• Join the A7X Discord!

    We're updating the community and moving all social content from the community to the Discord. All lessons related conversations will still take place here though! Join the Discord below and view the full announcement for more details

    JOIN THE DISCORD VIEW THREAD

FRIENDLY REMINDER ABOUT THE ROCKSTAR STUDENT AWARD

J

Jak Angelescu

Guest
Im glad you felt more motivated after getting comments. I've been quiet these last few weeks. And rightfully so. I talked with many students about things im dealing with and have had tons of support in that regard so I thank the people who stepped up and reached out to me.

In your words towards the cover and instagram posts advertising their channels.. imo the riff page in its own shouldnt be an advertisement page. And ive openly told some of these posters that they should respect the newbies and not try to bump their advertisements. Some did not like what I had to say some understood. But im glad others notice it. I stopped watching those videos. They don't get views here honestly. Most are guys showing off licks they practiced 500 times before recording the lick anyways.

But back to me. I've advertised a little too (but I try to keep those links in just status updates which I feel is a little different). I'll be honest and say that i know many of you didnt even get passed the first song.. which has almost triple the listens other songs got. If you did and there's a reason you couldn't get passed more (the only criticism ill ignore is quality as i already know about the bass issues. I'll redo these songs after I get some of the newer ones back out.) If you just didn't have a hour its whatever.

As for videos and whatnot. Me and jak talked a lot and there's tons for me to work on so im trying to figure out essentially a good routine for me. I've started by slowing down my sweeps again.. ive noticed a few complications with my picking style and I mentioned it to jak. I know the answer ill get (and the answer say teacher will tell me) but when I slowed it down I found that I can get away with my style but its very very tricky.

As for my theory work.. im gonna start making riffs using g minor and a minor(c major) together. I know them separate but have never tried to join them.considering jak mentioned that to me a few times (and I admit on100% didn't even realize it until she did her live session with her students from bill). In other words jak gave everyone a pretty good bump in gear. Shes always been good for that. One thing i did realize is the school is GETTING BETTER at not relying on jak to say get it in gear. But it looks like momma still isn't happy with the fall that follows.

I guess in the end she's right too. Not really worth learning new covers unless they benefit you. I for sure loved lesrning cradle of filth cause it added more tremolo picking to my playing. Which I honestly think is the reason my picking has improved so much lately. But I've started resorting from covers again and back to my own material after a quick 10 minute jam. And before that jam I tend to do a few sweeps at 90 bpm. From 180 that I did before. Mainly to work on pinky strength during the sweeps. I also found a few places where I bar an extra string without knowing.

Just keep working at it guys.


Bro I could give you a hug for all of this. Because quite literally you summarized everything I was trying to say in a way that I couldn't quite say it. It is true that people have picked up without me having to harp on them. But it has come to my attention that the school is taking a little bit of a weird shift in certain things. Ever since the new layout happened everything crashed into more of a community vibe and became less of a school. I'm going to be honest I don't like that at all. There are dozens of free guitar forums out there that people can be a part of. This however has the benefit of both community and school. And I think 90% of the students are forgetting it's a school and not just a social hangout.

The way I see it is that there are 2 different types of students on here. The students that need help and the students who give the help. Some students who give the help don't necessarily need the lessons because they are so advanced. But that's where they come in in the community aspect and they play their role and I absolutely love that. They assist those who ask for help. But I need to really bring out the people who need the help. That's what I'm trying to do. I don't know more what I can do to get people to post and engage.

In the aspect of the media page. I will be blatantly honest that I have not been satisfied with how that page has been for quite some time. And I know that Syn DOES love it when people promote their work here. He wants people to be able to get the recognition they deserve here. But I told him straight out that I refuse to let people just use this page as a boosting platform and solicitation without contributing at all to the actual school. It bogs down the media category and it discourages other people from posting.

