This is the upload thread for the "How to improve GMC" competition.

Let's keep this thread free from discussion and non-relevant posts.
ONLY UPLOAD POSTS here, please! (competition explained here)


Good luck and may the best man/woman win!

A "THEORY CATEGORY" in the guitar lessons:

Arpeggios, Scales, Chord Construction, Inversions, Substitutions...etc
maybe with a link to Andrew's Theory Board in case there's no Spoken Explanation.

Cheers

Eddie

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).

Let's call it a "lesson planner", kind of like we had in the past:
When you click the link guitar lessons, you will have the opportunity to get a predesigned lesson schedule for one month or so, just like in an MTP where you get 4 assignments per month.
The student can choose the style (Rock, Metal, Pop, you name them), his level (beginner, intermediate etc., just like it is now) and if he/she wants to practice rhythm or lead.
Let's take an example: Metal, intermediate, rhythm. The lesson planner would then propose 4 lessons: 1. week: rhythm guitar for beginners by Lian, 2. week: metal for beginners by Lian, 3. week: basic metal rhythm guitar by Marcus, 4. week power metal rhythm by Lian.
I think one could easily make an 8 or even 12 week plan this way.
In my opinion, this has two advantages: Students who didn't get a place in the MTP can still get a lesson plan. It could be suggested to upload each lesson to the REC-section (meaning you submit one video to the rec-section every week) to get feedback. This would also boost the Rec-program. Another advantage is for students who are new to the site. I have read some forum posts in the past saying that students were overwhelmed by the sheer number of lessons and couldn't figure out where to start. While it is easy to pick one lesson all alone, it is more complicated to create a lesson plan with a constantly rising difficulty to develop ones skills over time. With a predesigned lesson plan the start would be so much easier. This feature could also be implemented as a demo for non-members, so they can see that students get a lot of guidance here.
I hope this is understandble, since I'm not skilled enough to create graphics for this...
Christian

Ok, here it goes:

First off when I came here, and pretty much didn't know anything about guitarplaying, I faced some new words describing techniques.
I had no idea what "tapping" meant.. and I had no idea that I needed to MUTE the strings not being played at all time!

So, basically, my idea is having some easy accessible, and visable section of "Techniques 101" or "Technique info" or something like that, among the other lessons.
I know there's some described in the wiki, but there's only text describing them, no VIDEO showing how to actually perform the certain techniques. Plus it's not the first part you see when you enter the page as a beginner really.

I know you can just use the search function, and watch some lesson with it in it. I got no problem with it really, but it could be nice to a newcomer to get easy access to understand what they mean, and how to perform them.

So a list of maybe the most common techniques, or maybe even more (not too many though, might look scary with all those new words for someone new ):

Alternate picking
Sweeping
Hammer-ons/Pull-offs
Tapping
Pinch Harmonics
Muting
Palm muting
Sliding
Bends
Vibrato


Well, the list goes on, but I hope you get the point.

And in each link, there should be a very simple videolesson, and text describing what the technique means, and how to perfom it.. maybe some things to focus on when using the specific technique, like muting the other strings etc..

For example:

Pinch Harmonics

Pinch harmonic is when you play a note, then touching the string with your thumb on your right hand, making a squeeky kind of noise, and remember to touch the thumb on the right spot on the string, this spot can be different from different guitars. Use alot of gain to get as much noise as possible.

*Video showing how it's done, very simple, but still showing the thumb at a good view.. and perhaps some more detailed explanation*

maybe play a simple lick, and show how it works in action?
(I'm not really good at explaining, nor an expert at pinch harmonics but something like that)


I thought this might be really good for beginners, so they know what is being played, and how to do it then ofcourse, to be a good guitarist, you need to go alot deeper than just the basic knowledge.. learn theory and scales and such. But it's a fast start into the world of guitarplaying!

well, thats my idea, hope you like it!

Here is my idea:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/inde...MC_Quick_Access

I don't know if it actually is possible to do all that and I am also sorry that I have no pictures or graphics but I don't know how to use any graphic programs...

