xbobby 5 years, 1 month ago-
Posts
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@jonathan@jstewartmusic.com The learning cycle “room”, it get me thinking about a traffic circle – cool beginning – to learn about learning.
That is a fantastic idea… what a brilliant way of imagining it! 🙂
@jonathan@jstewartmusic.com I also love “focus me” it has given me a lot of time to my eCourse. How did you make that videos that are open and play from the beginning?
I’m assuming you mean the clips that look like this:
I made these using CloudApp which can record my screen, but it also has the ability to create an animated picture called a gif, which I can change in the settings between a video recording or an animated image. The only thing with an animated image is you can’t record audio with it. But it has full video recording as well.
I got CloudApp as part of AppSumo a tool that gives you lifetime memberships at deep discounts for various different types of programs for small business’.
It’s a really useful tool, It also works for both Windows & Mac which is helpful as I work on both platforms!
Cool – it’s not so often we see GIF animations anymore.
Deciding Your “What”
So I’ve been working on the Idea Generator, and come up with a few ideas…my top two ideas, have kinda gone to top three:
Learn A Song In 14 Days with only 15 Minutes! – 45/50
“How To Learn (awful title I know..) – 45/50
Practicing Guitar Effectively – 46/50Those three are my top three, out of all of them, I think I’m gonna cut the “How to Learn” for now, as that one is a huge topic , and that would need to be a “great ecourse adventure” more so than the rest would be! 🙂
Out of the other two, I’m fairly excited for both – I really enjoy the idea behind teaching someone to learn a song in 14 days, in fact this is something I’ve done myself on my instagram a while back, so it would be easy to bring that back again (thanks again to @bradleytmorris
for the idea! However, that would be rather hard to be used as a Walk in a Park, and would probably require a little more support so would probably be more of a Vision Quest.But the idea behind Practicing Guitar Effectively, is something that could very well could fit into all three types of eCourse.
I suppose I do need to narrow down my topics slightly more, one of the things I found really hard with this exercises, was working out how “profitable” it is – as there are so many resources online in terms of learning guitar – some of which are free. So it was a little bit harder for me to work out how profitable the idea is, when there are free resources around the internet.
It was tricky to narrow down my ideas, as there are many more that I can think of, or keep thinking of as I go about my daily business, so I might have to keep coming back and revisiting this, at a later date xD
Uncovering Your Why!
(be prepared…complete brain dump here…)
1) Why do you want to make THIS eCourse? Why is it important to you?
Practicing Guitar Effectively –
I want to make this eCourse, because I want to dimystify talent, I want to help people discover that they can build their skills, that those who are “talented” aren’t talented they just work hard, they know what tools to use, and they know how to use them.
I spent years trawling the internet, trying to figure out why I wasn’t ever getting better, why I never got this or that done…why I could never play like X or do this song like Y. I know that it’s possible all it takes is the right tools and using them, and creating a practice routine, that is deeply routed in real practice techniques that actually bring forth the most talented people!Learn Songs In 14 Days (with only 15 Minutes of Practice) –
There is so much information on the internet, how you NEED to spend tens of hours a day to progress as a musician, you HAVE TO practice 12 hours a day and give up your entire life, and that is the only way you’ll improve on your guitar.
Now of course the time you invest, will mean that you’ll progress faster. But not everyone is in their teens and early 20’s and can invest THAT much time, there are musicians who want to feel confident in their talent and want to explore music as a tool of release, but DONT have hours, they have a business, or they work a lot of the time. They want to improve but they physically can’t practice 100’s of hours a day.
They have children, or other family commitments. So they sometimes can only take 15 minutes a day to practice.
There is such negativity around the…well you COULD do 15 minutes but you should really do more….that attitude sucks for parents, and people who are self-employed who have limited time in the day. Or for people who are worried about starting, because they are believe they aren’t good enough so why should they even try.The fact is, if you DO truly only have 15 minutes a day, you can still progress….you can still learn more, you can still improve your skills! It’s not over, you don’t have to sacrifice the time with your children, or your job to become a happy musician. You can do it with just 15 minutes and the right tools.
2) What about this topic will keep you motivated, inspired and excited enough to complete the journey of making this eCourse a reality?
For both, the thing that will keep me motivated, is the idea that the knowledge that I’ve gained over the past year, is so easily available…but no one knows about…no one knows how to implement it in their playing. It’s the knowledge that I can extend my teaching outside of my home town, and help more and more and more people to become “talented” to become more skilled and to gain that ability through short burts of practice.
