The official Frontiers Softcock Shit thread

[bl5150]

Good luck to you Brent.  Since you're back into it, will definitely have to have a jam in the future somehow.  Could even do a Frontiers and record and write music and send to each other and create an album.   

I find it surprising that lessons are still a thing though with youtube and the internet these days but if you are mostly getting adults, that would probably explain that.  The amount of free material out there these days, I would think you'd really have to know your stuff to keep people paying and coming back.

Theory is something I always wanted to learn more of.  I know most my scales and whatnot, but one thing I always wanted to really learn more of is modes.  I know the basics but always struggled learning each one, their relative key/scale and putting it into practice.  Jazz fusion was always something I wanted to learn, e.g. Holdsworth and Gambale.  By the time I got really good and wanted to explore, I got full time work and it was put on the backburner.  I'd love to be able to play that style as well as I play the basic stuff.

I will get Devicio on the phone to produce 

As far as lessons being a thing .............the young kids are not capable of teaching themselves on YT and the parents value the interaction with a teacher.  I prefer adults as I don't have to deal with the wandering eyes ........adults are there because they want to be there. 

Music is huge in schools - ukulele has taken over as the biggest selling instrument in the country for that reason.  And the older people who try to teach themselves come to me with terrible technique that can taken months to correct. Beginners require constant feedback on their hand position/posture.   I think you need to be an intermediate to have a hope of finding (and knowing) what you need on the internet as it is so overwhelming.  And I know as a perfectionist that has tracked down all the best material on the planet relevant to what I want to learn.......it takes forever , even when you know what you are looking for.

[jjrock88]

Cacophony would have to step aside if Brent and Wolf joined forces 

[TAC]

I would definitely order a copy of Zoom For Dummies for that!

[wolfking]

Cacophony would have to step aside if Brent and Wolf joined forces 

Woah, let's not get crazy here. 

[jjrock88]

Rock n Roll Crazy Nights 

[TAC]

You are the hero tonight

[jjrock88]

Hey Hey Hey 

[bl5150]

Damn spell check............should be Lock n Loll Clazy Nights

[wolfking]

Good luck to you Brent.  Since you're back into it, will definitely have to have a jam in the future somehow.  Could even do a Frontiers and record and write music and send to each other and create an album.   

I find it surprising that lessons are still a thing though with youtube and the internet these days but if you are mostly getting adults, that would probably explain that.  The amount of free material out there these days, I would think you'd really have to know your stuff to keep people paying and coming back.

Theory is something I always wanted to learn more of.  I know most my scales and whatnot, but one thing I always wanted to really learn more of is modes.  I know the basics but always struggled learning each one, their relative key/scale and putting it into practice.  Jazz fusion was always something I wanted to learn, e.g. Holdsworth and Gambale.  By the time I got really good and wanted to explore, I got full time work and it was put on the backburner.  I'd love to be able to play that style as well as I play the basic stuff.

I will get Devicio on the phone to produce 

As far as lessons being a thing .............the young kids are not capable of teaching themselves on YT and the parents value the interaction with a teacher.  I prefer adults as I don't have to deal with the wandering eyes ........adults are there because they want to be there. 

Music is huge in schools - ukulele has taken over as the biggest selling instrument in the country for that reason.  And the older people who try to teach themselves come to me with terrible technique that can taken months to correct. Beginners require constant feedback on their hand position/posture.   I think you need to be an intermediate to have a hope of finding (and knowing) what you need on the internet as it is so overwhelming.  And I know as a perfectionist that has tracked down all the best material on the planet relevant to what I want to learn.......it takes forever , even when you know what you are looking for.

Yeah I guess.  It's been 15 years since I was teaching but I know what you are saying.  I hated teaching kids because they never wanted to be there most of the time.

I saw adults with bad technique too.  Was almost impossible to change it.  I hated teaching and even though I'm pretty good, I just never felt good enough to teach people how to play.  Maybe things would be different now.

I never would have guessed that the ukelele would be the biggest selling instrument right now lol.

[wolfking]

Found your website.  Nice name.  Was looking for some vids but to no avail haha.

[bl5150]

Well ukulele has taken over from the recorder which has to be an improvement 

[wolfking]

Berklee hey?  Was that online courses or did you go there Brent? 

How is your fusion stylings and usage of modes Brent? 

I really should study more.

[bl5150]

Berklee hey?  Was that online courses or did you go there Brent? 

How is your fusion stylings and usage of modes Brent? 

I really should study more.

Didn't go there , no.  Just some stuff through Berklee Online.   Even though I kept my theory knowledge up and did teaching here and there I really haven't got my chops back up to the level I was in my late teens.  At this point my knowledge of modes etc... is at a higher plateau than my actual playing I reckon.

Did I send you instructional material or just songbooks when I did that big share?   If there's anything you need I probably have it .

