1 (edited by Instructor 28-03-11 15:08:22)

Topic: Instructor's Review of 299 guitar licks and 10 backing tracks

SUMMARY -

The best thing about this?  The cost.  Even if it doesnt deliver, it's not a total loss.  I'm out $5.00

MY REVIEW PHILOSOPHY -

When I review any product or site on the web, there are a couple of things I look at:

1.  How does it manage to deliver upon its claims (both made and strongly implied through marketing)

2.  Are the people being marketed to appropriate for the product that's being offered?  Does there seem to be a qualification so that unsuspecting buyers have a fair chance to decide if they are buying something that will help them?

3.  How well does it teach?  Teaching approaches and methods are of particular importance to me since I am a teacher.

Let's go into the review.

ORDERING CONCERNS

I saw the site looked it over, and nothing particularly moved me that it would be novel or unique, but the $4.99 price tag, made it worth checking out, because worst case scenerio, I could at least warn others, and keep things realistic expectations wise.  Coupled with the fact that it never hurts to have a few extra backing tracks as a teacher, it wasn't something that I felt too worried about.

Completed the purchase, and heard "nothing".  No acknowledgement, and no download links.  Just a "thanks for the money" from PayPal.

I waited, and it was about 40 mins before I got an acknowledgement.

DON'T STEAL FROM US, PLEASE!

Then a little while later I was promised the product soon, but because of their zeal to prevent piracy they had to invoke some measures before my link would be ready.  No problem there I suppose, no one wants to see their hard work squandered on a torrent site somewhere.

Then I got my link.  I'm not going to comment on the actual nature of their anti-pirating measures but to say it was pretty clever.  I get it.
If they will put as much care and passion into the rest of their product as they have to the protection of it, we will really be getting somewhere. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

TAKE YOUR PLAYING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Seems that this bit of marketing-speak strikes a chord in people.  It's well known that there are two selves to every person:  The person we are now, and the person we envision and hunger to be.  As a guitarist, there is the way you play NOW and the way you wish or hope to someday play.

Ethical marketing (such as ours) seeks to deliver on that idea with carefully crafted and deliberate goal-oriented measures.  I am positive that I have used that term before in describing what we do, because I feel that we can get a person there, so while it's a claim, it's also a responsibility we take upon ourselves to see that through, once a student decides to give us a try.  If we do not have that, we need not be in business.

Indiscriminate marketing seeks to also tap into that need to entice the sale.  You buy it because you want to take your playing to the next level.  When you think about it, who DOESN'T want to improve their knowledge or playing?

That said, I think that marketers should be ethical about respecting the realism of their claims.

THE SYSTEM/PRODUCT PACKAGE

I had 2 download links.  One for the Adobe PDF, and one for the backing tracks.  The first download of the PDF, took about 7 minutes on a high speed connection.  The second stalled and died and gave me a corrupt archive of backing tracks (I have emailed Matias about this and he was helpful and responsive and the problem was resolved, so this lets me know that he's sincere in wanting us to be happy with the product.  I also get the sense that this is in its initial launch stages, and there may be some wrinkles to be ironed out, that's okay, I don't expect perfection.  It's how you respond to issues that makes the grade for me and Matias did a great job at responding to my concerns)

The PDF worked fine, it's well organized and contextual, and divided by scales and articulations, and most of the examples were quite good.  I recall the days when I'd listen to the examples of a MI guy and hate their playing and the choices of melodic concentration.  The sound files are embedded within the PDF and are not included as separate sound files in the package.  It seems that it calls them from somewhere on the net and a player appears within the PDF.  Its pretty good, definitely more high tech than I know how to do.  As a delivery system it worked well, and the examples were clear.

ARE YOU GUTHRIE GOVAN?  JOE SATRIANI?

The problem I have is the sound files (examples) themselves.  They will not take you to the next level.  I say it again, your playing will not be taken to the next level.

Next level?  Nope....

Not gonna happen....in fact...

You have to BE at the next level to be able to play these!  This is NOT beginner stuff.  The average speed of these licks are 16ths and more times than not 32nd notes.  They are played at one speed - FULL speed.  This is what you could do IF your playing was at the next level!  If it's NOT, you're out of luck.  The sound files are not looped, slowed down or in any way shape or form taught/demonstrated so that a person wanting to go to the next level can do so realistically...as it claims to promote.

This should have been broken down.  As it is now they sound like GP5 sound files using RSE, and played at one speed.  This is a problem I have, with presuming to learn anything for the average player...it plays (flies) through at look-at-what-I-can-do-speed and stops.  That's it.  You have no provision to loop the file, or slow breakdown of it, by say using VLC Media player or a slowdown program for MP3's.  If you didn't get it the first round, too bad.  You get one speed...and that is light speed.  But, you have the tab.