In conclusion there are some reforms that I'm going to be doing and some people may not like it and some people may. I'm currently having discussions to see what I can and can't do. You have been doing amazing am so glad we have become closer friends. If it makes me a bitch that I push the students into the school aspect of this website then so be it. But I'm here to be on the look out for everyone's integrity. Not just mine. Not just Syn's and not just Papa's and not just the students. They issued the school for a reason and my job is to make sure it happens.
 

idssdi

Sold-out Crowd Surfer
Nov 11, 2019
5,336
6,754
Groningen
11
In the aspect of the media page. I will be blatantly honest that I have not been satisfied with how that page has been for quite some time. And I know that Syn DOES love it when people promote their work here. He wants people to be able to get the recognition they deserve here. But I told him straight out that I refuse to let people just use this page as a boosting platform and solicitation without contributing at all to the actual school. It bogs down the media category and it discourages other people from posting.
I think people should be allowed to promote their stuff on the school BUT IF AND ONLY IF( I love programming language it has such nice terms for things you want to say sometimes) they actually contribute to the school by helping people out or actually actively participate in the community( if you,Ed or dominik for example release something I'll check it out and have no problem with it being promoted on the school whatsoever)

Right now the riff page is filled for like 70-80% with people I have no clue who they are because they cannot be found anywhere else in the school and all they do is promote their eps/YouTube/Instagram/records or whatever. It like came to to the point that I rarely am bothered going through the riff page anymore because you actually need to put a lot of effort in to find people who are actually working on something with which they may need help.
 
J

Jak Angelescu

Guest
I think people should be allowed to promote their stuff on the school BUT IF AND ONLY IF( I love programming language it has such nice terms for things you want to say sometimes) they actually contribute to the school by helping people out or actually actively participate in the community( if you,Ed or dominik for example release something I'll check it out and have no problem with it being promoted on the school whatsoever)

Right now the riff page is filled for like 70-80% with people I have no clue who they are because they cannot be found anywhere else in the school and all they do is promote their eps/YouTube/Instagram/records or whatever. It like came to to the point that I rarely am bothered going through the riff page anymore because you actually need to put a lot of effort in to find people who are actually working on something with which they may need help.

#WhatIdsSaid 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you so much for your feedback!
 
  • Like
Reactions: idssdi and AGA
Synner Endless Summer Collection

Christian Schulze

Hot Topic Tourer
Rockstar Student
Nov 11, 2019
715
1
2,356
29
Spain
5
Bro I could give you a hug for all of this. Because quite literally you summarized everything I was trying to say in a way that I couldn't quite say it. It is true that people have picked up without me having to harp on them. But it has come to my attention that the school is taking a little bit of a weird shift in certain things. Ever since the new layout happened everything crashed into more of a community vibe and became less of a school. I'm going to be honest I don't like that at all. There are dozens of free guitar forums out there that people can be a part of. This however has the benefit of both community and school. And I think 90% of the students are forgetting it's a school and not just a social hangout.

The way I see it is that there are 2 different types of students on here. The students that need help and the students who give the help. Some students who give the help don't necessarily need the lessons because they are so advanced. But that's where they come in in the community aspect and they play their role and I absolutely love that. They assist those who ask for help. But I need to really bring out the people who need the help. That's what I'm trying to do. I don't know more what I can do to get people to post and engage.

In the aspect of the media page. I will be blatantly honest that I have not been satisfied with how that page has been for quite some time. And I know that Syn DOES love it when people promote their work here. He wants people to be able to get the recognition they deserve here. But I told him straight out that I refuse to let people just use this page as a boosting platform and solicitation without contributing at all to the actual school. It bogs down the media category and it discourages other people from posting.

In conclusion there are some reforms that I'm going to be doing and some people may not like it and some people may. I'm currently having discussions to see what I can and can't do. You have been doing amazing am so glad we have become closer friends. If it makes me a bitch that I push the students into the school aspect of this website then so be it. But I'm here to be on the look out for everyone's integrity. Not just mine. Not just Syn's and not just Papa's and not just the students. They issued the school for a reason and my job is to make sure it happens.
I 100% agree with you on this one Jak. This is a school first and a comunity second, that why I hang out for comunity stuff more in the instragram group chat than here. On the site, I try to have a look post where I can help out a little here and there.

Regarding the professional youtuber invasion.....I have no clue what they are trying to show off. Self promotion is cool when done moderately and with an actual purpose (not in the sense of ...look how awesome I am, praise me!).

