Aye Gabe, you are the veteran here

hahaha yeah, I'm part of the GMC Veterans.

I joined when a youtube add came up saying, this could have been you if you started a year ago , or something like that.
After that I saw the site and I thought, this must be some kind of scam. But after some research I joined here about 2 years ago I think.

As always on my youtube adventures, considering it should be the place I like to say I live. I actually seen the old videos of Kris having fun imitating people and doing a great job mimicking their playing. I lost it in the vast wide web, but a few years later I came across this video:



Which that video got me more interested at getting better than just playing simple songs that I had been working on for years. Also it started my GAS. Had a Washburn MG-34 and a Dime Dean-O-Flame and a Pod XT. Ran that gear for as long as I can remember. Now I'm burn through gear faster than I can waste the gas to go and pick it up!

I just know in my time being here, I'm not strongly motivated to follow a specific practice route at all. I get bored rather fast and adventure into doing my own stuff. But I must say this site keeps me wanting to pickup the guitar every time I see a new lesson thats right up my alley, tho I'm not at that skill. This is looking at you Ben and that new Jason Becker Style you have up today!

Great instructors, load of lessons, lots of styles and the chance to practice anytime from my own house in contact with a huge community of guitar heros

This is just an amazing place for musicians and I must say I wanted to be involved very soon after I found it. It's got it's own gravity it seems now and is growing and evolving in real time as watch Big props to our founder Kris Dahl for getting this ball of wonderful rolling and to everyone for making it better every single day.


Todd

As one of the newbies here, i came to a well established community but i was still welcomed warmly. I hardly missed a video chat since; they are without exception great and very enlightening.

Taking guitar lessons would only get you a single teacher, with a single view on music. Here we get tons of great experienced teachers with a huge variety of backgrounds, tastes and specialties. Flirting with all of their styles has already broadened my horizon by a lot.. in 2 weeks time!




oh yeah, and the lesson videos are nice too

I wish there was some way to make this short...so...my apologies.

I honestly cannot remember what exactly brought me to GMC. My old guitar was in its case in the back of the closet in the dark & collecting dust, only to be pulled out on a few rare occasions, to strum some chords mostly, since the early 70's! Yes, FiftySix, I'm an "old guy", too. Times were different back then. Playing along to music required lifting the needle on the turntable or keep pushing the rewind on the cassette player. I just didn't have that kind of patience back then. But with the internet now, technology has opened up a whole new window of opportunity to having access to instruction 24/7!

Fast forward to 3 years ago, I know I got sparked from watching something on Youtube. While watching some videos, I realized that technology has changed the way we learn. I must have stumbled across a guitar instruction video & just found so many new options available to learn the guitar that would fit my schedule. Somehow I came across the GMC site & I remember that first video of Kris screaming, "Do you wanna Rock????". My answer was, "Yes, I do!" It's been awhile since I've seen the video, but the point he makes about anyone can play if they really want to, really hit a chord ( ...couldn't resist) with me. True, guitar prowess will come a little more natural to some, but others who have the passion to learn, really can learn the guitar skills needed. And I really liked that.

The main feature of GMC to really grab my attention was the video chat. As Rich said, back then, the only video chats were Todd & Ramiro. I was a "guest" in those chats for about a year in 2010. Ramiro led an open discussion where someone would ask a question & start a topic. When there were no questions, he would jam to a backing track. I was amazed how patient he would be when asked the same question so many times but he would answer as if it were the first time he had been asked. Then I also "stalked" Todd's chat, I wish I remember when I actually started watching...ugh, and I wanted to ask questions but couldn't as a guest.

I know one-on-one private lessons are truly the best way to learn (sorry, but isn't that the truth?). With my schedule, I just can't make a weekly lesson, or afford weekly lessons & worrying that if I don't make the lesson, I will still have to pay for it. That doesn't make sense with my lifestyle. GMC is there any time I am ready for it, late at night, early in the morning, just whenever. Finally, something that fits in my difficult time constraints!

So I guess my point is that GMC really does satisfy every need required for learning guitar. Nearly instant access to an instructor almost 24 hours a day. You can ask a question on the forum & get a response within hours, but usually only takes minutes. So many lessons are available that it is almost a problem since new lessons are added every few days, that they cause me to be distracted from my regular routine. GMC offers tons of resources & most all of them are free to everyone. And let's not forget the forum! Yes, the instructors are awesome but the members of GMC offer tons of knowledge, as well. The one thing that truly amazes me about the forum is how encouraging, friendly & helpful everyone is at GMC. I just feel at home when I'm on the site.

Most importantly, feedback from the instructors. An instructor really can't help you unless they see & hear your playing. REC & the newly added student video feature in the video chats certainly take care of that. I could just feel the frustration of the instructors, even though they didn't express it, during some of the chats or even questions on the forum, from not being able to hear the results from what they are teaching. I'm an extremely shy person, so for me to put my video up in the chats & play where not only the instructor can hear me, but anyone in the room can hear me, well, that's just a huge step for me. But I know how important it is to get that feedback from the instructors & I always get nothing but encouragement from my friends in the chat room.

So, to answer the original question, the reason I joined GMC was it felt like a site where I could learn guitar on my conditions. And it certainly exceeded my expectations. Oh, if only GMC was around so long ago, imagine where could I possibly be now?

This post has been edited by Blister: Apr 30 2013, 02:22 AM

Thank you for the nice thoughts mate - I hope you will stay a regular guest at my sessions




Hey Gary I see some very well pointed aspects regarding the processes involved in learning a craft over the internet

I knew the GMC before I started to make lessons here Kristofer's YT movies are one of the best comedy series ever I always loved when people could have that much open and happy attitude to the playing It always helps to make You wanting to learn more and more + just having fun doing it

Like Minks said - when You learn from many different instructors You can get know with different approaches to the same issue and make Your own way to solve some technical problems As far as Instructors stay open-minded (and that's how I feel all at GMC are) they NEVER make You think that there is only one way that is best and that...their way od doing something

Playing guitar is such a huge peace of knowlege and skills to own...limitless so even in some situations the instructors can help each other with the things they are best at Anyway...whole the mood at GMC - withing instructors and the students makes this place very speciall and more family-like than any other lesson website.

Don't remember how I found GMC but, once I saw this lesson, I was intrigued and the price was certainly right! Lots of benefits and low cost!

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Thrash-Like-Mustaine/

+1 in these two reasons. Plus, your lessons start with a full version of the song that will be broken down, which was a big factor compared to other site/YouTube channels where there is a lot of talking or just play a snip of the lesson in the first Two minutes of the video. Time is of an essence, I don't have time to hear somebody talk for a minute or two to then realize that I don't like te song/lesson.

The violin