Is this a Good Idea?

[Andrew Fernandes]

I was thinking of having some sort of grading system or test on this website, so you could basically find out your grade on guitar and then that could be added to your profile so it could say participant grade 6 etc. For example Syn Gates Grade 208273928302380 lol
Because Im curious what grade I would be and it would give me more motivation to improve my grade. I hope this is not a bad idea.

 

[idssdi]

I kinda like the idea. The only problem is that if you have low confidence to begin with a low grade can really throw you off from playing. So not sure whether that is whathe you want. I think Syn and PG will kinds do whatever they want to incorporate into this school

 

[John Tierney]

I like it. It will push you to be better. That being said, I agree with Ids on that if your confidence is low then get a low grade it can throw you off. So Im on the fence tbh.

 

[Matt Wildman]

What they said, not a bad idea but you just gotta be careful with it

 

[Ed Seith]

Grade as a MUSICIAN or as a site PARTICIPANT? Those are two different things. If you mean the former (graded as a musician) then I am steadfastly opposed to it. Learning to play guitar isn’t a video game and you don’t “level up.” It’s steady progress and breakthroughs and encouragement from like-minded people.
If you mean from a participation standpoint, the CONCEPT is fine, but execution usually winds up with a lot of people posting shit just to boost their rating, and the site becomes little more than spam.
Sorry to be a cynic, I’ve just been around the interwebs and its predecessors for far too long to not see how human nature would (eventually) fit into that equation.

 

[Matt Wildman]

Ed made a good point. For participation that’s a great idea, but when it comes to music and guitar skills it could label some people as bad when they really may not be. I mean we are all here to learn and we shouldn’t focus on who can shred like synyster and who can’t based on how good they are. Because down the road like Ed said human nature will come into play and people will get jealous of others and get upset and that’s what we don’t want. So if they want to do it on participation then that’s great, but I think we need to steer clear of giving everyone a grade for how they play guitar.

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

I also do not support the idea of grading as musicians. Cuz any test structure will just assess the skill level not the talent inside the musician. As syn said, no one is ahead of another. everyone is here to learn, spread and enjoy. But grading as a participant idea is ok. many forums have this and sometimes this acts as an initiative to be more active in the forum.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

I think the idea of grading brings too much of a risk of dividing the community here

 

[Jak Angelescu]

I had the idea on the “community site feature requests” forum that we have an option to “take the test” or “enroll”. My idea for the feature would be like you take a placement test to see how much you know (somehow, some way) and it would make you start at a certain lesson and each week you had to “pass” a test before moving on. I think the idea and concept is great, but a lot of people may get discouraged if they struggle with a lesson and they keep failing it and get a ‘bad grade’ because let’s face it, not everyone cares to know how to do Syn’s etudes or do insane sweeps, tapping, or learn crazy scales. So if they do have something similar to what we’re discussing it should be simply optional and the grade should be kept private

 

[D K]

Besides the fact that people might get discouraged is that this would just be very hard to do. You can’t just put a single number on someone to grade their skills, it’s far more complex than this. It just wouldn’t be feasible to give every participant an accurate description of how good they are.

 

[Sven Barnitzki]

I´m not a fan of the idea, because its to subjective and can discourage people. And the next thing is: Who is the one who rates this?

 

[Andrew Fernandes]

Oops I haven’t thought this through, maybe you can take the test and then decide to disclose your grade, it could be a personal thing. When I meant grade I meant not as like a level but as like, like in piano you can have a grade I know its a musical term. I personally would like to know so I can tell my friends how good I am. But I do understand that it may discourage people. So maybe there should be someover reward or disclaimer.