Lessons Difficulty Level? Options

[btrigorivas]

I would like to know who rates the difficulty of the lesson the teahcer or GMC, because if the teacher is the one that rates them is something very relative, i think there should be some parameters to rate the lessons.
For example part 1,2,3 of Asturias have 3 or 4 of difficulty level and part 4 has 5, and Etude in A minor - Giuliani has 5, and in my opinion the etude is a much easier piece for example. What do you guys think about the ratings?
Its all relative to the instructor for Vinod or Kusei every piece is easy thats why he puts very low difficulty to most of their lessons for example.

This post has been edited by btrigorivas: Aug 15 2008, 07:46 PM

[audiopaal]

Interresting question, never actually thought of this myself
I guess it's either the instructors themselves or Kris, maybe someone can enlighten us here?

[wollace03]

I would like to know who rates the difficulty of the lesson the teahcer or GMC, because if the teacher is the one that rates them is something very relative, i think there should be some parameters to rate the lessons.
For example part 1,2,3 of Asturias have 3 or 4 of difficulty level and part 4 has 5, and Etude in A minor - Giuliani has 5, and in my opinion the etude is a much easier piece for example. What do you guys think about the ratings?
Its all relative to the instructor for Vinod or Kusei every piece is easy thats why he puts very low difficulty to most of their lessons for example.

good point - but i don´t choose the lessons i practice by looking at the difficulty rating. i look at the video and then i try and find out, what difficulty it is for me - cause the difficulty level is a very relativ thing...

[Pablo Vazquez]

I would like to know who rates the difficulty of the lesson the teahcer or GMC, because if the teacher is the one that rates them is something very relative, i think there should be some parameters to rate the lessons.
For example part 1,2,3 of Asturias have 3 or 4 of difficulty level and part 4 has 5, and Etude in A minor - Giuliani has 5, and in my opinion the etude is a much easier piece for example. What do you guys think about the ratings?
Its all relative to the instructor for Vinod or Kusei every piece is easy thats why he puts very low difficulty to most of their lessons for example.

Hi! In my case, I record my lessons but I don´t rate them so, I think GMC do it.

[Guitar1969]

I am very curious as to the answer as well, as I use the difficulty info alot, and I find that the difficulty levels are sometimes pretty far off. For example, I have completed lessons in the 5 level, yet I struggle with lessons of similar technique in level 3. I have been trying to go through the lessons in difficulty order (Such as 2 and 3 but seem to get stuck)

With the number of lessons now on GMC,I find myself getting lost in the massiveness of it all, and feel there needs to be some consistency in catagorizing, difficulty levels, and other classifying info(Which is viewable when searching in list view, but you will see many lessons don't have this info entered). I would imagine that GMC will need an objective person to classify this, as it can be subjective for the teacher - stuff they may think is beginner level is intermediate for me, for example)

I am hoping this info will get reviewed and entered if missing, and still waiting for the lessons to have the difficulty posted in the lesson intro page and in bookmarks(right now you can only see it in searches).

[Muris Varajic]

Recently all of us (instructors) are able to rate our lessons by ourself.
But you can always go wrong with rating
cause none of us has same background in playing
and some stuff that are easy to someone will be kind a hard
for someone else,and both of them have pretty same level of
technique or knowledge.
So take rating system as small guide when browsing through lesson
but also try some other lessons with different ratings.

[sigma7]

i no wut u mean. but maybe the rating system could be based along with the technique used. like I am playing Malaguena by Ben Nisenblat and I thought it was hard. But maybe its easy for the technique being used.

[btrigorivas]

i no wut u mean. but maybe the rating system could be based along with the technique used. like I am playing Malaguena by Ben Nisenblat and I thought it was hard. But maybe its easy for the technique being used.

Yes thats what i mean, it can be relative but, there should be some parameters, like you said the technique used.

[Muris Varajic]

I agree but then we would have like 5-6 parameters for rating,
technique(or few of them if different techniques are involved),
stamina,
theory knowledge,
fretboard knowledge,
emotional playing etc.

That might be too confusing for some members I'm afraid.

[Kristofer Dahl]

GMC has the final word on the difficulty rating (in most cases me). Even though the rating will never be correct (a level 3 three lesson could take years to nail to 100%) at least there is some kind of consistency.

