Mike,

Some lessons save as Mp4's, thus allowing me to save them yo my Ipod Touch and practice on the road.  Many of the videos only save as a Webpage.  Is there a trick to getting them all to save as Mp4 when rightclicking on the video?

Thanks,

Tim.

Hi Tim,

Great discussion, thanks for bringing this up.  

Yes .. definitely want to support people practicing away from their computer .. with the iPod, iPhone or Android phone.  I'm not a big fan of enabling download of the videos though .. and hence we're looking at a mobile application in the future.  

Can you tell me a bit more about how you practice on the road .. and practice in general?

Is it mostly audio?

Do you want to loop certain sections?

Would it be helpful if you could slow down the tracks / loop?

How many songs / techniques are you typically working on at a time?

I appreciate the detail as it will help drive the requirements / features for our mobile application.   I've got some ideas on what I think it should be ... but really want to hear your thoughts and needs before we start talking solutions.

Thanks!

Mike

Mike,

My practice routine on this site is to immerse myself in a lesson. . .in between life's "distractions".  These practice "immersions" may last anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour.  Also. . .I sometimes only focus on one lesson, but it's more enjoyable to push through two or three songs in one session, much like the way a real in-person teacher would teach.

Sometimes audio lesson is o.k., but most helpful is the video lesson to allow me to listen and see fingerings away from the computer screen.

"Looping" certain sections can be also be really important to "implant" melodies or chord progressions on the brain.  As an example, I found the Corey Harris lesson, C.C. Pill  very difficult to "assimilate".  I have always had trouble seperating bass from treble when studying fingerstyle blues. Being able to break the song down into digestible parts is the most effective way to learn. I have (thought that I) learned fingerstyle songs onlyto be playing bass and melody as a clump, instead of keeping the alternating bass seperate and complete, while the melody expresses itself simultaneously!

So to answer your question, I almost always take a lesson with me (Ipod Touch) and am not able to do it without MP4 download capability.

Tim

This is Hutch....I am trying to figure out how to slow some of the licks down as Jerry sais was possible, but, I can not find where to utilize this function.

Another question that I have is there any possible way that the backing track can be made with and without vocals? I would like to sing some of the songhs that are not filled with harp all the way through.  That brings me to the question of "My Babe", Little Walter sings the vocals and plays harp and when Rick and Jerry does there version, Jerry willcome in early on the fills between the choruses and my question is, if you want to sing and play harp do you just adjust the timing of the fill etc.??

My favorite way of practicing is with the loop feature...Adjusting the segment to loop by clicl..hold on the end/start time arrow and drop it where y

I am able to listen to one lick, get that down and then move the arrow to the end of the next lick and on and on until I have the whole 12 bars and so on accomplished. Now, if I can figure oput to slow portions down because Jerry does not always tell you exactly note for note at what he is playing, but, that is an assett for it helps to train my ear and I am totally on board with Jerry's teaching phlosophy.....

  Thank    Tommy Hutch

My comment;  being 60 years old, playing for 47 years on and off. I don't mind paying the monthly fees but all I really want to do is grab three or four of Duke's lessons and work on them for several months. Getting on the net every night and grabing the same lesson is time wasted. Give me an option to purchase a DVD of one or two lesson series at a time and I am much happier. Sonic Junction is great and I understand the business model, please consider an optional revenue stream selling DVDs.   

Mike....My practice is with Jerry...Being a harmonica player, I find these lessons very useful as Jerry tends to stick too "Standard" blues greats; this is why I study at Sonic Junction. The ability to have mp3s of at least the play along tracks, audio only is fine, would be a great tool to learn and embed the timing of the songs we are learning. To my knowledge and by the jist of this forum topic I assume there is a plausable way to go about acheiving this tool and/or method of teaching....Tommy Hutch

I agree, I would like to archive lessons in MP4 or MP4 lessons , I practice with my Ipod (1st gen!) and would like to access past lessons instantaniously;.

I also am getting a few audio dropuots and glitches in the videos when viewing on your site, not sure why, I get no dropouts when viewing youtube material........

I am on business travel about 40% of the time, much of it supporting the US Army  In my travel I carry a Stienberger electric or Baby Tayler. I understand the Application approach but unfortunately the Foward Operating Based in Afganistan or even Iraq (when it was active) don't have a very good cellular infrastructure if any at all. Back in the States places like Ft Bliss, Ft Huachuka to name of few are very spotty when on manuavers.  The point being that having CD's or something like that would help.Thinking out load.  I can't see why Sonic Junction can't bundle some of the lessons have product in a CD format. It would create another revenue stream and open up a new market segment of senior guitar players like me who aren't into Ipods and are on the road with only guitar and laptop (not android) in hand.                  

Hi Mike,

Maybe this has been covered somewhere already, but is there any way to get the backing tracks in some sort of a format with a link or whatever so I can load them into Garageband and use them for recording?  That way I can play them back with me as the harp player.  Being an intermediate 60 year old player, I don't think that I will end up stealing any of Jerry or Rick's gigs. A song like RIck's Chicago Shuffle is very specific in length and you can't really purchase a backing track on-line that would work.

Thanks,

Woody