It’s realizing that this eCourse could help people who never thought they could learn guitar, play and learn guitar! 🙂3) Why are you qualified to teach your eCourse topic? (your story + credentials)
I’ve been playing guitar on and off for my whole life, I’ve struggled with low points and doubting my own ability because I see musicians who are “far more talented”, who are “far younger” and there is no point, I don’t have 10+ hours a day to practice, I have to earn a living, I have to help look after my two children, with additional needs. I remember what it feels like to be demotivated to play guitar, to think…that’s it for me. I can’t do it…I keep making too many mistakes I keep screwing up I’ll never get anywhere! I don’t have 10 hours to practice over, and over and over and over again until I: “Can’t Get It Wrong”….
It was then I discovered, through a mentor about Deep Learning and practice, and how the current ways of learning and practice – are broken and inefficent. They work sure…but incredibly slowly. They take a lot of time (tens of hours a day) but I was shown how I could vastly improve my practices in one hour (through most of which was being spoken too) I had spent 4 months…on one piece of music and got nowhere.
In 1 hour I’d progressed… and the kicker for me was when my mentor said:“If you talk out all my talking and explaining…that would probably take around 10-15 minutes a day…”
My heart just leapt, for the first time in my life as a teacher, and a musician I felt good about what I did, it destroyed my doubt because the evidence was clear, I CAN get better, I DON’T have to play for hours and hours a day banging my head against a brick wall. There IS a better way!
It was after my sessions with my mentor, that I begun to research further into practice skills – and learnt about Mylein and talent Hot spots, and how there are ways to become what others see as “Talented” there is a way of you becoming a better musician a better player a better musician. There IS a Code…..it’s knowing how to practice deeply, to really get into what you’re doing to build the neural pathways and coat them over and over again.
To know that even if you have a bad habit of playing…you CAN fix it. It’s NOT over…It’s ALL possible.4) Why do you think the people you’re seeking to serve, will be inspired to buy your eCourse?
I’m not anyone special, I’m just a 25 year old guy with two kids, and barely anyone knows who I am. I’m not this virtuoso musician who spends 30 hours a day practicing, I am a guy who just knows how to get his brain to work the way it needs to go!
There are so many musicians who don’t know how to get out of their ruts, to escape out of the traps they’ve put themselves in because they are SO scared of making mistakes. The methods I show, prove that mistakes don’t mean failure. They mean results…they mean learning.
Mistakes, are no longer BAD…they are tools and they REALLY do help you improve!Hello Jonathan,
Personally I really like your “Learn a song in 14 days” – people like short duration activities with a quick payback….
Maybe, “15 minutes per day to improve your guitar skills”.. – actually that sounds poor
Just look on google, blog articles which begin with “The Top x” always do very well…..
Hello Jonathan, Personally I really like your “Learn a song in 14 days” – people like short duration activities with a quick payback…. Maybe, “15 minutes per day to improve your guitar skills”.. – actually that sounds poor Just look on google, blog articles which begin with “The Top x” always do very well…..
Yup…those articles always trend really highly, the articles that I get more traction on, are numbered lists! Glad you like the idea of learning songs in short spaces of time. The joy of Deep Practice – is that you’ll learn a lot by spacing things out, by not trying to cram tons of information at once! It’s always better to cut your practice up! You’ll improve far more if you take a break. (hence why the Pomodoro technique works so well…it’s work in stages)
Knowing Your Who
1) Where have you previously struggled? What transformation have you gone through to get to where you are? What is the connection between you and the people you’re serving? What was the path or process that unfolded? Write it in point form.
- Struggled with Improving On Guitar
- Got stuck in a rut and felt unmotivated
- Online resources told me to practice hours a day…must be an hour a day, every day! That should be the “minimum”…unless you HAVE TO…
- Worked for months at a time at one song, and couldn’t improve. Found it incredibly hard to progress with new skills.
- Hard to Find time to practice
2) How would you describe the personality of the people you love or feel inspired to serve? What are these people like to be around when they are at their best and at their lowest. (yes, this is generalized)
Driven, yet deflated. They know they want to improve they want to discover a new way of progressing but have worries about making mistakes, they are a double edged sword, they want to improve, but don’t know how and feel demotivated and need guidance.
They care deeply about other people and they probably have a family or something that takes up their time, which they can’t avoid.
At their lowest they can be: Low in confidence, unmotivated, frustrated and angry with themselves. Feel like giving up on guitar,
At their highest they are: happy, cheerful always wanting to help others.3) What is the problem you are solving for them? Perhaps it’s a problem you once had 😉
How to improve their skills on guitar with limited time.