I read it Zakk, You have some very good points here. I will say that full access for a limited time is the way to go. Make it cheap to be a member for a week or so, just to try the site out. Then our community will grow much faster. I also agree to that all payment options must be covered. A nice feataure in the future will also be to make 1:1 person video-lessons, that can be paid in advance. (since the bandwidth here is really an issue) That will require some more server-capacity in my belief, I don't really know what Kris & the guy's have, but if there shall be like 4-5 video lessons on the same time, it will require some raw power. Another idea here is to inco-operate the possibilities of such programs like Messenger and Windows Media Services, which allows the users to watch streams only if they are granted. (eg. have paid for the lesson)

//Staffay

My idea would make lessons more accessible to a greater audience and ultimately would increase the learning flexibility and generate further revenue from existing and new content.

Thought that might interest you.....

At present GMC offers all lessons for a fixed monthly fee, this only offers value for money to someone who wants to learn every style in every genre at every conciveable level, I imagine that in the beginning the content was small enough that this wasnt an issue, however the site has grown exponentially since its inception and the content has grown with it.

So whats the idea?

Simple, offer the new and existing lesson packages in a straight download or viewable purchase, the content already exists, the technology and site modiifications would be minimal, countless other sites of similar nature offer this type of service to great effect.

Whats the benefit to the consumer?

Your target group I imagine is mostly made up of young male players with limited resources, entering into a monthly subscription can be daunting for people with limited resources so they may be not committing financially to any part of GMC, resulting in lost revenue potential and them spending their money elsewhere in the market.
If they can pay per lesson it gives them flexible learning as and when they can afford it from the instructor or in the style they actually want to target.

Whats the benefit to GMC?

By offering the lessons in a dowloadable format or even a "pay-per-view format" you are harnessing the revenue that you would have otherwise lost.
Each lesson has cost attached, be that in instructor fees or server space, by offering more ways to purchase that lesson you are maximising the potential for further rcovery on that cost. Older lessons that are pretty much buried in the server and mostly watched, learnt and forgotten about by paid up monthly members can be re-offered in a back catalogue for a one off fee, basically generating revenue from an existing resource with very little extra cost attached.
The cost of each download would be say a nominal fee of 2.50GBP, if an old unused lesson is dowloaded fifty times over the course of a year thats 125 GBP, if that happens with say 200 old lessons thats 25,000GBP, the back catalogue is that vast these figures are certainly feasible and probably underestimated, not to mention that people who buy the one off lessons may like the site so much that they enter into a monthly subscription after downloading a variety of lessons. Short version, free money!


So if I can pay per lesson why would i want to be a fully paid up monthly member?

For all the other benefits of course! Video chat, collaborations, virtual bands, competitions etc. New lessons could only be available to monthly subscribed members for say, the first two months, other site areas could be opened up with new and exciting attractions for monthly members so that you still retain and keep your existing monthly subscribed customer base.

To summarise you offer more services to more people for a minimal outlay, expand your customer base and gain more market exposure, all the while ultimately beneftting any customer who uses the site in either guise.

Thanks for reading !

That is pretty close to my idea Sted... Guess we had a similiar idea of how to improve GMC^^

Haha! yeah, didnt even realise!

I'm even more convinced its the way to go now!!

iGMC in iPhone and iPod Touch

My suggestion is to give possibility to those who own an iPhone or iPod Touch, to join GMC. I think you should develop an App and maybe submit it to the Appstore.
As you know iPhone and iPod are the most famous devices and many of us would use an app to access the site and learn even if we don't have a computer handy.

I think many guitarists would be interested in this useful mobile learning device.

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

WARNING

This idea is based on geek stuff, math and other programming skills. I understand it is not "simple" to create it, but the idea itself IS simple and we all already know it as we are part of those kind of systems in our everyday web browsing on Facebook, Google or others.

SUMMARY

Currently, on GMC, we have a lot of videos. There are videos of many kind and we can search by genre, style and level in a few clicks. But we can get lost pretty easily and it's hard to find out what we should play and what are the videos that suit our tastes.

The instructors currently answer to this problem on the forum constantly replying to the "What lessons exists for that style or technique?" and "What should I practice?" threads. Fine!

But as a coach and teacher, GMC should be able to propose automatically the videos that suit our needs and genre. And GMC ALREADY know what we like and need. GMC already know what is our level and what genre of music we play because we click and bookmark videos we like and we do REC of lessons we like.

