used by any number of GMC members in the future as it applies to quite a broad range of students.

Over time the library could be quite healthy and helpfull.

Just my thoughts so far Thanks for starting this topic, it will be very helpful for the future.

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This post has been edited by Ajmurrell: Jan 19 2009, 05:19 PM

[Daniel Robinson]

There is nothing wrong that i can see with your methods my friend. On the contrary its concise and to the point.



You are going to develop your own style of teaching just like your own style of guitar playing. If you are giving good information, stay on top of any questions that arise and give a solid explanation then you are golden.



Everyone will have their own approach, and your student will get used to the way you do things as time goes by. So don't be too hard on yourself i think you are doing an excellent job, and your student understands what you want him to do.

Also, understand that because you may not write much there will be much more interaction between you two, which is definately not a bad thing.



Keep it up Tolek your on the right track.

Daniel

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[Tolek]

There is nothing wrong that i can see with your methods my friend. On the contrary its concise and to the point.



You are going to develop your own style of teaching just like your own style of guitar playing. If you are giving good information, stay on top of any questions that arise and give a solid explanation then you are golden.



Everyone will have their own approach, and your student will get used to the way you do things as time goes by. So don't be too hard on yourself i think you are doing an excellent job, and your student understands what you want him to do.

Also, understand that because you may not write much there will be much more interaction between you two, which is definately not a bad thing.



Keep it up Tolek your on the right track.

Daniel

I didn´t see it like that yet. Thank you for these calming words! Actually, I have to be hard on myself all the time because I want to reach my goals. Without self-critique this doesn´t work. Some questions might sound very odd, but I have to ask them. I used to be very closed towards other people and I didn´t ask much questions because I thought I would appear stupid etc. But then I experienced too much bad things caused by my passivnes. So, I learned to ask. And here at GMC, I feel very happy that there are some people who help me a lot. Such as you.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

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

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[Daniel Robinson]

Thanks Daniel, I'm sure we all have a lot of questions and suggestions regarding the MTP!

I like having the freedom to choose our own syllabus, that makes a lot of sense as we can use our own judgement on what is applicable for certain students, and what is not.

My main concern is that at the moment this is a competition phase, and with singlular mentor's its easy to become a little focused on personal tuition, which I'm not sure if this is what is intended. At the moment for example, we're all pretty much making use of the GMC lessons and our own personal lessons, via video recording. I think the emphasis should primarily be on existing high quality GMC instructor lessons, and for more individual technique or specific queries that are best answered via video response and personal exercises, then thats when to use our own material.

The other problem with using our own material is it simply won't be manageable when more mentoree's are introduced. However as this is a competition phase its obviously a good way to show your ability on guitar and individual areas of strength that will help being part of the final mentor 5.


I also wanted to suggest, for the future... As it might turn out to be handy idea! That we keep an index or library of mentor/student interaction. This would be most easily done if we use the practice agenda, which I believe we will be using after this competion phase?

My reasoning would be that say a mentoree would like to improve his alternate picking, from beginner level, over 5 weeks. That 5 week's of mentoring, if kept simple in its post structure (i.e. Lesson one, comments, lesson too, comments etc opposed to praise and general chat) then that same 5 week practice agenda could be used by any number of GMC members in the future as it applies to quite a broad range of students.

Over time the library could be quite healthy and helpfull.

Just my thoughts so far Thanks for starting this topic, it will be very helpful for the future.

Very valid questions. I do agree that the GMC lessons should fill the bulk of your teaching tools there are a wide range and ever growing list of lessons and topics. When the number of students grow, you will obviously have to adjust it to make it more manageable from a teaching standpoint. My only advice here is just think things out. The instructors here want to let you have complete control of your teaching methods. If you find you hit a brickwall because of one reason or another then bring this up again and we will endeavour to help you as best we can. Part of the reason for the mentoring program is to encourage our intermediate players to take control of their own guitar playing experience, by teaching someone else it will focus your own learning too.

As far as the idea for a library bank, i would suggest that you PM Andrew and make the suggestion, perhaps it could be as you said with the practice agenda's, or an alternative may be to incorporate it into the wiki somehow. But as this program is just starting out any questions regarding new threads or libraries or things relating to it need to be discussed on a higher level than myself, so Andrew i am thinking would be the guy to go to for that as he and Kris discuss matters like this more often.

Daniel

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[Velvet Roger]

Thanks for helping out Daniel, I am sure it will be of great help to us in the forthcoming weeks

I think everybody is doing a great job, all with their one ways of doing things, which is fine.

To be honest, I think it is not only the mentor who is only determining how things are going, including the the number of video responses, own materials etc etc.. The mentoree is in my view as important for this (based on his current playing level, the available practice time, the different interests etc.), and the approach to follow will therefore be certainly different between the current mentorees.

It's the combination of mentor and mentoree that determines a succesful approach at this stage, and of course when this first phase is over, additional mentorees (hopefully with a similar profile) will be added to the 5 lucky winners, but that in the end should not dramatically change the approach (as long as they have a similar profile) compared to this competition phase. At least that's what I am aiming at in my approach .

