Manfred’s original post

Hi my AM friends,

It was great to have around 20 people yesterday at our third AM Zoom Meetup.
In more than 3 hours we talked about different guitar things. It was great to chat with you all.

I’m looking forward to the next time.
Cheers and have a nice Sunday!

Manfred

my thoughts

Thanks, Manfred, for hosting these Zoom meetings. I think they are very important for keeping the forum active and personal.
I think the evolution of the forum is quite normal. Like any organization that grows, it becomes less intimate. In the earlier days of AM there was a cohort of beginner stage learners that were excited about every new discovery on the fretboard, gear, recording etc. I think the regular members are now more sophisticated, better musically educated and have a wide array of internet choices for information. Maintaining and nurturing a close group of regulars is a reasonable goal.
I don’t think the forum is anywhere near Brian’s top priorities. I don’t feel we could ask Brian to undertake an expensive overhaul of the forum but should try to work better with what we have. Bryce was wonderful as administrator but as his friend I was witness to the developments of his tenure. His work on the site was very time intensive and he did receive a small stipend. I know Bryce wanted a larger role with compensatory remuneration but, understandably, I think Brian likes to keep things simple.
I was very interested in Jenny’s experience on the site as a newer member. I think we should jump at the chance of welcoming and educating newer posters to the forum and as a moderator I could certainly work to that end. We should probably have a standard welcome package that describes all the features and opportunities. It could include links to many helpful posts already created. Maybe I could collaborate with Jola or anyone interested.
I was not in favour of competitions on the site, I think that flies in the face of a supportive forum. Awards are a bit dicey as well, although, if they were of a supportive or “tongue in cheek” nature, an anuual recognition, like “most improved” might be fun.
I wonder, since we are a larger and more diverse group, whether the odd subsection might be in order. One thing that comes to mind is a group that would like more pointed feedback and suggestions other than the usual supportive stuff but we could probably work that into the existing structure by asking for more critical feedback when it’s wanted. One other thing, along the same lines, I’d like to see is AM learner’s teaching AM learners. We had a challenge like this a while back that was quite fun and Brian has always been supportive of this concept.
The forum has led to new get together friendships for me with Bryce and, sadly, now deceased Gary Waldman as well as new Zoom friends. I love to see meet ups documented like Denise and Jola, Manfred and Juxi. An AM group session would be great fun but, again, Bryce approached Brian about this years ago and he was reluctant. If Joe Bonamassa offers a another “Blues Cruise” that would be an awesome place for a get together.
Let’s keep this conversation going over subsequent meetings. Long live the AM forum!
John

from Sunjamer Steve

Well said, John. As the Buddha said, there is absolutely nothing in the universe that is permanent, except change. And that includes the AM forum. I think you are correct in that Brian has too much on his platter to be much concerned about the forum. I’m guessing that maybe less than 1% of AM members have ever even checked into the forum, and if they have, they just lurked and never came back. It takes a certain amount of work and expense to maintain the forum, so is it financially advantageous for Brian to keep it going? And so I started to wonder, if Brian decided to just terminate the forum and only keep posting the weekly lessons, would I continue my membership? Probably not, because to be honest, I don’t really need lessons anymore. Thanks to Brian, I can learn almost anything I want to play, and more importantly, I can improvise or compose anything I want to play. So then I started to wonder, if Brian discontinued the forum, would he lose a lot of members like me? I don’t really know. But years ago I mentioned that I would like to remain a member for the rest of my life, just because of having access to the forum and the online community that has developed around it. But I also know that nothing is permanent except change, and one day – if I survive my cancer – I will wake up and the entire Active Melody website will have vanished from the internet. It will be a thing of the past, just like Green Stamps, Atari computers, and worm farms.

I’ll try to jump in on the Zoom meeting next time.

Sunjamr Steve

reply from Manfred

Thank you very much, John and Steve,

I think these were very interesting comments, especially for me, as I am still a relatively new AM member (3 years) and I have not had your initial experiences.

I found the forum activities very interesting and lively right from the start. However, I was an absolute newbie when it came to online communities and it took me a while. From the beginning the challenges were my favorite and now the Zoom Meetups are of course my main focus.

I think we should definitely continue this discussion in the forum. Maybe, John and Steve, you could even put your posts under a topic that could be called “AMers develop the forum further and here we discuss how”. Maybe you could pin this topic, John, like the Zoom announcement and the Challenge announcement in all forum areas.

I also think that we don’t need a new forum, but perhaps a few new impulses, which would also have to be driven by certain members. In my opinion, this will be absolutely essential for success.

Ooh my gosh, Steve, AM without a forum, I wouldn’t want to imagine that either. I wouldn’t want to do without it either. And if that should happen, we’ll each just throw a few dollars into the pot and we’ll make our own forum together. Because I wouldn’t want to lose the AM friends I’ve just made anytime soon.

Yes, John, these analog meetups, like Juxi and I, and Jola and Denise are really great and it would be just wonderful if this happened more often. Juxi and I have also thought about organizing a German-European meeting in Germany. Maybe we’ll be able to do that soon!

