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Considering how many Active Melody members there are, it surprises me how few actually participate in the Monthly Challenges. I’m pretty sure a large part of the reason is that many members feel they lack the technical expertise to record themselves and upload a video to Youtube. That is a real pity, because I feel like at least half of my guitar skills came about as a result of the Monthly Challenges. The challenges have forced me to do deep dives into techniques and styles that I would never have otherwise done. They forced me to think about what I was doing on my musical journey, like, is my phrasing as good as it could be? Do I leave enough “space” (as for the latest challenge)? Could I improve my dynamics? Can I improv over a one-chord song or play a standalone electric blues? If someone asks me to play something, what would I play?
A lot of us longtime members have extolled the virtues of the Monthly Challenge series, and yet probably only 0.001% of Active Melody members even bother to post a submission.
Why?
Sunjamr Steve
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I completely agree with you Steve. The challenges for me have been extremely valuable. Having that monthly project with a definitive target each month has helped me grow as a player, learn my fretboard much deeper, and even work at composing my own songs.
The past few months in particular have seemed even extra sparse on participation. If you’re considering it at all I would encourage you to jump in next month. It’s well worth the effort!
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There are two reasons. One is, not feeling worthy enough to post where I was when I first joined. It’s just a natural thing to want to be proud of what you put out there. It’s the reason why we do take after take to get it right before posting. I didn’t want to post anything with a known mistake in it. Then finally, I just decided to do it anyway and acknowledge the mistakes up front and move on. Best decision I every made was to just get started recording.
The other reason is lack of skills in doing recordings. Of course, in the beginning, it’s good enough to use a tripod with a phone mount, and record video and audio direct from the phone. But I was just lazy about doing recordings at first. I just wanted to play and didn’t think I needed to record myself.
Honestly, I think even if members never posted their early in the process video’s, that’s fine. But they should definitely make recordings, and even attempt to do the challenges, even if they don’t officially post them. It’s great feedback for yourself.
I remember very early on, I could not string anything together for more than 12 bars. It all just felt a long ways away from even considering doing self recordings.
We could to an official member poll on everyone’s reasons for not participating.
Root note patterns >>> CAGED shapes >>> TRIAD'S. Just put in the work and watch your guitar skills soar.
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Hi Steve,
I fully agree with the benefits of the monthly challenge that you’ve described. I myself participated for years without interruption, and it really helped me grow musically. The fact that I currently only participate sporadically has to do with my personal situation, my age, my specific goals, and my workload.
At 80, I want to spend the time I have left doing what I truly enjoy musically: cover versions of songs from various genres of the 1960s, classical guitar and piano, harmonica, and bass. And that keeps me more than fully occupied; I take part in the challenges whenever my other “practice schedule” allows.
Of course, I know that you can only reach a higher level through improvisation and “free play,” as per Brian’s admirable efforts. But ultimately, I have to do without that because I have no ambitions whatsoever to jam with others or play for my family (who are annoyed by my daily “noise” anyway).
Otherwise, I’ll happily and enthusiastically stick with Active Melody and the wonderful friends here for as long as I can.
Dieter
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Taking part in the Monthly Challenges has certainly helped me as a player over the years, however, it does take a certain amount of courage and commitment to take part and basically, ‘put yourself out there’ Investing in the time and patience to record and post your videos, is not everyone’s first priority.
Playing guitar is about being creative and enjoying yourself in a musical way but learning the rudiments, chords, scales, triads, modes, the CAGED system etc etc. is often hard work and requires no small amount of grit and determination. Add to that the techniques, skill and time required to record, mix, upload to YouTube and finally post to Active Melody and you’ve found yourself a long way from the initial enjoyment of just playing guitar.
However, we know the process gets easier and quicker the more you do it, depending on what level you want to go to. Recording on a mobile phone is quick and basic editing using CapCut is fast and effective. So there are quick ways in to recording and posting our efforts.
We’re all at different levels of age, ability and time constraints and as such have different ideas of what we want to get from Active Melody. My personal situation, being over 80 means I now concentrate mostly on the enjoyment of playing guitar but do emphasise the benefits of recording and watching your own progress on video.
I suspect Brian’s business model is not affected by how many people join the Monthly Challenge but we all seem to agree the learning benefits from watching one’s own progress on video.
So maybe Brian could emphasise participating in the Monthly Challenge as one of the vital learning tools from Active Melody.Richard
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I think many who join, do so based on the many original compositions that Brian puts out on a consistent basis. They are very inspirational, and challenging enough at first to play, that it takes up all of the students time just to get through it each week.
Everyone that desires to build on their current skill level, should set some realistic goals for reaching their own personal achievements. It’s unfortunate that more younger players don’t show up here. Are the older folks scaring them away? I’m guessing that most of them are chasing the ability to play certain songs they listen to, and since Brian doesn’t do cover songs, they go elsewhere. That’s a big mistake though.
Each of us has to have enough desire to improve to put in the required work. A good teacher makes this process easier to digest by laying out simple but effective plans of action that anyone can take right away to improve. I think Brian has done a stellar job in that regard, but it’s still one way communication.
In any case, I’m a big believer in identifying one’s own faults or exact area’s that need improvement and then working towards eliminating those weaknesses on a consistent basis. In the very beginning, everything needs improvement! So that makes it tougher to organize a plan of action in the beginning. I think I benefited greatly from personal instruction in my very first year of playing seriously. My instructor was able to point out my obvious weaknesses, two of which I still struggle with to this day sadly. I’m aware of them, and do work on it. He essentially took me through all the open chords, and all the barre chords and attempted to teach me how to read music. I was turned off by the reading music part.
Root note patterns >>> CAGED shapes >>> TRIAD'S. Just put in the work and watch your guitar skills soar.
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