And GMC know what we SHOULD practice because we have a bunch of awesome instructors who rate our playing and tell us what techniques we should work on.

But what is missing is a piece of code that build a bridge between the users and the videos database in a intelligent manner giving the members the opportunity to discover new videos they WILL like.

BANK & SOURCE:

Today, we have :

GMC videos BANK sorted by
- genre or music category
- techniques (tags, in the style of...)
- levels

Member usage and preferences statistics (SOURCE)
- clicks on videos
- bookmarked videos
- REC played
- level and ratings given by instructors

The idea is to use the SOURCE data to create usage and preferences statistics sorted by genre, techniques and levels and then request the BANK for the lessons that suit those filters.

I separated the idea in 3 different levels of realization, growing from easy to complex.

LEVEL 1 (easy) :

The first level base itself on data GMC already have: clicks and bookmarks.

By aggregating those data and with a bit of math, it is pretty easy to guess the current levels, genres and techniques a member is currently watching and practicing and with those data you can propose the appropriate lessons to reach the next level or perhaps more importantly the lessons that a member will appreciate.

To picture the idea, let's say you have mostly rock, legato and sweeping videos in your bookmarks, that the average level of those lessons is 3.6 then GMC can propose rock, legato and sweeping videos of level 4 and 5. Easy ? Yep, it is...

Then, by giving a weight to the source data we can differentiate the important data and the less important one. For example, the videos you click are less relevant than the videos you bookmark, and the bookmarks are less relevant than the videos you actually play within the REC program.

So by giving a weight to every single data, we can sort out the members' preferences, taking the example above :

1. rock (lot of click, lot of bookmarks, 3 REC played)
2. legato (lot of click, a few bookmarks, 1 REC played)
3. sweeping (a few click, more bookmarks, no REC played)
4. Emir's solos (lot of click, a few bookmarks, no REC played)

Now, the system can propose rock lesson with legato, if possible, played by Emir and perhaps a bit of sweeping technique.

This first step is to teach GMC how to correctly read the statistics and the 2 next levels will simply add more information and data to the algorithm to make it more precise and relevant.

LEVEL 2 (medium) :

In the second level, we add a new data source: the REC system.

In the REC system, we have the members playing lessons and their playing rated by instructor. So we know what they play (so basically what they like and practice) and we also know if they mastered those genre and techniques, or not.

Giving those new data we can now propose videos we should like and videos for improvement so as a member I can choose within those different propositions the one that suit my current mood (and GMC know how I feel today ! ).

LEVEL 3 (godlike) :

This is the last level. The idea here is to integrate the system in the MTP and REC by allowing the instructor to access an interface for every member and tell: "Ok, John Doe, you need to practice your legato and vibrato, theory is not perfect and perhaps a bit of sweeping will make you even better. In that precise order".

We can now propose legato and vibrato lessons at first and then sweeping lessons still taking in consideration the fact we play rock and Emir's lessons.

CONCLUSION:

Now we have an automatic system that can propose useful lessons for the user.

The whole idea is to make GMC act more as a human teacher and less as a machine by making the site understand the members and give them good advices and recommendations.

We can add a LOT more information to those statistics and greatly improve the system I describe above. Every data is valuable in some way. For example, we all know the "I like" button on Facebook. This is the best way to know the user preferences. We can calculate the time spent watching a video.

Told you it is geek stuff, but in the end it is useful.

Hey, I'm new around here.

So, if I'm posting my image incorrectly, please let me know!


Submission


BACKING TRACK COMPENDIUM.

That's it really, a nice backing track database.

I love backing tracks.

But, frequently instructors do not post the progression which makes up the backing tracks.

This makes me sad.

And, here is my solution! (Please zoom in to view the picture.)



The video screen, which plays the backing track, would ideally display the chords as the progression play.

I really hope the rest is self explanatory!

Everything was made in MS paint via cut, paste, text box, and the line tool.

Well, I would like to post one of the problems with current GMC and how we can solve it. I would more or less agree to sted / ZakkWylde 's idea.

Here is the problem - GMC Signup Price.

