There has been a lack of current music lessons

[frynryan]

I’m have been a subscriber for over a year. I have been disappointed as most of the lessons during this time is of non current music. Will you go back to your old work of breaking down some current or earlier popular music for us to learn? I think there has been some slacking of work in the weekly lessons. Thank you

[Andrew]

Hi Ryan,

First of, thanks for supporting the site for all this time! I really appreciate it.

You’ve brought up a great point, and I’d like to address it. In January of 2015, the site switched over to 100% ukulele lessons (you can read about our history here). Our business model throughout 2015 and most of 2016 was, as you stated, the release of a popular fingerstyle arrangement every Friday. (I believe its been a year and a half that I have been sticking with that release schedule, without missing 1 week.)

But towards the end of last year, it became apparent that we needed to evolve the site into a place where you could actually learn to play ukulele instead of just learning arrangements of songs. I wanted to help people develop their playing skills and technique. This way, they would establish a foundation, which would help to tackle the arrangements on our site.

Therefore, I decided to move away from that business model and introduce Courses, Concept Lessons, and Original Etudes. These lessons are specifically focused on developing certain techniques, playing styles, etc.

Moving forward, I plan to release 1 arrangement of a popular songs every 6-8 weeks. I’m currently working on Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes, which should be out in May. Now I realize some members, such as yourself Ryan, prefer the older business model. But, I hope you understand why I have changed to our current model.

With that said, we are constantly evolving and I am currently working on introducing a new concept to the site. I can’t give it away yet, but it is going to be a very beneficial asset to our learning curriculum 🙂

Cheers,

Andrew

[lisamcc]

Hey Andrew,
Just wanted to add that I think that you are doing a grand job.
I understand why you have changed the format.
I think it is challenging to get a balance when:
a. You have a huge range of skills amongst your clients
b. A huge range of nationalities
c. A huge range of ages
d. A huge range of learning styles.
It would be virtually impossible to keep everyone happy with every new piece.
For example, I like to dive into stuff more difficult and learn the skills to play it. However, most people prefer to work from the skills upwards. I’m British, so US TV show tunes are not at the top of my list. Some weeks I don’t do the lesson…. But I think you’ve given me plenty of stuff to work on across all the genres. I joined the site because I was doing an internet search for Habanera on the Ukulele. If everything you did was mainstream, then I wouldn’t have found the site.

The only way you can handle such a varied demographic is to produce a variety of different genres.
However, I believe that it is unfair to accuse you of slacking. You produce a new lesson/arrangement every week and provide endless rapid and highly comprehensive individual support…. Your arrangements are amazing and I’ve downloaded loads of them. All for the cost of a couple of lessons. I feel that it’s the best £50 I’ve spent in a long time and I can’t name any other service provider that is giving me this level of value for money.
So, please keep rocking the ukulele.. you are doing a great job.
Lisa

[Author]

Posts