It's been foretold in the stars of old that I, The Competition King,
would bestow upon GMC a brand new COMPETITION!

And here it is:
HOW TO IMPROVE GMC COMPETITION!

Very simply we are looking for ideas to make GMC a better place!
We want members to come up with ideas - as many ideas per member as they like.
But here is the deal; we are not looking for hundreds of spammed out ideas,
quantity is not what we are looking for.

We will pay more attention to the ideas that have the following attributes:

- Simple
- Sensible
- Well thought out
- Well Expressed
- Easy to implement
- Big benefits to GMC members and Instructors

We will give extra credit for the presentation of ideas - any medium will do - a Wiki article, a Youtube video etc.
A one line suggestion in a post will carry far less weight than a well written Wiki article
or post that explains the idea and all of its merits and how it can be implemented.
A youtube video with graphics showing what new features might look like will knock it out of the park!

So, presentation is extremely important but not at the expense of it being a good idea in the first place.

Example 1:
1 line explaining the best idea ever to make GMC a better place.
Bad (not enough info, not well thought out or visualized)!

Example 2:
30 minute youtube video showing how GMC could run a moonshot.
Bad (the idea is impractical)

Example 3:
1000 word wiki article with graphics explaining a really cool new feature that is easy to implement but gives huge benefit.
Good! (Great idea well presented)



And now for the fun part...
THE PRIZES!

1st. Prize:
FULLTONE OCD overdrive pedal

Click to view attachment


2nd. Price:
ELECTRO-HARMONIX Small Clone



Click to view attachment



3rd. Prize:
D'Addario EXL110 Pro Pack


Click to view attachment


No Cash or alternative prizes will be offered!




In terms of the competition itself:

- The competition will run for one month, and end April 22nd.
- Entries can be in posts, or contain links to the Wiki, Youtube or any other medium.
- Entries must be posted in the Upload thread (LINK!)
- At the competition close time, we will let the instructors pick the top 5 ideas
- The top 5 ideas will go to a vote to get 1st, 2nd 3rd
- Kris will comment on the winning ideas and give us all an idea of if/when we can put them into operation.

>> Submission thread here

Great competition! Now I have to use my brain....

//Staffay

Incorporate SI lessons in REC to boost up that section a bit.

Each SI lesson would have a difficulty level and minor adjustments but those can be easy to implement.

(Don't know if it requires further explanation but I'm happy to present it in detail, if required ... It would pretty much follow the instructor lesson format)

Advantages - An incentive to share more with the community and develop teaching skills (more lessons = WIN). Some subscription related discounts can also be implemented to boost up the interest and keep advanced players from leaving the site. Will give members incentive to learn these lessons as they can then be graded on it and improve their REC rankings (for those who do it).

That is the best competition idea I have ever seen!

I think I might have a quite usefull idea, I will think it through if it works out...

Yes, it has to be plausible (if you want to win)

Great competition idea!

I'll be glad to help anyone who wishes to use the wiki for either presenting or actually making their idea possible.

If you have an idea the wiki might be part of the answer or the ideal place to "hold" the project and keep it updated. Never understimate the power of our knowledge base!

As I said, I'll be glad to help anyone involved in this competition

Let me put it like this - good ideas are almost guaranteed to actually happen/be implemented. You guys know better than anyone else what the site needs, so give it your best shot!

Hi there!
Might sound dumb, but I would certainly add a "THEORY CATEGORY" to the GUITAR LESSONS.
(Intervals, Arpeggios, Scales, Chord construction, Inversions, Substitutions, etc.)

Cheers, Eddie

PS: Maybe with a link to Andrew's Theory Board in case there's no spoken explanation...

What a great idea for a competition! I have two ideas right now, but I will have to use my brain and it usually takes some time to warm up

The upload thread is LIVE!

You can find it HERE!

This one is great and everybody must have some idea playing around their mind.

Okay, I will take the bad example example but just wanted to throwit out here.

IDEA #1: From what I have seen from other 'popular' websites, they bring in guests as to some 'popular' figure to do some free lessons and some paid lessons. I would vote to go that route as well if possible. The fact is, if some popular name is mentioned on GMC and has a lesson, there is going to be huge traffic. Its like putting a sexy hot girl than some guy on the video thumbnail in YouTube. Then we can turn this traffic to becoming members to get the paid lessons. Then we can continuously have some other popular figure on a 6-month basis at most. This might be costly but definitely will attract more members. And you know what more members mean...

IDEA #2: Have a slot for people producing backing tracks. GMC has been a great place to learn and practice but its too limited to practicing mostly the lessons. But if someone wants to practice popular songs, people should be able to produce backing tracks and give away for free (Creative Commons or something). This will again hit the traffic but I am not sure about legal issues here.

IDEA #3: Clinics. Both physically and on the web. Better if we can do physical clinics and broadcast them LIVE or recorded. Physical interaction is always good. But this might be expensive to organize.