All of a sudden we had increased signup rate nearly a year ago. I am not sure what the graph tells at the moment but I would imagine that it is not as what GMC is expecting.

There are a lot of guitar teaching websites but truely and honestly, GMC is the best. It has lessons and THE COMMUNITY is a crucial part of it and doesn't exist in any other website I think. We have seen a lot of people (even me) don't like this high rate to sign up. I do think, if we charge less, the user base will grow much more. We also have 'inactive' members here who aren't paying but only take part in forums. With less signup rates, we can turn them into paying members.

I am sure everyone agrees to that. We need to lower the signup price!

What is the alternative?

Well, losing one side means you have gain in another. Like I mentioned in my earlier thread and as Sted / Zakk seems to agree, we need to start giving away each lesson for a price. So, if anyone doesn't want to become a paid member but wants to learn that great song by one great player, he can simply play $5 (or so) and grab that lesson. This has been very popular in other websites as you might already know. So, if they are making good revenue, why can't we too? We will reach that crowd as well.

Plus, we can also have a platform where people can sell their backing tracks. GMC can earn commissions. Much like app store. So, not only GMC members but people from all across the globe can be a part of this. I know themeforest.net for themes (as I am a designer) and its going great.

How to do it?

We can really experiment with this. Just set the individual lesson selling option and see how we perform. If that goes great, we can then lower the signup rates. I would imagine this would result in more members and a greater community than it is currently.

Thanks.

P.S - I am sorry if this resembles any of the ideas but I am not contending to win this competition, just sharing my thoughts on how to improve GMC overall.

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 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

Another small idea here, I found out a few time ago that you can set a loop in the video. The problem is that it's pretty hard to set it up with your mouse and when it is set up, you cannot quit the mode without removing the hard placed arrows...

So the idea is simply to add 2 new buttons on the video flash player as described bellow :

Click to view attachment

You will click the first button when you want to start the loop and click again when you want it to stop.

The second button is to activate or deactivate the loop mode so you can play the full video without loosing the placement of the arrows.

Short, simple and effective. This will certainly help us to play that bloody fast lick by watching it over and over.

Thanks GMC !

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

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 :

Click to view attachment

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

Click to view attachment

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...

amazing ideas guys!, i'm really surprised of the amount of good ideas, i specially love zakk's one, the iphone one, and the last keilnoth one for the licks

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.

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

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!!

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.

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

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

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





The random idea lesson is a great one!!




I like the recording video chats idea!

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??

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

+1000000000000 on this idea!

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 ..

http://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

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.

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.

Just a quick mention here...

How about a check box on each lesson section, that we can click off when we have that section mastered. Then, a main check box once we have memorized a lesson. I often find myself loading up a lesson that I have already played because I can't possibly remember all the ones I have already played.

Also, a video chat room for everyone would be killer!

To all the guys speaking about video chat room: I know the stream for the current video chat is of Ustream.com, but a site such as Tinychat.com allows video chat with multiple video chatters. Maybe that could be incorporated in some way.

This post should not be included in suggestion competition though.

I think Kris will have a LOT of work to do with all these ideas. Hahaha

Using Self Daily-Checker and Weekly Checker.

Everybody knows that being good player is a long journey. It does not happen in flesh with ease. We all understand that we need to practice very hard to be a good guitar player like GMC instructors. However, we often feel very overwhelmed because we do no know ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do it’ and ‘how much to practice it.’ Fortunately, GMC has been helping us to solve the questions; ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do it’ by offering A1 video lessons. But ‘how much do’ is still remaining a question.

There is no doubt that techniques, tones and theories are all important for all guitar players. But another importance is to enjoy playing and practicing the guitar for a long time without fatigue and discouragement. It is strongly related to the question ‘how much do I need to practice each lessons’? An answer is ‘step by step’. However, it is needed more detail ‘step by step’.

Since GMC is online based, we should look after ourselves. Under the circumstance, I recommend that GMC introduce Daily and Weekly Self-checker sheets to any paid-members.

Here is a daily checker. (See attached Files~~~I have three files; daily checker, Weekly checker and Chromatic checker)

It is consist of sections (subsections), names of method (videos title & level), time, tempo on a metronome, key and remark and self-comment. I explain how to practically use.