Also, I couldnt quite put my finger on what it was, but yess the layout change of the site has shifted some things around here. It has turned into more of a hangout forum.
 
J

Jak Angelescu

Guest
I 100% agree with you on this one Jak. This is a school first and a comunity second, that why I hang out for comunity stuff more in the instragram group chat than here. On the site, I try to have a look post where I can help out a little here and there.

Regarding the professional youtuber invasion.....I have no clue what they are trying to show off. Self promotion is cool when done moderately and with an actual purpose (not in the sense of ...look how awesome I am, praise me!).

Also, I couldnt quite put my finger on what it was, but yess the layout change of the site has shifted some things around here. It has turned into more of a hangout forum.

I really really REALLY appreciate your feedback. Believe it or not, I have to approve certain posts now because of spam reasons. So when newer members post anything, I have to approve of it first. We had three new members and NOT EVEN KIDDING WITHIN TEN MINUTES they all had 3 covers they wanted to post with things like "subscribe to my channel."
I rejected all but one video each with a reason as to why. I'm really thankful people are giving me their input because this has bothered me for a while, and to know others agree makes me feel better. I want to make this school better for you guys!

PS: Love your signature
 

RoaringRowanThunderBender

Campfire Attention Holder
  • Nov 11, 2019
    239
    917
    28
    Warrenton, NC
    rowm76.wixsite.com
    6
    I really really REALLY appreciate your feedback. Believe it or not, I have to approve certain posts now because of spam reasons. So when newer members post anything, I have to approve of it first. We had three new members and NOT EVEN KIDDING WITHIN TEN MINUTES they all had 3 covers they wanted to post with things like "subscribe to my channel."
    I rejected all but one video each with a reason as to why. I'm really thankful people are giving me their input because this has bothered me for a while, and to know others agree makes me feel better. I want to make this school better for you guys!

    PS: Love your signature
    I’m just saying, I love the idea that posts have to be approved by admins first. Definitely a good idea IMO, even if it causes a bit more work.
     
    • Love
    Reactions: Jak Angelescu
    Synner Endless Summer Collection

    Dominik Gräber

    Hot Topic Tourer
    Contest Winner!
  • Nov 11, 2019
    2,787
    1
    5,990
    26
    Saarland
    www.instagram.com
    6
    I really really REALLY appreciate your feedback. Believe it or not, I have to approve certain posts now because of spam reasons. So when newer members post anything, I have to approve of it first. We had three new members and NOT EVEN KIDDING WITHIN TEN MINUTES they all had 3 covers they wanted to post with things like "subscribe to my channel."
    I rejected all but one video each with a reason as to why. I'm really thankful people are giving me their input because this has bothered me for a while, and to know others agree makes me feel better. I want to make this school better for you guys!

    PS: Love your signature
    Oof. But you did tell the people why you rejected it? Besides it is not okay to just use the school as a boost platform you won't find any official rule not to do that, so it seems important to clarify why you reject those vids
     

    Calvin Phillips

    Music Theory Bragger
    Nov 11, 2019
    2,588
    1,988
    I 100% agree with you on this one Jak. This is a school first and a comunity second, that why I hang out for comunity stuff more in the instragram group chat than here. On the site, I try to have a look post where I can help out a little here and there.

    Regarding the professional youtuber invasion.....I have no clue what they are trying to show off. Self promotion is cool when done moderately and with an actual purpose (not in the sense of ...look how awesome I am, praise me!).

    Also, I couldnt quite put my finger on what it was, but yess the layout change of the site has shifted some things around here. It has turned into more of a hangout forum.
    Cj the funniest part is honestly those guys there will have NO IDEA what is going on here cause they dont check the forums. I'd follow someone and respect them more if they took 5 seconds to actually say hi before posting 20 covers in a week saying follow my stuff guys!
     
    • Like
    Reactions: Christian Schulze

    Christian Schulze

    Hot Topic Tourer
    Rockstar Student
    Nov 11, 2019
    715
    1
    2,356
    29
    Spain
    5
    I
    I really really REALLY appreciate your feedback. Believe it or not, I have to approve certain posts now because of spam reasons. So when newer members post anything, I have to approve of it first. We had three new members and NOT EVEN KIDDING WITHIN TEN MINUTES they all had 3 covers they wanted to post with things like "subscribe to my channel."
    I rejected all but one video each with a reason as to why. I'm really thankful people are giving me their input because this has bothered me for a while, and to know others agree makes me feel better. I want to make this school better for you guys!