Funnily enough when you run a one man teaching business you hardly have time to do any playing for yourself. 

[wolfking]

I think they were all song books but I'll double check.  Not sure if there were any instructional books.  I just never had the discipline to keep going with the theory stuff.  I did level 6 or 7 music exam but I hated it and just quit theory all together.  It's bitten me on the ass now if I ever wanted to get back into teaching, especially modes.  My idea of modes is 'oh E Dorian, just raise the 6th and off you go' lol.  Listen to some Criss Oliva, that'll do.

For what you are doing, you don't really need your chops at the highest level though mate.

[bl5150]

Yeah you're right............but I am a bit of a perfectionist , which is why I barely picked it up for decades.   Picking up a guitar and realising I couldn't do a fraction of what I used to drove me nuts and I just stuck with teaching a few beginners here and there but not playing myself.   I regretted stopping being serious about it, but you can probably understand the context.   I graduated school in 1991 shredding it up in my VCE exams and loving my music and then Nirvana hit and the whole scene I loved was decimated in a matter of weeks and I couldn't see any hope of a career in music , as I wasn't interested in playing grunge or wedding bands.

This idea of the guitar business was partly about giving myself the motivation to get half decent again.  We've been going 12 months and I still haven't had a student who has felt too advanced , but then again most students are beginners and don't last more than 1-3 years.  It's a damn hard instrument and taking steps from beginner to intermediate and advanced are beyond most people.

I know some teachers who refuse to teach beginners but I actually prefer it for some reason.

[Lowdz]

I learned my modes back in the day but never had the knowledge or ear to use them properly. My chops are gone, along with my calluses 😀. I only get a few minutes a day, if that these days.

I try to play some fusiony stuff to backing tracks- sometimes it’s ok, other times it sucks. And I have no muscle memory at all so Learning songs is a nightmare. I’m keen though. 😀

[wolfking]

Yeah you're right............but I am a bit of a perfectionist , which is why I barely picked it up for decades.   Picking up a guitar and realising I couldn't do a fraction of what I used to drove me nuts and I just stuck with teaching a few beginners here and there but not playing myself.   I regretted stopping being serious about it, but you can probably understand the context.   I graduated school in 1991 shredding it up in my VCE exams and loving my music and then Nirvana hit and the whole scene I loved was decimated in a matter of weeks and I couldn't see any hope of a career in music , as I wasn't interested in playing grunge or wedding bands.

This idea of the guitar business was partly about giving myself the motivation to get half decent again.  We've been going 12 months and I still haven't had a student who has felt too advanced , but then again most students are beginners and don't last more than 1-3 years.  It's a damn hard instrument and taking steps from beginner to intermediate and advanced are beyond most people.

I know some teachers who refuse to teach beginners but I actually prefer it for some reason.

I would imagine the time you were playing and the style was the big thing with the shredders.  The grunge movement at that point definitely would have left a bitter taste.  It's hard even today to reall see anything worth while doing career wise with the guitar.  Teaching is about it.  Cover bands seemed like a dying breed before, and who knows now how many will return to steady gigs when all this is over.

If I had the time I'd love to buy some proper equipment and put more time in some youtube covers and see how that goes, but so many people doing it, you have to have really good meaningful content.  Making money would be tough but some do it. 

Pretty sure you've pimped him before but been watching a lot of Gustavo Guerra on youtube.  Fuck, he's amazing.  Wish there were english subtitles on his vids though.

I also when I was teaching was shit scared of someone coming in better than me wanting to learn or even people wanting to learn as you mentioned on your site acoustic fingerpick stuff.  Nah, find someone else to teach that shit haha.

[bl5150]

I have an idea on how to take this business to the next level but I am not sure if I have the time (or the desire to put myself out there) to do it. 

In a private guitar teaching practice , the ONLY way to make serious money is to teach groups.  Unfortunately that just isn't me.  I teach a couple of father/son combos etc..........but I just don't have it in me to discipline a bunch of misbehaving kids in a classroom setting.    The other way to do is to run what they call 20/20/20 lessons where you have "stations" -  one child with you , one practicing some exercises and another on some gamified learning on an iPad.   I played around with that concept too but again..........it's just not me and people in Australia are not as accepting of group lessons as they are in the US.  The other major issue is you set up a group program and you have everyone wanting their own times etc.............and you end up with a bunch of people in odd time slots paying the lower rate and getting private lessons.  So for now , I am just plodding along with private lessons.  But you will never make any decent money doing that .  I reckon I make about $5/hr when you add up the time I put into the business and take out expenses . So if the business pays me even a token wage it is a loss making business. People don't realise the amount of preparation, tech etc.............involved - all they see is the minutes they are with you.