4) How do they feel about their current challenge? (overwhelmed, fearful, frustrated, angry, curious)
Overwhelmed with the overload of information
Frustrated with themselves because they aren’t getting better because they feel they have no time
Curious to see if there is another way
Driven to find answers to WHY they are stuck.5) What is the core desire they want? What are they searching for?
They are searching for improvement of their skills on guitar.
6) What is motivating them to change RIGHT NOW?
They’re bored of playing the same old stuff…they want to learn something new, but are frightened to explore options and make mistakes.
7) What would draw them to you to be their guide? What about you or your story will resonate deeply with them?
I’m very much like them, I’m a guy who has limited time, who has commitments to others (children, or parents) but still wants to progress their skills as a guitarist.
8) What motivates the people you’re here to serve (freedom, money, fun, love, service?)
Fun, Expression – They want to express themselves as musicians, but don’t really know how.
Knowledge – they have a thirst for knowledge to explore new ideas and techniques that better themselves.9) What will their objections be when they find you that could stop them from following through and committing. Write down their reasons or excuses for not taking the journey with you.
Not enough time, they can’t spend hours and hours on courses, they have other commitments and can’t spend all the hours of the day working on their guitar skills.
Have done other guitar courses and all they do is add more and more exercises for them to do, which means that require them to spend hours a day improving their skills otherwise they won’t progress.
I’m not good enough at guitar…10) How can you address those objections or fears in an authentic, powerful way (cut through the shit).
It doesn’t have to be hours and hours of time, it can be done in 15 minutes a day. You’re able to do more if you want, but 15 minutes is more than enough to get started!
All the exercises can be done within 10-15 minutes, some even less!
Good. Then you’ve got plenty to learn then – if you can already do something, then what’s the point in taking a course! Learning sucks at first! 🙂So much to offer here @jonathan@jstewartmusic.com. I’m really stoked for all the work you’ve done up to here that will aid you on your journey. I think for your course #1, you should create a foundational course that brings people “into your word,” teaches them your “unique point of view” and helps them walk away with a tangible result. It could be 1 video or 3 videos. That call is yours’. But creating an initial offer that starts their journey is key.
So much to offer here <span class=”bbp-user-nicename”><span class=”handle-sign”>@</span>jonathan@jstewartmusic.com. I’m really stoked for all the work you’ve done up to here that will aid you on your journey. I think for your course #1, you should create a foundational course that brings people “into your word,” teaches them your “unique point of view” and helps them walk away with a tangible result. It could be 1 video or 3 videos. That call is yours’. But creating an initial offer that starts their journey is key.</span>
Thanks Bradley, I’m still trying to properly narrow down my idea, I’ve completed the Transformation idea below, but every course idea I have seems to come towards the same outcome. I sent this as a question for the coaching session today, but thought I’d mention it here. Hopefully I’m approaching this next section in the right way.
By an introduction to your ways, are you suggesting it’s better for me to approach beginner guitarists, who do you mean just anyone who is part and parcel of the journey, anyone who wants to explore a new way of learning. Thinking about it, it’s easier to teach someone from the beginning and help them develop a good foundation – but at the same time it’s not the easiest way to start learning 😀 Still figuring through all that to refine it down nicely…
Providing Transformation
1) What is the final destination or transformation you are leading your customers to?Write down what your “Launch Summit” looks like. What skill will they have at the end? What will change for them?By the end of the transformation they will know how to develop their own practice routines how to change between chords and have a better understanding of how to continue to improve their skills. It will help students have the realization that even though they’re making mistakes and things sometimes don’t go right, they will be aware and know that it’s part of the process – they’ll have tools to help push them through what they’re struggling with and have an answer, a tool that means that they can break out of that rut, or block and progress further.2) What is your customer ACTUALLY paying for?They are paying for the permission to develop their skills, to know that they can learn guitar, and progress at a rate that works for them, that to become good at guitar they don’t need to practice 12+ hours a day, that they can gain insight and better their playing with short practice sessions! That will develop their skills and know that they’re still progressing!3) What tools, techniques, exercises or processes do you KNOW you will need to include to take them from where they are, to the end transformation?-
<b>Sequencing</b> – They can use a sequence of notes, and using a pattern of 123 234 345 456 they can improve their skills whilst learning more!