    PS: Love your signature
    I mean @Calvin Phillips pointer the signature out. Might as well use it wisely!
     
    Synner Endless Summer Collection

    Mariler

    Local Dive Bar Favorite
    Nov 11, 2019
    246
    967
    51
    Zaragoza, Spain
    3
    Hello students!

    Please don't forget about the Rockstar Student Award! For as many students as I'm seeing having issues with their growth on here or struggling to learn their favorite A7X song I'm really stunned that not more people are participating in this. As of right now, there have been the same three students neck-and-neck with winning first place. But as soon as things get going, they fall off after about a week of productivity. If I have to combine the first and second place award together and issue it evenly between even five students, I will do it. But I don't want to. (I DO know there is a certain student who is busy with a certain endeavor and I have already taken their past progress and growth into account for sure)

    I'm going to be honest here. This hurts a lot. I worked really hard and had the team behind the school set this up because it was a dream of mine to give something like this back to the community. I got the fucking Black Moon guitar because of my hard work, and you all came together and supported me and cheered for me. I really, really, REALLY want another student to feel the gratification I felt when that happened. The amount of emails back and forth, tech work, hours spent negotiating, designing the flier, reaching out to Bill and Hector, and more ALL went into this. I'm sitting on a $1,000 prize and no one wants to take charge and claim it. I designed it and dreamed it, YOU GUYS got it this far. Now it just needs a few hardworking winners.

    I will never forget dreaming about making this happen before I even became an admin. I waited for almost a year until I got on good terms with Syn so that I knew I could offer such an idea. Not only did he like it, he LOVED it. The light turned green on the project and I immediately went to work. And the school was ecstatic for one week then went silent.

    So if you need help with guitar, you want to learn an A7X song, and you really want some mad Syn gear, here's what you do.

    1. Take a few lessons on here
    2. Post up what you learned/how they helped you in video/forum format
    3. Cheer your other students on
    4. Post progress videos from the lessons

    That's it. And you'll win...

    1. A $500 SGS gift card
    2. A month of private lessons with Bill Hudson of Northtale, Trans Siberian Orchestra, endorsed by ESP and featured in Guitar World "Betcha Can't Play This" and was taught by Kiko Loureiro (guitar virtuoso for Megadeth and more)
    3. A month of private lessons from Hector Trejo to learn any A7X song of your choice

    OR

    1. A $100 SGS gift card
    2. ONE lesson with Hector Trejo to learn any A7X song of your choice


    I really want to see consistency. A few students get on the ball and then they sort of stop. But regardless, I'm giving 30 days now. If I have to break up the award I will. But I don't want to. I'll announce the Winner(s) July 30th! Also, please don't think I'm being "harsh" or "unrealistic". The criteria to win is not difficult and we all should be doing this anyway. If you have time to respond to 20 different forums and post 5 covers a week, you have time to work on your self growth. I've extended the deadline now THREE times to allow students to keep trying. But after July 30th it's over. So I wish you all the best.

    Good luck everyone!
    I have to say that I’ve been seeing your threads about this award and I was totally ignoring them because I had no clue what this was about, didn’t know the target is to impulse the use of the lessons. I thought it was something for advanced students.

    You know at the very beginning of the school I was very active here, then I didn’t visit much for a while (life was way too busy and complicated) until I came back some months ago.

    I guess you started this award while I wasn’t visiting much and that’s why I didn’t know about this. Now I’m reading this and feeling bad about ignoring it. Sorry about that. And thank you Jak for all your effort to make this happen.
     

    Mariler

    Local Dive Bar Favorite
    Nov 11, 2019
    246
    967
    51
    Zaragoza, Spain
    3
    .



