Gmc Mentored Training Program (mtp), Information |
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Gmc Mentored Training Program (mtp), Information |
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Aug 17 2008, 03:52 PM |
Hi there GMC:ers!
It gives me great pleasure to announce a new initiative - The GMC Mentored Training Program!
What is it I hear you asK? Well, the GMC Mentored Training Program is a new GMC initiative designed to take learning at GMC to the next level! We all know how many awesome lessons there are at GMC, we all know how important the forum is in getting questions answered, but sometimes you need a little more. One advantage of a real flesh and blood instructor is that he can check on your progress, suggest improvements and areas for study and provide a little extra drive an inspiration. Of course the downside of a flesh and blood instructor is that you go to see him once a week and spend a lot of money. Well, now we are planning to bring many of the advantages of a flesh and blood instructor to the already awesome materials at GMC without any of the disadvantages! Put simply, the idea behind the mentoring program is that we will put in place a structure to match up students with more experienced members, who will advise and mentor the students one on one. Since this is pretty new and exciting, we will be launching a very limited tryout for a couple of months in which Kris and I act as a mentor for just a couple of students, so that we can see what is involved and how it works out, before we launch a much bigger program. I will create a separate signup thread for that. So how will this work in practice? Lets see: 1. Who can be a student in the Mentor Program? Anyone! There is noone out there that cannot learn something from someone else. If you have been playing for 10 years and are a master shredder, you still may be a beginner as far as jazz goes. If you picked up a guitar for the first time yesterday, this is a great way to start out right and develop good habits right from the beginning! 2. Who can be a mentor in the Mentor Program? Anyone who is prepared to volounteer some of their time to help others, which means most of you! With the exception of absolute beginners, most people have something to teach those who are less experienced than themselves. The only real qualifications are some level of proficiency and a desire to help those less experienced that yourself. In some ways, a mentor who is just a year or two ahead of you would be a great choice as they will have a better appreciation of what you are going through as they recently trod the same ground themselves. 3. What do I need to do this? The only real requirement is a way of recording yourself, audio and video. This doesn't have to be sophisticated, a cheap webacam is more than adequate - this allows the Mentor to see what the student is capable of and also for the mentor to demonstrate specific techniques by video. Now the good thing about this is that GMC now has videos of very many styles and tequniques, so in a lot of cases, the Mentor will be able to highlight existing GMC videos rather than making their own videos to demonstrate particular points - in fact, it is the goal of this program that the mentor program is a layer on top of the existing GMC materials and in no way replaces it. 4. How Many Students can a Mentor Have? There is no real limit - it comes down to the amount of time you want to put into it. We will see how it works out, but we would expect that a mentor could comfortably handle 2 students. 5. How do Students Sign Up? To sign up, a student must post to the signup thread, including a video of his or her current level of playing - this gives the potential mentors a feel for the type of playing the student is capable of and what his style is - this doesn;t have to be elaborate, just a few chops and techniques. The student should also include some ideas on what he/she wants to achieve in the next 6 month period, and some notes on the overall style of playing they want to develop - eithe r spoken in the video , or in writing in the signup post. 6. How do Mentors Sign Up? To sign up, a Mentor must make a small 'demo' video and post it to the mentor thread - the video should include: - Clips of the Mentors Playing - A Small spoken section describing the mentors style and experience level The video should be somewhat similar to the instructor profiles as it is really trying to achieve the same result, but we are not aiming for perfection here, we just want to give the potential students a feel for the type of player you are and whether or not you would be a good mentor 7. How are Students and Mentors matched up? We'll see how this goes - in some cases there will be obvious pairings, which is great. However, we will also have a Mentoring Coordinator who will see that matches are made as far as possible, depending upon the number of mentors and students we get applying. 8. How Long does this last for? There is no real time limit - succesful partnerships could go on for years! However, if as a mentor or student you can no longer devote time to the program, be honest and allow either party to move on. Also, if things aren't working from a personality perspectiver, thats fine and to be expected occasionally, we will be happy to reassign mentors and students as the need arises. Sometimes a change works wonders as well - if you think it makes sense we can arrange to rotate students and mentors on a regular basis say every 6 months to expose the student to different advice and techniques. 8. How Much Does this Cost? The GMC Mentored Training Program is included in your regular GMC Subscription! 9. How Does this Work In Practice? The day to day operation of the program will evolve during the test period, but initial plnning is to use the Mentor's agenda to communicate with the students. The idea is that the Mentor directs the students studies by giving him or her weekly goals, based on the students interests and capabilities. The student reports back regularly on progress, asks questions, and recieves new assignments as he or she develops. It may be appropriate to upload a weekly progress video to enable the Mentor to gauage improvements and point out areas that need work. We are using the Mentors agenda in this way as it is a little bit like going to see your guitar instructor - but in this case you can go as many times a week as you want and at a time that suits you - similarly, the mentor can reply and work with the student as suits him or her. Of course other forms of communication are available between a mentor and student - eMail, IM, PM, and sometimes it makes good sense to use these, but we would prefer to see the bulk of the interaction in the agendas so we and others can see how this works out in practice, and also so that it inspires others to either follow along, or get a mentor of their own We will add more guidelines to this section as we figure the process out during the pilot phase. That's it for now - why not head over to the Student signup thread and see if you can get in on the early availability tryout! -------------------- Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ... My Stuff: Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab |
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