

Year of Rock: weekly interactive guitar lessons for 2013 - yegg
http://yearofrock.com/

======
b1ake
I'm one of the guys behind this, thx so much for all of the support (and to
@yegg for posting).

Here's some more detail as requested by @ClayM and others...

The Year of Rock is the work of two guys, myself and @bsstoner. It's powered
by the @getinstinct platform, which we also built.

Starting next week, we'll send a weekly guitar lesson by email to everyone who
signs up. The lessons are entirely interactive. They listen as you play and
give you feedback on each note, using pitch detection software we designed.
You can demo some lessons we've already made at <http://getinstinct.com>

There's no human teacher, it's entirely automated and works in the web
browser. The entire site is built in JS and HTML5 (including node.js on the
backend), except for some Flash for the audio processing (unavoidable given
the current state of browsers).

One thing that's cool about the Year of Rock is that the course is partially
crowdsourced. After we create the intro lesson each week (such how to play a
blues scale), our users can add practice music and riffs via our tab editor.
There's a voting mechanism similar to HN or reddit to help the most popular
submissions bubble to the top.

From a usability perspective, we've learned that the course needs to be more
flexible than Code Year. Almost everyone will skip weeks or start late. Some
people will enter the course with more experience than others. So the course
can't be too linear. It should be okay for people to approach it like a
buffet.

There's still plenty of time to adjust things, so would love to hear any
questions/ideas/comments...

~~~
kunalb
I just tried the Beethoven intro lesson for guitar -- first off, these are
awesome for me as an almost-n00b guitar player!

Two suggestions:

\- When you're holding really long notes the interval to see the next note is
really small [the tab moves forward only once the long note ends so you don't
have as much time to transition your fingers because you don't know/remember
the next note; while in practice these should be the easiest transitions]

\- Indicate the note lengths as well in terms of fourth or eighth notes, for
those of us who like to count along.

~~~
b1ake
Awesome to hear, I love the Beethoven lessons. Some classical stuff sounds
really cool on a guitar (esp Beethoven on an electric).

Both good suggestions. We haven't found out a great way to handle scrolling
with long notes yet. Also, agreed that it would be cool to show 1/4, 1/8 notes
etc. Would love to find a subtle way to do it within tab, rather than with a
tab/staff notes blend.

------
tomasien
Learning to code and learning to play music are extremely similar in my
experience. [http://tommy.authpad.com/when-does-learning-stop-being-so-
ha...](http://tommy.authpad.com/when-does-learning-stop-being-so-hard)

Rock on! Can't wait to see it.

------
ericskiff
This is brilliant! I've seen some early betas of Instinct, and I'm super
excited to see this roll out. It really makes learning guitar simple and fun -
almost like a video game. I've been an amateur since I got a guitar at 16 - I
can play, but never got serious about it. I'm really looking forward to
spending some time each week getting better!

------
justinlilly
For you folks looking to learn guitar, you might also check out soundslice.com
Example: <http://www.soundslice.com/yt/zvCBSSwgtg4/>

------
zacharycohn
Small bug - I signed up via the email newsletter you sent, and it says "2
people are learning guitar in 2013. Why not you?"

I assume you guys have more than two people signed up at this point. :)

Screenshot: <http://cl.ly/image/1m3G1q3y400c>

~~~
bsstoner
thanks, just fixed it.

------
arms
I signed up. I'm a self taught guitar player, and although I've made pretty
good progress, sometimes it's tough to make time to practice. I'm hoping that
weekly lessons will inspire me to make time for it.

Good luck!

------
zgohr
I love the innovation in the guitar lesson space, and I signed up for this in
a heartbeat. That said, does anyone have suggestion for a piano alternative?

------
orangethirty
_Inspired by Codecademy._

I've always wondered how many people finished Codeyear? Did they actually
learn how to program?

------
callmeed
We only have acoustic guitars at my house. Will this work with them? Should I
use an amp? (1 has a pickup).

~~~
b1ake
Yes it works with any guitar and you don't need a pickup or any cables.
Because it listens thru the microphone, you can just sit near your computer
and play your guitar like you normally would.

------
cturner
Have signed up. I expect I need to get a USB mike - what mike should I get?
Please make a FAQ.

~~~
b1ake
This is a mic that has worked really well for our users. Not the prettiest but
the audio is solid: [http://www.amazon.com/Samson-Mic-Compact-USB-
Microphone/dp/B...](http://www.amazon.com/Samson-Mic-Compact-USB-
Microphone/dp/B001R76D42/)

------
ClayM
Are these for absolute beginners or are they useful for people with some
experience?

~~~
b1ake
Hey I'm one of the founders. The early weeks are focused on beginners and then
it will get more advanced.

~~~
ClayM
Well give us some more info then, good man!

~~~
b1ake
Ha okay - working on a more detailed comment.

------
cpa
I get the following error when trying to register:

Cannot POST /

~~~
b1ake
It's possible that the server choked for a moment, it should be okay if you
try again.

Edit: Also make sure you have JS enabled, otherwise the form won't work.