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<b>Interleaving</b> – By practicing a different skill every other day, this will help improve their long term memory, so instead of trying to force all the information into their short term memory (which isn’t able to keep as much information) they’ll progress in learning multiple skills slower, but more deeply, meaning they’ll remember them far more.
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<b>Retrieving -</b> The act of retrieving, can be done via tests, but also done by trying to remember HOW they performed something, and working on retrieving that information on their own without prompts to help them progress further!
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<b>Consistency -</b> The more consistent a musician is, the more the neural pathways will fire, and the Mylein will connect – therefore making it easy to fire the neurons again, because the brain is a muscle! The more it’s used, the stronger it gets!
4) Make a list of the tangible benefits they’ll receive from going through your eCourse. How will this course idea benefit or improve their lives (mention the subtle AND obvious shifts that will take place).-
<b>Confidence</b> – The biggest thing that new musicians go through, is the fear that actually they’re “not as good as”…by realizing it’s not about some mysterious ability known as talent, but about the tools they use. They’ll realize it’s something THEY can control!
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<b>Improved Guitar Playing-</b> The skills they learn through the lessons means, that as they move through the lessons the skills they develop will bleed into all types of their playing. They’ll find that a focussed exercise on improving dexterity, will actually help them with creating a new chord shape.
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<b>Practice Skills -</b> They skills they learn through this course, will mean they’ll have a greater understanding of HOW practice works, and HOW it can be used to improve what they do!
5) Describe what their life will look like after going through your course. What has changed or improved?Write it as a short story about the student’s transformation OR as a testimonial they send you.The fear of being “good” is no more, I no longer fear making those mistakes, in fact I can’t wait to make the mistakes, to screw something up and get it wrong. It means I’ve got something to do, it means that no matter what happens I can improve. I’ve just perfected one of the hardest pieces I’ve ever worked on. I have been struggling to play this song for months. I kept banging my head trying to work for hours on end to perfect something, but still not getting anywhere making the same mistakes over and over again, slow or little progress but a ton of frustration.Sometimes I still have days where I can’t get something on the first, try but I know that there I can set myself goals, I know how to get myself out of a practice rut, and I know that if I get bored all I need to do is change it up with the TONS of resources available to me.I am playing guitar every day, I’m showing progress, and I’m able to share the love of my instrument with everyone around me – and even when I screw it up, I know how to take it back to a classroom and improve on my skills!Great stuff Jonathan..
This section got me thinking about material I had previously created as well… It’s amazing how much stuff I have, that I’d forgotten about ;)… Seems like you are the same..
As a techy myself, can I make a suggestion (funds permitting), focus on content creation, get others to do the off the shelf techy work… The content is the really special bit and to be honest, you should be saying NO to something others can do, and YES to only what you can do…. I have a small team so can afford to do this, this time last year I could’nt!
Just a suggestion, as techies we love to go down rabbit holes, and come up for air days/weeks later and then look back and think…. erm… i’ve made little/no real progress (been here sooo many times over the past 8 years!)
Apologies, if I’m teaching you to suck eggs..
I’ll shut up now!
As a techy myself, can I make a suggestion (funds permitting), focus on content creation, get others to do the off the shelf techy work… The content is the really special bit and to be honest, you should be saying NO to something others can do, and YES to only what you can do…. I have a small team so can afford to do this, this time last year I could’nt!
Just a suggestion, as techies we love to go down rabbit holes, and come up for air days/weeks later and then look back and think…. erm… i’ve made little/no real progress (been here sooo many times over the past 8 years!)
Funds permitting I’m definitely going to get myself someone to do it for me. I’m going to eventually build myself a full blown membership site (as was suggested at the Q&A yesterday) but I’m well aware that, that will be my Great eCourse Adventure, for now I’m going to start small and just build a small course that is based around something that works with the tools I currently have at my disposal, and know how to use (Divi) and probably LearnDash. Then when I get a little bit bigger, and have properly validated my ideas, and gone up the mountain as it was a few times, I might expand into creating a full on membership site, which is a little more complicated, and for that I’m hiring 😀
That way I don’t get too caught up in the Rabbithole of tech. Even if there are issues, I know there are websites such as Fiverr that can help fix issues, so I’ll not try and do it all alone xD
The tech rabbithole…is a dangerous one to fall into! 🙂
So, I took a little bit of a break, for a day, as I think I’m trying to rush to fast to get something to launch, I took a little bit of time to rethink what I could build, as I know that eventually I’ll be going into building a membership site for guitarists, similar to that of jamplay but instead of being multiple musicians it’ll mainly be me.