[wolfking]

I learned my modes back in the day but never had the knowledge or ear to use them properly. My chops are gone, along with my calluses . I only get a few minutes a day, if that these days.

I try to play some fusiony stuff to backing tracks- sometimes it’s ok, other times it sucks. And I have no muscle memory at all so Learning songs is a nightmare. I’m keen though.

I'm fine with learning the modes and the shapes and makeups, but it's more how to use them properly over what chords and in what situations.  Saying that, learning their relative keys is tricky and something I never fully memorized.

I think over the years playing mostly metal I fell into the trap of just leaning the basics and playing along with the specific key, then using my ear to add passing notes and whatnot to make things interesting.  You'd cover major, minor, harmonic nimor, some diminished, blues, pentatonic, even phrygian and phrygian dominant with metal and they are relatively easy to use knowing the style, but I fell into that trap and learning the basics and not really studying chords, and exploring using scales and modes effectively over those specific chords.  I think that's where the jazz stuff comes in where they play more over the chords progressions as opposed to a set key.  That line of thinking makes you look at the fretboard in a totally different way.

The basic knowledge I have would be following metal guys, like I said you can look at Criss Oliva and someone like Chris Holmes who like the Dorian mode, even though they probably aren't using them properly over the chords progressions they are using.

I guess I should go back and study more Satch and Vai.  It's funny, my exams when I did my gradings I played Circles for one, Crystal Planet for another and Love Thing for another.  Nailed them but it was only years later that I understood what was going on.  Even Crystal Planet has some cool different stuff in that solo.  Probably should start with Lydian and listen learn Flying in a Blue Dream lol.

[TAC]

I'm going to run the above post through my google translator.

[bl5150]

When did you discover Google?

[wolfking]

I have an idea on how to take this business to the next level but I am not sure if I have the time (or the desire to put myself out there) to do it. 

In a private guitar teaching practice , the ONLY way to make serious money is to teach groups.  Unfortunately that just isn't me.  I teach a couple of father/son combos etc..........but I just don't have it in me to discipline a bunch of misbehaving kids in a classroom setting.    The other way to do is to run what they call 20/20/20 lessons where you have "stations" -  one child with you , one practicing some exercises and another on some gamified learning on an iPad.   I played around with that concept too but again..........it's just not me and people in Australia are not as accepting of group lessons as they are in the US.  The other major issue is you set up a group program and you have everyone wanting their own times etc.............and you end up with a bunch of people in odd time slots paying the lower rate and getting private lessons.  So for now , I am just plodding along with private lessons.  But you will never make any decent money doing that .  I reckon I make about $5/hr when you add up the time I put into the business and take out expenses . So if the business pays me even a token wage it is a loss making business. People don't realise the amount of preparation, tech etc.............involved - all they see is the minutes they are with you.

I don't like the 20/20/20 thing.  Definitely don't think that would work here.  I'd be the same.  Wouldn't have the want or confidence really to put myself out there.  The problem is, you would have been making more as you grew but this bastard pandemic is something yeah you didn't need.

I thought about going back to uni and studying to be a school teacher, but couldn't be assed and again the theory.  When I was teaching it was in a music shop and was a self contractor for the teaching (worked there as an employee too) and got $11 per half hour class before taking your tax out so was okay, but you'd then rely on everyone turning up to make $80 for an afternoon.  I despised it by the end, that was 15 years ago though.

I know you keep saying your chops are down but have you looked into doing some vids or covers and putting them out there to show what you can do?  Adding some vids to your page or facebook or whatever could help during these times at the moment.

[wolfking]

I'm going to run the above post through my google translator.

I'm thinking of making a music theory discussion thread out of all this and it will be a no Tim allowed thread lol. 

[TAC]

It might actually make more sense to me than the damn exercise thread.

[wolfking]

It might actually make more sense to me than the damn exercise thread.

 

[bl5150]

Just for Tim .................Kade is now making a Music Theory Exercises thread 

[TAC]

Just for Tim .................Kade is now making a Music Theory Exercises thread 

Death by theory.

One theory the first minute. Two the second minute....

[wolfking]

Just for Tim .................Kade is now making a Music Theory Exercises thread 

Day one introduction;

Bodyweight squats while learning and memorising all seven modes of the major scale at the same time.

[TAC]

Can I just settle on:

a masterbation video of me while I was watching porn. 

That'd be a lot more attainable.

[bl5150]

Now we know why Kade's so good at guitar...........super strong hands after all those reps.

[TAC]

Putting the "solid" back in this thread.

[bl5150]

This is developing like one of our roulette threads 

[TAC]

Good times!!

[wolfking]

Can I just settle on:

a masterbation video of me while I was watching porn. 

That'd be a lot more attainable.

All you have to do is just ask mate.

[TAC]

Heading back out of the thread about now...


Let me know when you're discussing lame music again.