Because rating of lessons is extremely subjective - I wasn't even sure if we were going to have it at GMC. This was however an extremely popluar request.

If you look at it like this

level 1-3 : beginner/intermediate

level 4-6: beginner/advanced

level 7-10: really tricky (and in some cases insanely impossible!! Especially if the teacher is Muris! )

This should give you a good guideline, but it is not in any way a waterproof rule.

edit - difficulty level is mostly based on how hard the lesson is technique-wise. If a really slow solo contains one single shred run, it might still get a very low level of difficulty though.

[RIP Dime]

I think the difficulty ratings are more like a general guideline as to what is in your skill level. Of course the ratings can't be exact, how hard something is to learn varies greatly person to person.

I personally like the simple rating system and I think the ratings usually get the number in the right general difficulty level(like beginner, intermediate, and advanced).

[Bogdan Radovic]

Its pretty impossible to rate difficulty perfectly (unless members vote and a large number of them)..But i think current system allows for pretty accurate ratings and good guidelines for members when choosing what to practice..Also I suggest when choosing a lesson to practice not to pay much attention to ratings , give it a listen and if it seems doable to YOU go for it no matter what.

This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: Aug 16 2008, 03:07 PM

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Muris and Bogdan have a point here. Instructors rate the lessons difficulty, but it is always good to watch the difficulty rating from a very relative standpoint because we all have different subjective ratings. Imagine how it would be if all members on GMC would put their ratings? Since we have a lot of different profile players here, for an absolute beginner all lessons are at rating 10, and for intermediate player all lessons bellow 5 would be practically 1 because he can play them all.

I think you see my point, and recommend to look at this ratings loosely, and really check the lesson to evaluate yourself on what level it is. Ratings are good for quick finds, and mostly they are good thing ti start the search from, but the main decision wetter to learn the lesson or not should be made by really checking the parts of the lesson to some extent.

[Rooks]

I think the difficulty levels suit relatively well.. But of course you can always discuss individual lessons compared .. But I think its a great "rough guideline"..

A thing I do think is inadequate in my opinion is the jump from beginner to intermediate, it's pretty far for my sake

Beginner lessons: Slow scales and easy legato/arpeggios

Just above beginner: Pre-bends, high bends/matching bends, deep and fast vibratos, harmonics and far hand stretches

(Just a suggestion: Maybe you could vote if the difficulty is suiting, harder or easier than the stated when you practiced the lesson, and fx. Kris could look at this once in a while and consider if maybe a 2 should be 3 or reverse .. But this should only show to Moderators)

This post has been edited by Rooks: Aug 18 2008, 07:28 PM

[seagull]

How about the instructors discuss and vote for the ratings the difficulty of a lesson before it gets rated? They could do it where the normal user can't see it.

[Eat-Sleep-andJam]

How about the instructors discuss and vote for the ratings the difficulty of a lesson before it gets rated? They could do it where the normal user can't see it.

That could get complicated though ?

[Marcus Siepen]

I think the syytem that we have in the moment is fine. We, the instructors, rate our own lessons, but Kris can "overrate" us which is perfectly fine for me, actually sometimes I find it rather difficult to rate, so the input of somebody else is more than welcome.

[Ivan Milenkovic]

How about the instructors discuss and vote for the ratings the difficulty of a lesson before it gets rated? They could do it where the normal user can't see it.

Uhm, that is not a bad idea but it would not be too efficient, because we have lots of lessons going on, and imagine if we would have to discuss about everyone that should be live

[Fran]

I use the difficulty rating just as a first resource to choose between, let's say, 20 different rock solo lessons.

Once I have narrowed the list to 3 or 4 lessons I just watch the videos and forget about the difficult rating at all, all I trust is my ears to see if I like how it sounds, and my eyes to check if I will be able to learn it in a reasonable amount of time.

[Bogdan Radovic]

I use the difficulty rating just as a first resource to choose between, let's say, 20 different rock solo lessons.

Once I have narrowed the list to 3 or 4 lessons I just watch the videos and forget about the difficult rating at all, all I trust is my ears to see if I like how it sounds, and my eyes to check if I will be able to learn it in a reasonable amount of time.

Thats a good strategy! Use numbers as general ratings and than see if lesson looks doable to you.We may choose some advanced techniques too but still be able to practice them nicely if you set your mind to it