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Where's Grisha?
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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 RE: Where's Grisha? (in reply to the_jamez)
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Sorry to answer so much when you are asking the G-Man, but I have to add one more thing. Where I live there is an incredible player named Miguel Rodriguez, and he is also an advocate of slow practice.
One day we were watching the flamenco show at the Hyatt in Scottsdale (incidentally the replacements for Esteban's long-running lounge act), and several musicians were there. The bass player for the flamenco group also plays guitar and he was asking Miguel how to play the tremolo.
He started playing Recuerdos del Alhambra, with a sloppy trem. Miguel took the guitar and played it at 1/2 or 1/4 speed. "Practice it like this for a long time and eventually it will come out." Incidentally, the same thing Grisha's dad told him.
The bass player took the guitar back and played it like that for about 10 seconds. Then he went back to playing it at full speed again.
I said to Miguel, "You tell everyone to practice it slow, but no one ever does. If people actually did it, there would be a lot more good guitarists in the world, wouldn't there?" "Yep," he said.
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Arizona Wedding Music Guitar
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Date Jul. 3 2006 15:29:25
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Grisha
Posts: 1263
Joined: Mar. 17 2005
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RE: Where's Grisha? (in reply to the_jamez)
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Thanks for your kinds replies!
I've been doing this for the past 1,5 months, and it's been an interesting experience.
First thing I noticed is the number of students signing up for lessons dropped sharply instead of increasing. This is interesting, because things I teach on YouTube serve only as a supplement to the topics I cover in my lessons. For example, posture, hand positions, mechanics of techniques and exercises to practice them are all things I discuss in my lessons, but do not go into on my channel as much. What perplexes me is that at $50/hour my lessons are still not attractive to people. With my 36 years of playing experience, 26 years of teaching, BM, MM, DMA in classical guitar, and a solo flamenco career since age 9.
Second thing I noticed is that there is no guarantee that a video will be successful. Things were looking good until 2 weeks ago, when views started to sharply drop off, to about 1/10 of that level today. I kept posting similar types of videos, even a bit improved, and yet the interest kept decreasing. I noticed also that longer videos do poorly, picado videos seem to be the most popular, and talking videos also. That last part is strange to me. I made this channel less about myself and more about useful information to help people. I made it as accessible to beginners as possible, while trying to also do things at a tempo advanced players would be able to quickly pick things up.
I know that viewers want technique explanations to be offered for free, but I am reluctant to do this because I do not want to step on toes of other teachers (and my own), as this would directly affect the guitar instructors that are trying to make a living teaching these things.
My philosophy was to provide a no-nonsense presentation, where there are no distracting cuts and ramblings. I wanted people to feel like they are in a room with me. I wanted it to be about substance and I also wanted to be myself. Maybe this is a wrong approach. After all, YouTube is mostly used for entertainment. I am probably going to start creating colorful thumbnails with click baiting text advertising the contents. It is totally against my philosophy, like wearing a fake Rolex or putting shiny wheels on a car, but I'll give it a try.
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Date Sep. 21 2020 18:33:40
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JasonM
Posts: 2055
Joined: Dec. 8 2005
From: Baltimore
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RE: Where's Grisha? (in reply to Grisha)
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quote:
First thing I noticed is the number of students signing up for lessons dropped sharply instead of increasing. This is interesting, because things I teach on YouTube serve only as a supplement to the topics I cover in my lessons. For example, posture, hand positions, mechanics of techniques and exercises to practice them are all things I discuss in my lessons, but do not go into on my channel as much. What perplexes me is that at $50/hour my lessons are still not attractive to people. With my 36 years of playing experience, 26 years of teaching, BM, MM, DMA in classical guitar, and a solo flamenco career since age 9.
Just some thoughts,
Stretching And posture are good but I wouldn’t think they would sell well. You gotta hook viewers into feeling they are missing out on something that you are not going to explain in videos. Maybe folks are just waiting to see how much you will give before they book a lesson. What if you start off each video with a quick snippet of you playing something cool, unrelated to vid content , and then brief reminder that you are available for lessons, every video from the start. Basically the same psychology behind a jingle.
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Date Sep. 21 2020 19:02:56
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Grisha
Posts: 1263
Joined: Mar. 17 2005
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RE: Where's Grisha? (in reply to JasonM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: JasonM
Just some thoughts,
Stretching And posture are good but I wouldn’t think they would sell well. You gotta hook viewers into feeling they are missing out on something that you are not going to explain in videos. Maybe folks are just waiting to see how much you will give before they book a lesson. What if you start off each video with a quick snippet of you playing something cool, unrelated to vid content , and then brief reminder that you are available for lessons, every video from the start. Basically the same psychology behind a jingle.
Thanks, Jason! Good thoughts. The reason I haven't included my playing at the beginning is I thought it would be like shouting "look at me, I can really play!", and would anger and upset some people, and bring a lot of negative comments that I would be too honest to delete. YouTube is full of my performances uploaded by various people, and comments on these videos are full of negativity. I really like your idea about mentioning lessons availability at the beginning, but again, it may disappoint people that I am not going to post everything I know for free. It may make people feel that I am pushing them. I know, I have a problem with self-advertising, probably due to my staging years spent in Soviet Union.
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Date Sep. 21 2020 19:19:36
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JasonM
Posts: 2055
Joined: Dec. 8 2005
From: Baltimore
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RE: Where's Grisha? (in reply to Grisha)
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quote:
Thanks, Jason! Good thoughts. The reason I haven't included my playing at the beginning is I thought it would be like shouting "look at me, I can really play!", and would anger and upset some people, and bring a lot of negative comments that I would be too honest to delete. YouTube is full of my performances uploaded by various people, and comments on these videos are full of negativity. I really like your idea about mentioning lessons availability at the beginning, but again, it may disappoint people that I am not going to post everything I know for free. It may make people feel that I am pushing them. I know, I have a problem with self-advertising, probably due to my staging years spent in Soviet Union.
I totally understand the apprehension about self advertising. It’s not in my personality either! of course, doesn’t mean that you will come across as a pushy salesman necessarily. And then there is the whole ambiguous YouTube algorithm for views....Anyway, I hope you can rack up some students or gigs soon. You certainly deserve it , amigo!
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Date Sep. 22 2020 4:27:46
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) 
which allows me to chip in quite some time towards practice ( not married either so all the more time :)). It's the perfect time now to (quoting Grisha) "rid myself of any tension" 
