Facilitated e-learning
There are scores and scores
of methods existing today for the Classical Guitar and there are an ever
growing number of web-sites offering lessons to aspiring guitarists. All of these offerings fall short in that
they give no or insufficient feedback to a student on their progress. With facilitated e-learning the student
receives timely feedback on their progress.
This is done via 2-way video communications through very specific phases of
learning. The student takes a video of
the specific learning for that period of time and sends that video to Scott who
reviews it and gives prompt feedback. At
that time the student corrects their assignments and re-shoots a video and
sends it to Scott. The student does not
move forward until he/she demonstrates sufficient ability in that learning.
In many ways this way of
learning is actually better than private face-to-face lessons. For one the student has video demonstrations
(either of Scott or another student) of the thing he/she is studying and this
video can be played over and over again.
Because the lessons are very specific the student is free to focus and
learn those tasks without going off on tangents. The student also feels more responsible for
the material in an e-learning situation than a private lesson situation. This is due to the work involved in shooting
a test where the student is very motivated to get it right.
In today’s world of so much
choice isn’t it wonderful that you have an option to study with a world-class
classical guitarist and teacher even if you don’t live in the
What camera do I need?
The good news is that for
the facilitated e-learning video, we want to use a lower quality picture. This is to keep the file sizes down to a
manageable size. What this means to you
is that you can buy a fairly inexpensive Web Cam to do the job of doing your
videos. These can be purchased in any PC
store and come with everything you need to get up and running. If you want to spend more and get better
quality pictures, any video camera will do the job. Just be SURE that when you put your video to
the hard drive that you use low quality
or save the file in *.wmv
format.
How do I place the camera?
For the most part, I will instruct you what things I want to see and that will
guide camera placement. Most of the time
I want the camera near the headstock of the guitar pointing down into the
RH. Make sure that wherever you place
the camera that there is enough light in the room so that the position is clear
and without heavy shadows.
Here is an
example of the angle and lighting that you should try to achieve
I made a file so how do I send it to you?
You can email the video file to me or you can post it to your own website as a
link. If you do not have your own
website but are interested in getting one livehost.net
is a great hosting service. You can
research other hosting services on the web.
Contact Scott to set up e-lessons