The point is, this product does NOTHING to get you to the NEXT LEVEL.  And it certainly doesn't teach.  The truth is, that it can take you years to play these licks, and they aren't going to teach you or help you get there, only extended practice with a metronome under very specific conditions will get you to speed.  There are 299 licks.  Some of these have some killer stretches along with the blazing speed.

The good thing is many of these licks sound awfully good, and melodic.  They are divided by different articulations, but the fact is, time and time again you are hearing things that you are likely not able to play and are not given any assistance in eventually being able to play them.

This is a problem, and should be addressed.

THE BACKING TRACKS

They sound great and hey, even if you forgo the book, and expect nothing else, the fact is 5 dollars for these backing tracks is not a bod deal.  For those who want to experiment with modes, they have some specific vamps to play with.  Even if you know nothing about what you are doing, you can at least fake like you do.

BOTTOM LINE

I think Matias is sincerely trying to help and inspire others, and trying to put something out at a fair cost, and is genuine, and I have been in contact with him to try and give him some advice and counsel as to how to make things better, and it remains to be seen, how responsive he will be.  He has the potential to have a nice niche product with a few teaching refinements, should he wish to do so.

In short, at the price, even if you get the backing tracks and nothing else, it's still a fair shake, I just think he can do better on the teaching end of things, and hopefully our correspondence can inspire a better, more helpful product for all of you out there.  In the event that he does, I want to re-do this review as I want whatever we write to be genuinely fair to the guy.  Its a lot of work and time to get out a product, and I don't want to knock anyone down that's trying.  It's clear that he's trying, and I think if he's willing to go a few extra steps, that others will benefit exponentially.

As it stands now, unless you are very accomplished with your technique, the licks will be of little use.  The licks book is definitely not in the reach of the average player.

As it stands now if you aren't Guthrie Govan calibre, this isn't for you. It is not for beginners, and in my opinion it should be better marketed in the interest of being fair, and matching the things the product solves, to the needs and abilities that the average player has. If he makes these changes, it can take your playing to the next level.

If he makes these changes, then this could very well be a breakthrough product for the price.  I think he's getting there, and with a few tweaks this will be a relevant product.

This gets us back to marketing.  Simply by adding a provision which allows for slowdown speed, I think he genuinely expands upon the market range that he can genuinely help, because at slower speeds, even if it will take a while, a guitarist can practice these ideas slow enough as to develop proper habits, sufficient reps to create and promote muscle memory and so on.

Best,

Instructor

Review is 2nd revision.

http://rnbacademy.com

Online Guitar Academy

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2

Re: Instructor's Review of 299 guitar licks and 10 backing tracks

Good review - thanks for taking the time to give your opinion.

Re: Instructor's Review of 299 guitar licks and 10 backing tracks

Update...

Got a response from Matias, seems positive.  He seems sincere about wanting to help.  If he follows through, I think that it will be a great help for those wanting to make the most of the licks

-------------------------------------------------------
Here's what I can offer you. Give me 1 week or 2 and I will embed
slow down audios. It is not as easy as it looks, there are 299 licks and for each
lick I have to go to  Multimedia, Audio, import the audio, import the poster, resize the logo and align it; I have to do all that for each lick.

And there is also the space issue, because I have to move some
things so 2 buttons  can be in the same line.

Best,

Matias
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thought I'd pass along the good news.  If he does this, combined with the audio tracks, this would be a great improvement.

Instructor

http://rnbacademy.com

Online Guitar Academy

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Re: Instructor's Review of 299 guitar licks and 10 backing tracks

Nice review, thanks

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Re: Instructor's Review of 299 guitar licks and 10 backing tracks

he best thing about this?  The cost.  Even if it doesnt deliver, it's not a total loss.  I'm out $5.00
MY REVIEW PHILOSOPHY -
When I review any product or site on the web, there are a couple of things I look at:
1.  How does it manage to deliver upon its claims (both made and strongly implied through marketing)
2.  Are the people being marketed to appropriate for the product that's being offered?  Does there seem to be a qualification so that unsuspecting buyers have a fair chance to decide if they are buying something that will help them?
3.  How well does it teach?  Teaching approaches and methods are of particular importance to me since I am a teacher.
Let's go into the review.
ORDERING CONCERNS
I saw the site looked it over, and nothing particularly moved me that it would be novel or unique, but the $4.99 price tag, made it worth checking out, because worst case scenerio, I could at least warn others, and keep things realistic expectations wise.  Coupled with the fact that it never hurts to have a few extra backing tracks as a teacher, it wasn't something that I felt too worried about.
Completed the purchase, and heard "nothing".  No acknowledgement, and no download links.  Just a "thanks for the money" from PayPal.
I waited, and it was about 40 mins before I got an acknowledgement.
DON'T STEAL FROM US, PLEASE!

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Instructor's Review of 299 guitar licks and 10 backing tracks

Thanks you very much for sharing this review here with us.

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Re: Instructor's Review of 299 guitar licks and 10 backing tracks

Thanks.

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