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So anybody else out there have any thoughts or ideas?

Yes, the price thing is what I'm trying to figure out. If I were to do it on my own as opposed to going with this company I could charge alot less. I just couldn't offer the 10,000 extra video's, audio lessons and other extra's. It would just be course material and private lessons.

As far as comparing youtube video's and lessons like these there is really no comparison at all. With youtube video's there is no structure. Plus about the extent you can ask questions is in the comment area under the video.

With lessons like these it's very similar to taking live one on one private lessons. You have the course material PLUS the teacher to structure an actual plan of attack for you. You can also submit videos and/or audio examples of your playing of your playing for the teacher to review. Any questions you need answered will get answered by professional teacher that actually teaches for a living. Not that some of the guys on youtube don't teach. I've seen some very good teachers on youtube. So yes they are free but they are only good as a supplement if you are really serious about your playing. You really need someone to review what you are playing and give you advise on how to improve your technique or whatever it is you are working on. Also you need some type of structure. Viewing a video on sweep picking, playing chords, modes etc.... are great but how does it all connect. How does all of this relate to your goals?

If you are a very well organized person who is very goal oriented in whatever you do then maybe you can week through all the thousands of videos to figure out your own plan but even then it would be quicker to study with someone who has been there and done that already. However most people are not like this. I get tons and tons of students all the time the come to me saying they tried to teach themselves using youtube videos and even instructional books but just can't seem to get where they want to.

If you really think about it $100 is not much though. You would pay $100 a month for weekly half hour lessons with a local teacher. Think about the amount of material you would go over in this amount of time. It's really alot less then what you would get from a program like this. I do understand though that most people don't realize this and see all the free stuff already on the web so it devalues programs like these but there is nothing I can do to change that unfortunately. That is why I'm trying to figure out an alternate payment plan that will work for people.

As far as the amount of questions I was debating with student paying a certain price per private lesson and getting an intense lesson like you would in a private in studio lesson or just paying a membership and just answering questions as they come along. For example if someone has a question on Monday and then another on Tuesday then I'd answer them both.

So again viewing youtube videos and getting private lessons whether it be online or in studio are just two completely different things that really can't be compared in the least bit. As I mentioned earlier it's great supplemental material but youtube videos should never be your main source of study if you are serious at all about your playing! Yes youtube video's are free but as the saying goes you get what you pay for!

Actually a couple ideas I had was to charge a certain amount for each section of the program, say $15 or $20 and then pay additional payment for private online lessons. The other is say pay a monthly charge for the course material along with the private online support which would include customized lesson plans for each student. Maybe 40 or 50 bucks which would be half the amount of this other program I was talking about and half the amount of private in studio half hour lessons. It would actually be about the same as one hour long in studio lesson. When you really think about it and put it into perspective this is a great deal!

The other thing people don't realize is the amount of thought and work that gets put into programs like these. Anybody can make some cool videos on arpeggios or pentatonic scales but to organize a complete program that will most directly help the student understand the material is an exhausting amount of work and effort. Not to mention the extra amount of work it takes doing the custom private videos for each student.

This is certainly way to much work work to do for free. As soon as I have my course material done I will also be doing some free youtube videos just like everyone else. These will not be as much work because each video will be on a certain subject and will not have to tie in with a full structure course. Not to mention I won't have to do a bunch of recordings, diagrams and extra private support.

So anyways if you still disagree I would still like to hear what it is you disagree with though. Or if you have any additional comments I would also be interested in them. The more I hear the better!

I want to make clear that I'm certainly not an anti in studio teacher advocate. That's the way I make my living and the online stuff will always be a secondary income. Not that I would ever teach any student in this way! In studio students are my bread and butter!

Now everything you are saying is great but it really all comes down to how well of a teacher you are. If you are a crappy teacher you will teach crappy online just the same as a crappy teacher teaching in a studio.  It would be ludicrous to think that every online lesson experience is going to be absolutely breath taking. I could only imagine the amount of crappy teaching material that must be out there!

What it all comes down to is how well you teach. Yes being in studio with a live teacher has a certain vibe you create that is pretty cool but in the end the concepts and knowledge you teach along with how well you teach it translates through either way. If you are into hard rock or metal think of Troy Stetina, which is only book/CD or Metal Method. I'm certainly not comparing myself to these guys but the point is if you are good at teaching you will be good at teaching no matter what medium you pick.

While I find this sidestep interesting it has nothing to do with my post. I'm talking about a comparison of two formats of online teaching and which sounds more interesting to people. If you want to create another post on this then fine but these questions are very important so I don't want to get sidetracked here.

I'm open for anybody's opinions, even alternate pricing plans you would like to see.

I definitely have to agree with every thing said but in my case I have this little shelty that is a huge hit with my students and their parents. Generally I do agree about animals though. If you have a big slobbering dog it may not be a good idea to keep them in the waiting area.