Students do not have to practice all section and subsection. What we focus on is to record what we will do (did), how long we will do (did).

1. Just pick one video that you want to play and you can do(as your feeling).

2. And record video title.

3. Do not forget to check and record how long you practice. The reason to limit 30 minutes a subsection is to prevent students from overplaying over 30minutes and to have a five minute break. Apparently, practicing one technique over 30 minutes can make us sick and tired of playing. High obsession to one piece of riff or techniques is not good for long run.

4. Do record tempos on metronome. It reminds you to practice guitar with metronome. When it gathers on Weekly checker or other checker, it will let you know how your picking speed grow. (I apply the checker system into chromatic-checker. See third file). The visual evidence for development and achievement is another joy for guitar-kid who wants to be down stroke machine, Metallica.

5. Record some notes (if you need)

Well, one subsection is ended and now moves on the other video or sections by expanding the way. Before finishing practice, check total time and write opinions or impressions, feelings ideas or plans that you have. It will reflect on next day practice. As days go by, we need to check your progress on each section by comparing with previous charts. After one week, Seven daily-checkers becomes one weekly checker. Players summary weekly result on weekly checker. I will expect that it will influence your lesson planning.

I recommend that you use them for a week by a way of showing example. It helps you to enjoy practicing without fatigue. Plus it will guide you to construct your lesson plan with own style.

It would be fantastic if GMC prepare online self-checker to customizing paid member. It will be also applicable for a future policy. Assuming that 1:1 online instructor system was offered in GMC, the self-checker would be helpful for instructors to overlook students’ status. Instructors will check whether they go on a right track or not.

Thanks

Hello all of GMC

This article will be about improving the GMC website and is part of my participation in the competition
I've decided to use my sense of logic to point out what can be improved. So lets begin



To improve something you need to know what is wrong right?

Now I personally find the website a tiny bit unclear. The are boxes everywhere and sometimes it makes me loose my head a bit. I've had some computer and web technology in school and i've learned that frames are a great way of keeping things clear and simple on a website like this. However these frames should be placed in a good way. A good way and much used way of the usage of these frames is pretty simple: Create 2 frames which separate the website in 3 parts. One horizontally, which could be used as a head( currently
"Guitarmasterclass.net, more then 2000 online guitar lessons and active community". The other frame would divide the rest of the page in 2 parts, one about 5 or 6 times bigger the the other. The smaller one could be used for links to navigate around the page. At the moment when you click on " guitar lessons " or " workshop " a new page loads. This isn't the most convenient way of navigation. Dropdown menu's keeps things together and clear. The bigger part is used for the content a person wants to achieve. Only this part can be reloaded when a link in the other frame is clicked on. This way only a relatively small HTML-file needs to be reloaded, this might save some time. Remember that clear navigation is a high priority one web-building. Another often used way of web building is smart usage of colours. Forms should be quickly to identify from the rest of the page. Black-White differences are a great way of achieving this.
If the grey-white tints are to simillar, people with colour-blindness or other eye conditions might get a little agitated. I will include a simple drawing of how it might turn out. Being able to build a fancy website with nice pics and bright colours all over might look good. But the most important part of a website is its navigation.

An other aspect of a good running community is COMMUNICATION
Communication allows individuals to interact with one-another. I am not really active that much on GMC but if you want to have a good running online community, make sure people are able to simply send each other messages or chat. Again simplicity is the key. Nothing fancy, a clear simple communication system is all there is to a good running community. Maybe a system on the website which allows the student/user to directly send an email to an instructor just by filling in a form. Or a live chatbox where questions can be asked and answered quickly in a matter of seconds/minutes.



The lessons:

I really enjoy the lessons here, and i have learned some pretty sweet skills in the half year i have been a member of GMC. But there seems to be missing a bit of structure sometimes. One teacher places all the notes on tab, the other one includes them in the actual video. Both are good but its better to keep things in one way only. I prefer the tab because then you don't need to rewind the video. This isnt a major problem however if the teachers want to do there lessons their own way that is absolutely fine. Im just a regular guy behind his computer lol.