To do that however I realize would take a LONG time, and would need a LOT of support so I’ve taken a step back and thought…okay what CAN I do now, without having to invest in much more money than I already have!
I revisited Architekt forest, and came up with a rather nice idea for my first course – which is something I do with all my clients when they first start learning guitar. I teach them chords, I take them through how to play their first chord, so they can play along with what they like straight away!
My course title is:
Improve Open Chord Changes in 7 Days! From Chord Criminal to Champion!
I took this title and I’m now creating a single document, that I can put all the things I’m learning from the forest, (including the journaling questions) and placing them within this one document.
As well as this I’ve started creating more blog posts over on my site The Busy Musician, at the heart of what I want to teach, is something that’ll help new players to improve during their adult life when other things get in the way and they don’t have hours a day to learn!
I completed my first blog post for that, and I’m currently creating the video for it, as we speak! I don’t currently have a full Green Screen setup yet, but eventually I will do – and then I can go on a little further from there.
I was also coaching a friend of mine, with regards to mistakes, and during the session I came up with a really nice way to describe mistakes in practice, it morphed into a really funny story about driving along and how a mistake is just a sign to help you find your way, so I started creating another document just completely brain dumping what I’ve written, as I know I can create something rather easily with some vector graphics that I have access too! 🙂 (As well as adobe animator)
I’ve also been brainstorming adding some interactivity to my blog posts – I’m not sure what is the best way around it yet, but I’ve seen a few options:
- Adobe Edge Animate – It’s available as part of my Adobe Creative Suite, so no additional cost, and it can add interactivity to website, and I can create entire ideas with it.
- Using a HTML Game Engine such as Construct 2 – I’ve built games in the past using other engines, so creating a small project where a user can construct a correct chord chart from memory would be incredibly useful! 🙂 but it does cost…so it’s something to consider in the longrun.
So many creative ideas that I’m rather excited to create, but I need to figure out which one is best – or just make em all 😀
Howdy Jonathan aka @jonathan@jste! I am just now diggin into everything you’ve posted in this here thread and I am mighty impressed. Yer makin’ me wanna take up guitar again! I love how willing you are to take a breather and think it all through so you can simplify it and really offer just the right thing at the right time. This is such an important part of the creative process.
Howdy Jonathan aka @jonathan@jste! I am just now diggin into everything you’ve posted in this here thread and I am mighty impressed. Yer makin’ me wanna take up guitar again! I love how willing you are to take a breather and think it all through so you can simplify it and really offer just the right thing at the right time. This is such an important part of the creative process.
Thank you Ranger Boss Lady 🙂
I completely forgot this is another area, to update. Sooo…..here we go (brace yourself for a complete dump of information.)
So I was asked to be on GEA Live…which was cool you can check that out here in which I spoke a little bit on what I was for my courses, as well as giving Bradley a very short lesson on changing chords.
I’ve rebranded The Busy Musician to The Busy Guitarist after the advice I was given and thanks to some stock resources I’ve got access to was able to create a new logo:
which I thought looked a little snazzy if I do say so myself, I’m going to be possibly updating the colors, but not too sure whether I will or not…at the moment just getting a good enough logo is good for me ^^
I’ve finally finished Architekt Forest, (after going through it twice) and I think I’ve got a fairly tight grasp on my What Who Why How as well as the vibe of the course and my planned transformation!
What: A course on learning to change between open chords, easily and fluidly, using deep practice techniques, in a short space and time. A step by step process that makes it easy to learn in short bursts, with family and friends.
Who: Living Room Guitarists (Anyone who owns a guitar, and wants to play it but has very limited time to sit down to practice, yet wants to improve).
Why: I want to help more people who are creative, and want to learn guitar the ability to still improve, even if they have busy lives or don’t want to become an “expert”.
How: Using short 5 minute video lessons, with interactive activities (flashcards, quizzes etc).
Vibe: Fun with a focus’ on helping a student achieve a goal quickly, but in an entertaining way, gentle guidance with strong ideas! Not taking things too seriously, and having fun with music!
Transformation: By the end of the course you will be able to change between open chords found within many pop and rock hits and have a greater understanding on how you can simplify the process for other chords.
I’ve also got a first draft idea on my outline which is here
I’m also still working on the blogging challenge my second blog was written here which was a nice little difference based on a Quora post I replied to.
Now my next thing to attack is working on planning out all the courses and lessons, and figure out how long each lesson will be…I can tell this will take a while 😉
It gets more and more exciting every day though…
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