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Does Brain ever engage or participate in this forum outside the weekly lesson or challenge announcements?
Also, I was thinking recently that there is no structured accountability built into the AM method, and there is no method of tracking progress (marked completion via submission, self check, award, etc.) Aside from sharing a YouTube video performance and informal socializing there is no way to track progress through the AM web page, etc. I’m fine with paying for content, but it might be nice to have some sense of accountability for completion like almost every learning method. Sites like Truefire have a self checked completion mark and others have self checks and video submission milestones.
Just a thought, so not trying to upset anyone. Thinking about how to establish a trackable sense of completion and accountability using AM. So far, I just make up my own system. What do you do?
It's all about the journey, not the destination.
https://soundcloud.com/david_ohm
https://www.bandmix.com/drwho/ -
Hi Dave,
These are all valid thoughts and suggestions and Brian is definitely open to such. Aside from shooting him a direct email to brian@activemelody.com you could also possibly catch him on our next Zoom meeting which will be announced and pinned on the Forum soon. We just had one on December 21st so the next one should happen sometime in March maybe, they’re about 3 months apart and organized by Manfred, one of the participants. Brian loves to stop by and engage in discussions, if possible.
Now, when it comes to progress tracking. Active Melody method is a little different than linear courses except for the few courses that are available here. The courses you will find here do have the Completed buttons and all that. Each individual lesson can also be added to a folder, like Favorites or Completed or whatever else you would want to name them – and then you could access them at My Account/My Favorites.
When it comes to the sense of achievement, the monthly challenges are what did it for me and for many other participants. They are a great motivator to do a deep dive and work on something very specific every month. They have kept me motivated and helped me progress for over 7 years now. I also do other projects and lessons but the challenges keep me accountable and basically became my lifestyle. I seriously doubt I’d still be playing guitar if not for them.
🎸JoLa
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Thanks! I will checkout the completion feature. Did not know it was there. I will also try the folders method. Monthly challenges are cool. I’m not concerned about linear methods, just looking for ideas on feeling sense of accountability in order to motivate progress. Thanks for feedback and ideas!
It's all about the journey, not the destination.
https://soundcloud.com/david_ohm
https://www.bandmix.com/drwho/ -
Dave,
Let me start by saying I have been a member of TrueFire and ActiveMelody for years. I have learned much, much more from Active Melody. It just takes a little more self-direction and an appreciation that avoiding spoon-feeding is a good thing. My friends are astounded at the progress I’ve made. (Admittedly I have a lot of time on my hands.) But I think being a member of both makes sense for different reasons.
I would suggest that a future budding guitarist simply buckle-down and practice both sets of materials. After thinking it through honestly and objectively, I don’t think that implementing your suggestions would provide value for me. I certainly don’t want anyone making judgments and taking guidance from how well I have made progress.
On TrueFire, there is no way to compare one set of lessons or one instructor vs. another qualitatively without taking large portions of both instructors’ courses, which can be a huge waste of time. In my opinion, TrueFire’s website is generally not well laid out. It is definitely not all it could be. I have had to write three or four inquiries to TrueFire support to find out information that should have been readily findable. It’s like walking into a library that does not have a card catalog (remember those?).
BOTH WEBSITES are very reasonably priced and a good value, in my view.
I WOULD PAY DOUBLE OR TRIPLE for the following two things on either website:
1) a comprehensive lesson-by-lesson summary (perhaps in the form of an Excel Spreadsheet) stating: a) name of the course/lesson; b) genre; (c) skill level; (d) prerequisites, if any; and (e) teacher’s comments, including a statement of what priority the lesson should have in the learning process, and why; and
2) an organization or taxonomy (perhaps in outline form) of the courses so that a person joining as a member can approach the learning process in an orderly manner, while maintaining some flexibility and individuality. (E.g., start off telling students that they need to spend a lot of time on triads at first, and less time on speed training!)
ActiveMelody does have a pretty good summary available (#1 above), but it lacks #2. Another example: I am trying to learn fingerstyle now; it would be nice to have a very simple ordering of lessons so that I have one fingerstyle lesson to begin with and one fingerstyle lesson to end with, and a logically-ordered set of lessons in the middle. The beauty of this approach is that it doesn’t have to be implemented by Brian himself.
I love the fact that I’m getting all my lessons from one person. I’ve really gotten to like Brian and to “know” him over the years. I will be very sad if he retires. -
Hey Dave, I think the sort of structured accountability you discussed is good for people just starting out on their guitar journey. I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been an AM member, but I think it may be approaching 9 or 10 years now. I used to keep a list of lessons I had learned, along with my own comments on the lessons. Those comments are mainly relevant to me, and I still refer to them from time to time. I have temporarily memorized at least 300 lessons, I no longer memorize any lessons, but instead I watch Brian’s videos and take kernels of knowledge or tips on techniques from them.
In my early days with AM I was thrilled each time a new lesson came out that I liked. It would typically take me a week to memorize a lesson, and being able to play it for my friends and family was ample reward. I soon came to realize that there were almost no lessons that I couldn’t learn to play if I just went through them slowly in bite sized chunks. It took me about 2 years of doing this before I decided it was time to start learning improv. Nobody decided that for me, I just felt like I was ready.
Anyway, that’s how it went for me, and the main thing is: It’s all been incredible fun!
Sunjamr Steve
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Hello AM,
Anyone noticed the low participation to the Showcase and monthly challenges ?
Seems to be going down every month.
I know Brian is very busy teaching good stuff.
But I miss having him participate in the monthly challenges.
When I joined AM I found it was fun to have a short comment from him.
Can’t say its related to low participation but not helping.AndréM
AndréM
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