Guitar Theory,

What i kinda was looking for around this website was a nice article with all the theory about chords scales intervals etc etc. A load-out of information which can be accessed quickly and maybe with some cool features to print out.



And I guess that is pretty much it, I hope you guys find some of my information useful. My point of this article was to illustrate how a good website functions and not to criticise GMC's current website, which I think is fabulous. A summary of this article would be that, if you keep things clear and simple, and make sure interaction and communication are running fine, GMC will be a truly awesome place for guitarists

Good luck all and rock out!

p.s Sorry for any grammar-mistakes, I've tried my best and hope I've done well

Competition Closed!

Thanks for all the remarkable improvement ideas, you have really outdone yourself this time

Wow, thanks all for the amazing entries, there are a lot of great ideas here! Thanks also to Paal for organising this!

The instructors are currently taking a look at the entries, and we will be announcing the winners in around a week or so.

Wow man, this is a really good idea!

I know the competition is closed, but I have some ideas that I'd like to get on the floor. I'll start posting tidbits from my notes here.

The Site liason
New users when they sign up should get an email with links describing the main features of the site and how to engage in it. If there is a REC program, then there needs to be a "this is what the REC program is, these are the people who head it up, this is where you go (<link>) to sign up, this is how you sign up and this is how you submit to it. The same goes for the MTP program.

But this in my opinion, is not enough. GMC needs to be pro-active in user retention. If there are 10,000 users registered in these forums, but only 60 members online at any one time, that tells me that users are losing interest for a reason. I'm going to assume several reasons.

1. pricing
2. confusion on how best to use the site
3. fall off the map because they aren't being encouraged the way they hoped they would be.

I've seen great ideas for pricing. If there are 500 guests every day who aren't signing up, then making lessons pay/per/download is going to be quick income for GMC that can be used for bolstering the concept I'm going to share next.

Instructors should act as site liasons. That is, when a new user signs up, that user should be assigned to an instructor, whose duty is to keep that person's interest by showing interest in that user. Interest would be in the following form.

"Welcome to the site! I will be your first point of contact for questions you may have concerning how to use this site and how to leverage all the great information on this site. I would like to see where you are at in terms of skill level, so if you are willing, let's get you set up with an introduction video that I'll help you create. This video will give me an idea of where you are at musically. It will also be your introduction on how to submit videos for critique. We have several programs, one of which is a mentor program where I help you find an instructor who will help you learn the genre you are intersted in, as well as any other topics you are interested in."

You get the gist. If GMC shows an active role in pursuing its users, and encouraging them pro-actively to engage the lessons, and ask questions, then they will feel like GMC has a vested interest in them, and they will feel wanted and valued as a member. It will break the ice, and mitigate confustion on "how do I enroll in any given program"? Who do I talk to, where do Post? How do I record? etc.

I think the concept of a GMC new user Liason would be a huge benefit to user retention, which is something I think GMC could use based on the feedback I've read in this thread so far.

I have some more ideas I'll post when I have time.

Christian A.

Hosting Collaborations on 3rd party sites for exposure

Sites like Indaba Music and Kompose all have home pages where they show off the latest collaborations. If GMC does its collaborations on these sites, and sets up the collaborations with a description detailing who the collaborators are "GMC students" and that the reason for the collaboration is not only to make music but to learn HOW to collaborate, and that the leader of the collaboration is a teacher, you'll find a lot of people drawn to GMC to be part of those collaborations because

1. A lot of people sign up for these collaboration sites because they have hopes of doing something, but *alot* fall off because they don't know how to participate.
2. A lot of people aren't skilled enough.

If GMC trains people both musically, but also shows them HOW to collaborate by virtue of doing their collaborations on these 3rd party sites, visitors of THOSE sites willl be exposed to GMC's professional approach at training people.

3rd party sites like indaba and kompose might even showcase GMC with a few contacts to their marketing or other insders - GMC would help them retain and get more people involved, and GMC would get exposure by being on their sites active withint their communities with no extra effort - you're just collaborating on their site flying the GMC flag so others can monitor what is going on.

christian A.

Thank you Daniel ! I just read the end of this thread, and I didn't realise somebody actually likes my idea I'm sure you would be a great show-off instructor for GMC with your crazy shred-madness