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

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

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This post has been edited by Velvet Roger: Jan 19 2009, 05:49 PM

[Daniel Robinson]

Thanks for helping out Daniel, I am sure it will be of great help to us in the forthcoming weeks

I think everybody is doing a great job, all with their one ways of doing things, which is fine.

To be honest, I think it is not only the mentor who is only determining how things are going, including the the number of video responses, own materials etc etc.. The mentoree is in my view as important for this (based on his current playing level, the available practice time, the different interests etc.), and the approach to follow will therefore be certainly different between the current mentorees.

It's the combination of mentor and mentoree that determines a succesful approach at this stage, and of course when this first phase is over, additional mentorees (hopefully with a similar profile) will be added to the 5 lucky winners, but that in the end should not dramatically change the approach (as long as they have a similar profile) compared to this competition phase. At least that's what I am aiming at in my approach .

Couldn't agree more, the mentoree's are intergal part of this process. I think the whole goal of the MTP's vision is to create an ever growing chain of learning. Eventually i think the initial Mentor's will go on to be GMC instructors, their students taking up the flag as mentor etc...by all helping eachother we can grow GMC to epic proportions worldwide and it will be the site to go to for all your guitarplaying needs.

Daniel

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[lcsdds]

Couldn't agree more, the mentoree's are intergal part of this process. I think the whole goal of the MTP's vision is to create an ever growing chain of learning. Eventually i think the initial Mentor's will go on to be GMC instructors, their students taking up the flag as mentor etc...by all helping eachother we can grow GMC to epic proportions worldwide and it will be the site to go to for all your guitarplaying needs.

Daniel

I know for me personally that my goal is to be a GMC instructor someday. I will never be a professional musician just because my life has taken a different path. In my mind being a GMC instructor would be just as good. May take a long time to do it but it gives me a goal to work towards and a reason to keep playing and practicing. I consider the majority of my best friends to be on this board even though I haven't met one of them in person . I would love to move on to the next phase in this competition but I would rather see my mentoree achieve the goals they have set for themselves no matter how lofty of humble.

Monte

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[valentino]

Very nice that you want to help us!
I´ve already got a question. If I look at the other mentors, I feel that I don´t write much. In general, I don´t speak/write much, that´s always been my problem. I think that my teaching method is very similiar to my classical guitar teacher´s who learned me so much! I´d recommend him to everybody on the world. The other Mentors write so much that I feel bad, sometimes... Is this a bad sign? Or is my method a good one. I only have one opinion and that is from my nice mentoree valentino. He´s pretty satisfied with my work. Could you check out my methods and give me some hints, maybe? I don´t want to ruin my chance by stupid things, it means a lot to me and I try to work hard to be one of the best, not only here, but also in music school, etc.

Now, I´ve said a lot.

As you said I'm really satisfied with your method. And as I'm not a virtuoso on English so I appreciate your clear and concise guides which saves me from losing part of the message between the grammar.

You rock Tolek!!

Valentin

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[Tolek]

As you said I'm really satisfied with your method. And as I'm not a virtuoso on English so I appreciate your clear and concise guides which saves me from losing part of the message between the grammar.

You rock Tolek!!

Valentin

*sniff* I have tears in my eyes. Really! You are a very good student, when I see that you are motivated and follow my tips, I became even more motivated to help!
So, now I´m ready for the rest of the long path... Let´s move forward! I hope you mentors are as satisfied with your student as I am and that you´ve already experienced so much as I did during the last few weeks. Good luck everybody!

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[Ajmurrell]

Hey Daniel,

Was just wondering when the 4 week trial officially ends? Just because we started sort of mid week and some started their 4 week schedule a few days later and it would be cool if we could all finish our schedules

It would be good to know too, I can appreciate it's not going to be an easy one to judge, so not going to ask for a time suggestion on how long that will be!

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[Daniel Robinson]

I am not really sure on that Ajmurell, let me get clarification and get back to you


Daniel

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[Andrew Cockburn]

This isn't an exact science as we work on this when wee have the time to!

Smells and I have arranged to discuss this on Tuesday, so there will be an announcement soon after that!

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[Tolek]

I have a problem. My student doesn´t write anymore in the topic and we haven´t finished the MTP program yet. We are far away from that!

EDIT: It´s ok.

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This post has been edited by Tolek: Feb 2 2009, 07:00 PM

[coffeeman]

Hi Daniel and Guys,

I just want to let you know that my mentoree is on vacation till february 4 , so we won't be able to work this week. Althoug I want to make a practice routine before he returns, so he has something to work on , for the next months.

I would appreciate your help on making the new routin for big harry.

Thanks.

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[big harry]

Hi Daniel and Guys,

I just want to let you know that my mentoree is on vacation till february 4 , so we won't be able to work this week. Althoug I want to make a practice routine before he returns, so he has something to work on , for the next months.

I would appreciate your help on making the new routin for big harry.

Thanks.

this will be great andru

btw I AM BACK *hehehe*

cheers
Harry

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