    I'm definitely glad you got over your hump of anxiety enough to post some things. And I definitely want to iterate that growth is important, no matter how you're doing it. Ids down below me just informed me he's in Robin Nolan's school. And he's definitely ALWAYS posting up what he's learned. Dominik Graber is another student who told me, "I'm finding my growth is coming more from the community than the lessons."
    And I LOVE that. I really, really do! I would never want to discriminate or lambast someone for how they improve. But this specific award was issued to try to encourage recognition and utilization of the lessons on here, which I have noticed are far too forgotten. If someone doesn't feel the lessons are beneficial for their growth, they simply don't participate. But if this is the case, I find it very saddening that out of over 40,000 students only 4-5 find the lessons beneficial. AND, if they DON'T find them beneficial, we (the staff) need to know why. Is it how the lessons are delivered? Are they confusing? Is there something different you'd like to see added? We try our hardest to give the students what they want :)
    As far as commitment to music goes; I agree with you 100%. I loved your thoughts on this as I found it very true. I would like to simplify what I see on here...

    Student: gets upset they're not improving
    says they don't have enough time to do the lessons or enough time to post a video asking for help
    proceeds to randomly ask "I can't get this, why?"
    student body: "You could try this, this and this. Post up a video and do this lesson so we can see what you're doing wrong."
    student: doesn't do anything
    student: spends at least 30 minutes a day going back and forth on forums about random things like guitar players and favorite songs
    student: repeats cycle

    That's what I'm trying to break. But I definitely agree. And I don't want ANY student to feel like they have to post religiously and practice for 5 hours a day to win. That's not it at all. This was just a contest trying to redirect the attention and time spent from the community aspect back to the learning aspect. I definitely don't want anyone to feel like they're not important if they can't or don't have the time to post as often as someone else.

    In case it can help you, I’ll share my experience about the lessons.

    I would say when I started here as a very beginner that only knew a few of open chords, everything seemed a bit overwhelming because doing these lessons requieres a lot of personal work and effort. Self learning can be tough and I’m not really sure that everybody understands it.

    First thing I did when I enrolled, was reading Syn’s tips wich helped a lot and then I started diving into the beginner’s lessons and had to stop and take my time to process that information.

    In the meantime I took another approach to guitar and started taking lessons online with Dave, my teacher, and I learned a lot of songs, using them to practice technique and learn to move my hands.

    What I understand now is that I need the combination of two different approaches to learn guitar:
    • Learn songs, play my covers and utilise them to work on theory, technique and everything else.
    • Do lessons and exercises
    The lessons are awesome IMO, well structured, clear, easy to understand and short enough not to be too intense. I’ve seen online lessons not half as good as these for 200$ the subscripition. The only thing is, I guess, at the beginning here I would have needed more examples of songs assocciated to each lesson to help me work on whatever that lesson is teaching and keep me motivated.

    It is now, that I would say I have a bit of a background after 2 years and a half learning, when I am really understanding the lessons and using them to make progress, because I’m getting tired of only just learning songs, playing covers…Now I really want to learn the guitar, the instrument, which I woud say is something different from playing guitar and want to know what goes on behind a song that makes it work. But at the very beginning I really needed the fun and the excitement of learning and hearing myself playing a real song and this was my impulse to keep working on guitar.

    This is Syn Gates School, but no miracles are done here without a lot of consistent personal work on guitar. I’m not sure many people get it. Actually if you read Syn’s tips carefully, I would say this is crystal clear.

    Another thing that I don’t think some people get is that learning guitar is a slow process, you can’t learn overnight, your hands will hurt, you will get frustrated many times along the way and you’ll have to overcome that if you want to make some progress.

    You can learn ONLY if you want to learn, no excuses. I have a busy life, I’m a working mom, my son has a disability and life is complicated, A LOT,…but you know what? I do really love music and guitar and that’s my motivation. Other people here have busy and complicated lives too and they still make progress.

    Also I have to say that the sense of community here has been very important for me to stick to this site and I love it when other students offer their help when I ask my questions in the forums or when I post my videos it makes me feel really good to have other fellow students watching, commenting, giving some tips… and I love watching the progress of other students too.

    But, like it’s been already said, it’s a bother to have all these videos of people promoting themselves. Some days I just have a few minutes off to browse the site and what I want to see is my friends showing their progress, and those other videos make me waste my time sometimes. That really pisses me off.

    Sorry for the long post. Just hope it helps