Lesson specifications

What is required from you...

Your recordings must be of excellent audio and video quality.

You must paricipate in your lesson's feedback, as well as the forum.

All styles accepeted - jazz, blues, rock, acoustic, country, pop, metal, shred, etc.

What a lesson should contain...

See a typical example lesson.

A lesson should contain a solo/riff/vamp/part of a song. We currently only accept original material. You heard us - we are paying you for your music!

1 Video - You need to record a "main video" which contains the music you are going to explain (minimum 20 seconds). You then need to break up the main video into small segments which you play separately, slowly.

Example: a thirty second solo might be broken up into 10-30 licks. Make a separate video for each lick, where you play the lick up to tempo once, and slow once.

2 Audio - A backing track is required for every lesson. Best is if you can use the backing of your "main video". Otherwise, record a backing track which you think suits the lesson

3 Tabs - You need to tab everything in the lesson. Make a separate tab line for each video segment ( for each lick). Use font style "courrier".

4 Explanations - A text explanation for each video segment. Ie what to think of when playing the lick + theory/Scale explanation - practcing hints etc

How to choose a lesson topic?

The guideline here is simple - start with what you do best!

If you are most comfortable with tapping - do some tapping lessons. Doesn't matter if we already have some tapping lessons at gmc - there are so many different ways of doing it - and our online students want to know all of them.

Example of lesson topics...

Slide guitar, improvising over a twelve-bar-blues, jazz improvisation, sweep-picking, harmonics, using the lydian mode, writing riffs, improvising with legato, accompanying jazz standards, chord strumming for beginners, speedpicking, advanced funk scratching, harmonic minor modes, diminished arpeggio runs, etc.

I hope you get the picture - the possiblities of lesson topics are endless. Again: Pick what you do best - and turn it into a lesson!

Another way of chosing a lesson topic:

Have you written and recorded a solo/riff/song of your own? Explain it - and we have a perfect lesson topic! The material you chose doesn't have contain any specific technique - if you liked it, others will like it too!

Lesson Specifications

Videos: We currently accept most common formats - avi, wmv, mpg, mov.

To get good video quality you don't need an expensive camera, but you do need good light conditions. Read on to learn more (or click here to jump directly).

You need to provide us with a "main video" where you perform the material - with a backing. Important: What you play first in the main video will be viewable by anyone who visits the site - not only paying members. Therefore it must be something cool and inspiring in order to emmediately "grab" and inspire the student.

Always start the main video with a pre-click (2-4 beats) so that the student knows when to start playing along.

This has to be your own - original material.

You also need to provide so called "slow videos" where you break up the main material into small sections, playing both slow and fast.

Optional ($5) - record a "spoken video" , as introduction to the lesson, where your face is visible. For example, you could speak about:

-what techniques/chords (etc) the lesson contains.

-why you like the sound of this lesson and why you chose the topic.

-what difficulties the student might encounter - and what difficulties you encountered while learning the topic.

This video should be the first video after the main video - and grants $5 extra comission. No other videos should contain spoken information.

Audio: Provide us with the mp3 file you used as a backing track - if possible, provide a slower version of it. Also, if the lesson covered a song you wrote - we would be happy to let everybody (even non-paying members) download it. So you can spread your music to thousands of gmc visitors! If you would like us to do this with an mp3 of your let us know!

If your software allows you to choose bitrate - 128 kbps is suitable for the mp3 file.

-> Example Backing Tracks

Suggested scale:

If you can't do a scale diagram like this one, a tab will do:

A minor pentatonic:
e|---------------------5-8-|
b|-----------------5-8-----|
g|-------------5-7---------|
d|---------5-7-------------|
a|-----5-7-----------------|
e|-5-8---------------------|

If you use photoshop - here are some scale templates.

Tablature: A text document (you can use wordpad for this) - use the font Courrier. The tab needs to be broken up into sections that correspond exactly to the slow videos.

Here is what a "slow video" with corresponding tablature looks like (notice how the riff is played both up to tempo and slow):

You should provide us a text document with all the licks/ riffs put together (a "complete tab") - here is an example .

The complete tab is used by our students when they have practiced all the licks and riffs individually - and are ready to put the the material together to play the whole piece. Our system will also place the tab section under the corresponding video.

Note: Always include backing chords, example:

  Em       Am     B7
e|-------------------------------|
b|---8-7-----8-7---8-7-8-7-------|
g|-9-----7-9-----7---------------|
d|-------------------------------|
a|-------------------------------|
e|-------------------------------|

Here is an empty guitar tab template you can use for the complete tab.

Submit a GuitarPro tab and get $10 extra comission.

Text explanations: Say a few words about what scale/which notes you used for each lick. What the students should think of when working with your specific licks. What's the note value? (16th notes? triplets?) What's the time signature? What technical issues did you encounter - how did you solve them etc.

Also, provide a lesson introduction - write a paragraph or two about what the student will learn in this lesson (ie if the lesson is about tapping - explain a little what tapping is good for and which guitarists use the technique). This will be displayed on the first page of your lesson.

You can also let us know what equipment you used, and what your tone settings were.

Important Hints..

You must have a completely plain bakground, such as a blank wall. You can also strap up a blanket.

Good lightning condition when shooting is essential. Best is sun light - otherwise use as many lamps as possible to eliminate shadows on the fretboard.

For best quality, shoot the video as close as possible to your hand/hands.

Experiment with angle and amount of light - until you have achieved best possible video quality.

If you are using the microphone of your video camera - try damping room reverberations by covering hard surfaces (usually walls) with a mattress, a carpet, pillows etc. This is especially effective when applied to the hard surface close to your amplifier/monitors.

Your general appearance (clothes, hair, etc.) matters. You need to look proper to get admitted.

Video editing software

There is a great video editing software included in windows - called "Windows Movie Maker". If you use this software - you should export the video files as "DV-AVI" - this will give best quality.

To find about more free video editing software you can search at downloads.com

A great commercial editing software is "Adobe Premier".

What happens next?

So once you have have read and understood his text you can start preparing your first lesson.

We cannot let you know your exact comission until we get the whole lesson.

You will also get an extra comission based on forum participation: $ 50 for every 100 forum posts, posts in the lesson feedback also counts. Send an email to maria@guitarmasterclass.net for each 100 posts and you will get paid immediately.

You will need to agree on an employment contract such as this one.

Payment

As soon as your first lesson has gone live - you will get paid. We strongly suggest that you create a paypal account - as this will allow you to receive money instantly.

If you don't have a credit card and cannot create a paypal account - a standard bank account will do.

Lesson checkboxes

When you have completed the following steps your lesson is ready to go live - and you will receive your comission. Don't send us all these files - when your sample video is accepted you will get access to our video uploading interface.

1 main video with pre-click

Slow videos

"Spoken video" (optional, will give you $5 extra comission)

Backing track - let us know key, bpm, time signature

Text document with tab broken up into sections ("complete tab")

GuitarPro tab (optional, will give you $10 extra comission)

Lesson introduction text (1-2 paragraphs)

Text explanation for each tab section

A photograph of you - so that the students can see what their teacher looks like.

Looking forward to see your first lesson!