There you go. I don't want to make this a competition entry but more of discussion. If someone else agrees, please share your views. Together we can make it better.

Thanks,
maharzan

Great idea. Might have an idea or two floating around the think tank.

What I really miss here on GMC is a Guitar/Bass tuner to be used in conjunction with the lessons. I will develop one in FLASH and post it in the upload thread, hopefully with some cool design.

//Staffay

Some great ideas already!

Feel free to do like maharzan and Eddie if you just want to share general ideas without necessarily submitting them as a competition entry.

So, I just submitted an idea to the upload thread. Another short one:
How about posting links to the singing, bass and other lesson on the main page, since now you have to search them manually. Just a short link saying "Other lessons" or so would do.

GMC, send in some free T-Shirts so we can wear on our takes.

True - we should have that as well as a "see more guitar lessons" link there.

Many good ideas already, but please be sure to post them in the upload thread as well
If not, they won't be taken into consideration!

Now that's a breathtaking idea!



That's right - ideas in this thread are just for brainstorming, and won't count in the competition (but brainstorming is cool as well).

I am definitely for Staffy's online tuner idea! It's weird that we don't have one already!?!

I am currently writing an article about my idea, I will post it in the idea thread tonight.

Hi! Great competition!
Are we allowed to share one idea now but also contribute with other ideas later? I mean, you don't have just one shot at sharing all your ideas?

Anyway, I got one idea for starting: How about posting a download-able version of the backing-track together with the lesson? The backing could be posted in the corner with the “tools”, together with tabs and guitar-pro files. This way you would have to be a member to access the backing.
It would be much faster than asking in the forums. Many of the instructors no longer use the forums, so contacting them I believe is a tough way of getting a backing-track. At least I believe it is a little improvement...

hehe wow missed this one Staffy - sounds awesome!



Absolutely!

Bare in mind that your ideas will have most impact if you spend some time tweaking them, and then gather them in a nice way. (rather then suggesting them one after one in a more spontaneous way)

This should be the best competition! Prizes are awesome and ideas posted so far interesting! Can't wait to hear more of them!

This competition is fantastic!! There are already many excellent ideas in the uploads thread! Keep them coming!

Hey there fellow GMC'ers.

I've been watching some guitar related videos on YouTube and keep stumbling upon shred competitions like "Shred This" and "Petrucci Fever". I am no shredder, so I haven't entered any of them, but I have noticed that hundreds of guitarists submit their entries. Of course, being a SHRED competition, many people, like myself, feel unworthy of joining the fun, but with a more generous view concerning the solo, maybe more people would join? I mean to say that having a guitar-solo or melody competition using a certain backing track would be attractive to a larger part of the guitarist population than a high-level shred contest.



In this competition, Tom Quayle and Rick Graham were among the judges. Both of these guitarists are active instructors at http://www.infiniteguitar.com and I do not intend to advertise for that website. Obviously, putting their names on a video like that will immediately make people wonder "Hmmm, why would these guitarists be qualified judges?" and of course evoke an urge to learn more about them. Searching Rick Graham on Google, the third link displayed is from Infinite Guitar. People will check out his YouTube videos and also his lessons, and be blown away, and eventually subscribe to the website.

http://www.google.no/#hl=en&source=hp&...99f78b6effe3417

Now I am asking myself why GMC doesn't do the same thing, and after a long period of deep meditation I concluded with the following: I don't know.


How does this apply to GuitarMasterClass, and why am I writing all of this?

GMC is, as far as I know, a private "company" and needs customers to sustain the instructors and people running the site. There are many ways to make GMC a better place to learn guitar, but how does this quality matter if people do not take the risk to join in on the fun?

Advertisement or POPULARITY BOOST are keywords here.

As many of you may know, GMC has implemented a new tool called "Collaborations" which basically consists of one of the instructors handing out a backing track over which GMC members can record their solos. The collection of the takes will be mixed and posted as an audio file.


MY SUGGESTION (finally)

1. A sacrifice is made, in that the GMC community lets the outside community on YouTube download ONE backing track freely in a solo collaboration, just like we already do on GMC, but on YouTube with videos.

2. A video, like the one posted above, is made by somebody on GMC, who should get some form of credit for it. Every active instructor donates 5-10 seconds of recorded guitar-madness, and the sum of these videos will be mixed and we should get something like 2-3 minutes of very efficient advertisement, showing off our instructors.

3. Following the couple of minutes of show-off, we announce a video collaboration, where anybody can upload a 20-30 second take (according to the backing chosen) playing over the backing track.

4. The prizes are announced. Now I don't mean pedals and amps and guitars that we send around the world. I am talking about something virtually free, but very valuable.


PRIZES

TOP 10 guitar solos / melodies are chosen, mixed and posted on YouTube as a final mix / video collaboration.