Generally I do not accept every other week lessons. I do have two at this moment but only because last summer I agreed to let one of my students who was 5 at the time do it. I was then left with an open spot every other week. I then recently let someone fill that alternate spot. Besides that there will be no more every other week spots. When they quit I'm not replacing them with more that come every other week.

I turned down a couple recently that wanted to come every other week. I have found it to be more of a hassle then it's worth. You either come every week or nothing.

I'm certainly no master of the English language by any means but I think the author of these articles needs a bit more work on it. I agree it doesn't look like a site for teaching as much a site for selling or making money.

Oh, I see!!!

Ez drummer would be right up your alley. It has ez drummer solo included. You just open it up and pick some beats. The only thing is when you use it with a recording program you can build up full songs with different patterns for verses, choruses etc... plus you can add in drum rolls. You just grab a beat you like with the mouse and drop it into the midi track. If just one steady beat is all you want then the solo will do fine. There are some midi files that you can get that have complete intro's, verses, choruses etc... The Metalheads pack I got is like that plus you can get groovemonkey packs for just about any style.

Go to Toontrack.com to check it out. They have a special going now where you can pick it up for $99 and $149 for Ez drummer and one style pack. I paid $149 or maybe even more for the ezdrummer alone when I bought it. You can also look on youtube to check it out.

Here is another easily said but maybe note as easily done technique. It's simply humming a melody and trying to duplicate it within the scale you are playing. If you completely new to this then start out by playing say a natural minor scale and try to sing the pitches as you go along. If a note doesn't sound right then try to adjust your voice to the note. This is something you'll need to continually work on for awhile but you can start the humming the melody technique strait off. You have the general sound of the scale now in your head.

Now try to sing a melody using these tones you have in your head. You may not hit everything exactly at first. As you get better at eartraining you will get better at this but even if you don't hit the exact notes you will be creating a musical phrase instead of just noodling on the scale.

The ultimate goal, which can take quite awhile to master, is to be able to play what is in your head instantly. I'm much better at it now but there are times for sure when my fingers can't quite nail what I had going in my head. I always try to stick with this technique for all my melodies though. It's much better to play with your head then from your fingers. This is a technique you will continue to work on for as long as you play the guitar. Start out by just getting as close as you can and as long as you stick with it you will soon be able to play some simple melodies. From there you can build. One book I highly recommend to help with this is Troy Stetina's Fretboard Mastery. Excellent book! I need to go back and dig into it again myself!

Guess I'm a little late here! I see your still around. Good!

Here is something to think about! When we speak do we just ramble on with words never stopping until we have nothing left to say? No. we use punctuation! We have periods that represent us having finished a complete thought, comma's representing a complete statement but not quite a complete thought yet, as in this sentence here and other punctuation like question marks, exclamation points etc...

Well it works the same with soloing. Think of your solo as a sentence!The first step is find your roots in the scale or scales if you are working on more then one. These roots will represent your beginning of the sentence and the period. Try first starting on a root messing around with 5 or 6 notes and then either going back to that root you started with or to another root in the scale depending on what area of the scale you are in at this point. Now let this note ring out. Doesn't that sound complete?

Now if we just go root to root all the time it can start to sound boring just the same as if when we speak we just use simple sentences all the time. We need to make it more interesting sounding. Let's put some comma's in there!

What our comma's are going to be is any of the other notes besides the root. Try this! Start on a root, play around with 5-7 notes and stop on any other note other then the root and let it ring out. It sounds like a statement but it doesn't sound quite complete yet does it? On a side note there are a couple notes you may land on that you may hear and say " that actually sounds complete" but still for now look at these as comma's.

Next you want to finish off the sentence! The next note you want to target is a root again. What you do is start on the note you established as your comma note or one of the notes surrounding this note, play another group of notes and finally land back on a root again. Doesn't that sound complete now?

Even if you landed on a note that sounded complete before it now sounds even more complete when you land on the root again.

So the goal here is to start with the root, play some notes, land on another note besides the root and finally land back on the root again. So when you are on a root always think "my target now is a note besides the root". When you are on this note you should then be thinking "my target now is the root". Keep doing this back and forth.

What this is called is phrasing and is incredibly important to your playing. This is the most basic form of phrasing but we need to start somewhere. This will give you a solid foundation to build from. As you get better at it you will want to add more comma's to the phrases and not always start and stop your phrases on the roots. I know not starting on the root contradicts what we just went over but for now don't worry about it. As you advance and learn more about chord tones you can experiment with this. For now it's root, other note, root.

If you get this concept down pretty well then maybe go ahead and add more comma's into your phrases. After that you should have a good feel for phrases and you can experiment with starting on other notes besides the roots. I do recommend you start to look into chord tones so you can make some intelligent choices.

Again for now in the beginning think root, other note and end on root. A complete sentence! Hope helps a little!