All of these guitarists get a certain time period of FREE subscription on GMC. Maybe 3 months ? All they have to do in return is write something to advertise for GMC on their YouTube channel, and maybe add a referral link.

All other participants get a 50% discount for the first 3 months (an elite referral bonus, as I'd like to call it), given that they also add a referral link on their YouTube channel.



SUMMARY and RELATED SUGGESTIONS

This kind of collaboration will involve the outside world with what GMC is all about. First of all, they will have the opportunity to experience the great quality of backing tracks available on GMC. All participants will get a large price reduction on their first few months at GMC. GMC does not PAY for this, but can potentially earn a great deal knowing that many of these guitarists will want to stay.

GMC members will have a chance to prove their worth by taking the responsibility of editing and mixing the video, and could be given credit or a free subscription for a certain time period.

A "GMC Community" YouTube channel can be created, where GMC related events and videos will be posted. This will be GMC's official link to the outside world, much like Kristofer Dahl's channel. Every video collaboration that GMC organises will be posted on this channel, and YouTubers can get more views by taking part in these collaborations.

This video collaboration could be standardised and taken care of by a responsible member, and repeated once every month or second month. This is up to the management.

All in all, this is a win-win situation. GMC gets a largely increased popularity, and guitarists all over the world can become more famous, as well as become better musicians by experiencing the thrills GMC has to offer. If very capable musicians take part in this collaboration, then these could also be potential new instructors who can help improve GMC's learning community.



I hope this is somewhat comprehensible, and I look forward to reading more posts. Good luck to all other participants!

Alexander

I'm not looking for a prize but I would like the "random guitar lessons" back, you always found something you wanted to play there.

Why isn't there a link on the front page? We need to get some attention to this competition

UPDATE: I just saw there is a link on the front page, but the fact I didn't even see it says something, doesn't it

Gmc should have it's own Ipod/Iphone/Ipad application.
So that the users of Gmc can check out the site/forum and the lessons anytime!

We've already got some great contributions in the uploads thread.

I particularly like the ones which involve how you experience working with the lessons and the community. There must be hundreds of things which you think could be done differently / better. We all know there are a lot more improvements/new features which would make learning guitar at GMC easier and more fun, so c'mon give it your best shot!!

I agree with Kris!
There's a lot of great suggestions in the upload thread

I was thinking about a few things myself, but I soon realized they were already mentioned

Great work guys, but don't get lazy! There's still some time left!

I just saw this thread, and I believe this is the best competition GMC has had so far. Hats off guys

More theory video lessons, I find it really hard to learn theory by reading complicated english
I think it will help alot of people

Rather than lessons providing an assortment of backing track speeds, just provide one standard backing track. Allow the user to select a speed and/or pitch that is appropriate to them. Implement a module that makes the conversion on the fly, and pipes that to the user interface. I am sure such modules exist and minimal or no cost in a variety of programming languages, and considering today's CPU speeds, the delay due to the conversion would certainly be minimal for your typical backing track.

edit: I realize that a person can do this sort of thing themselves with "Best Practice" or some other program. However, I prefer to work "on line", because you have all the site resources organized and available when you work that way.

I could definately use this

It would be very helpful, I think, if we could get a downloadable copy of the backing tracks. I don't know how many other people do this, but i usually plug my mp3 player into my amp and play along with songs that I know and would find it very convenient if I didn't have to drag my amp near to the computer to practice all the time.

I'm not sure how easy it would be for you guys to implement but I can't see it as being to hard to do.

I suggested that in the upload thread .. the backing tracks could be like douloaded in the main page of the lesson it wouldin really handy ..

This might sound lame, but I completely agree with Sted, so, sted if you win, we can cut the pedal /pack strings in 2.

Just a reminder

If anyone have posted an idea in this thread, be sure to post it in the UPLOADS thread if you want to be part of this competition!!!!

Competition closed!

Time for the results!

The grading sure takes some time...

yeah, i'm sure none of my ideas were worth anything...but i'm anxious to see who won and hopefully have some useful implements for GMC.

I certainly share your impatience.

I have read all the entries (and there sure are some very cool ones) - but we are waiting for more opinions/nominations!

More opinions and nominations from us? Is there a vote thread or do we post here?

Also, this contest was over April 22nd, but as I pointed out in this thread (http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...=35023&hl=) , I'd like to see a toplevel forum created for GMC feedback. I think having it tucked away under miscellaneous doesn't do this site the service. I'm glad there's a contest to encourage feedback, but if the category is tucked away, it will likely stop on April 22nd since it's tucked away!

For the past 2 days I've been brainstorming on a pie in the sky business model for GMC (I have about 5 or 6 pages in ink I'll be formatting as a presentation for discussion) that I'd like to open for discussion - some of it based on comments already made, and some of it ideas I came up with during my brainstorm sessions. I'll post them after I format them, but they're currently sitting in OfficeLive because I'm afraid if I post them, they'll get lost under "miscellaneous".

Christian A.