I think it would be really good if we could continue to discuss the whole thing in the forum and also at the Zoom Meetups.

I greet you all with a somehow good feeling that we can really manage to liven up our community even more.

Cheers!

Manfred

from Alan L

I just finished the Zoom replay. I had a few thoughts I wanted to share:

FORUM ENGAGEMENT
While I have opinions about forum revamp, I’m not holding my breath and in the “work with what we’ve got” mindset.

Richard said something that sounded so apt, that the forum will become what the users want of it. These zoom calls are a beautiful thing, a nice organic and grassroots way for users to connect. While I missed the call I feel I got to know many of you better 🙂 there was talk of “the old days,” with a smaller group. Yet here I see a new small group that is connecting already, and a chance for rebirth. But nothing we do in the forum can be forced, and whatever is meant to be will emerge.

I’d also like to point out how engaging the challenges are. If nothing else we can foster and encourage those. Many may not have time for anything beyond that. the submissions and comments are pretty unique and incredible, in terms of what exists for online guitar learning. I feel like I’m in a college music class submitting and reviewing everyone’s projects.

I enjoy the practice routine, technique, (and yes gear) talk; but if we do nothing more than encourage more playing and sharing we’re off to a good start.

I totally get the frustration with posting but not commenting; it took me a while to get into the groove of sharing comments every month. BUT if this core group can take a positive mindset and lead by example, maybe we can drum up more interest and traffic in the forum.

I plan on spending a little more effort on welcoming new members, and specifically encouraging visiting the forum and challenges. Also posting and commenting more, particularly in Showcase Your Playing.

COLLABORATION
Liam’s idea about dueting got me thinking… maybe not a formal challenge, but rather organic and voluntary digital “team ups” might be engaging and interesting.

Maybe a backing track we all take a turn putting a lead on. Maybe someone posts a verse and someone picks it up and adds a chorus. Maybe someone adds rhythm guitar and someone puts a lead over top. Obviously we’d have to figure out a compatible tech system eg, mp3? SoundCloud? etc, etc.

And where could this possible project live? Doesn’t seem appropriate for Showcase Your playing… maybe a new subforum for Collaboration? IDK, no strong opinions on this- just brainstorming!

Well if you made this far thanks for reading! 🙂

Be well AM
Alan

reply from Sunjamr

Good comments, Alan. And for those who don’t know about it, it might be interesting to review the history of the “AM Jammers” started a few years ago by Craig S from Australia. Craig (or one of the jammers) would pick a jamtrack and post the MP3 link for everyone to download it. Then if, for example, it was a 12-bar blues format, we would each record one or two cycles of improvised lead solo in our own style, and upload it to Craig. Craig then arranged it all on his DAW and posted it on Youtube. I was into it for a while, but I got kind of bored and moved on to doing my own thing. When you have a 15 minute jamtrack with 12 people taking turns laying down solo licks, is it a valuable experience? Maybe it is for the participants, but most average listeners will be bored after the first couple of solos.

One problem with online collaborations is sharing large files. A single MP3 track can just be shared by email, since they are typically only 3-5 MB. But by the time you get multiple solos plus the backing track, you can be up to 20 – 30 MB. Craig wanted ultimate best sound quality, so he wanted everyone to work in WAV files, where single tracks can be around 50 MB or more. That means using Google Drive, Dropbox, or in Craig’s case, Box.com. I would advocate sticking with MP3 format for ease of file sharing, and also because MP3s can be loaded into any DAW for processing. There is also the issue of beat synchronizing, so that everyone’s contribution is 100% in sync. We dealt with that by listing exactly which bars esch solo would start and finish on. In other words, maybe my solo went from bars 13 to 24, and the next player’s solo went from 25 to 36.

Another consideration: With the AM Jammers, at first no one wanted to shoot a video to go with their solo. It was just easier to work with the audio files, and having a video clip to sync on top of that was just too much work. Plus, video clips are super large, like approaching GB sizes. So we just used still photos of each player, and maybe some still photos of the area where they lived.

Anyway, these are just some thoughts based on past experience. And I’m wondering why this core email group can’t just continue to communicate by email. After all, it’s a great way to send thoughts and ideas out to a large-ish group of people. It’s why email was invented in the first place.

from Brian

so is the general consensus that we need new forum software?

Brian

from Richard G

Hi Brian,
I don’t think we need new forum software at all, yes maybe a few amendments here and there but not necessarily an overhaul.
The original comment that started this thread was more about whether the forum was dying due to the lack of participation and comment, ‘outside of the monthly Challenges’
It is true, that general comments have dwindled over the years but I believe that’s normal for a membership that steadily matures and certainly is the case here at Active Melody.

The one area we discussed at Manfred’s AM Webinar last week was how we could encourage new or fresh members to participate on the forum. In that respect I think it would be a good idea if you Brian could encourage participation on the forum during one or two of your weekly online lessons and with the size of your following, we would bound to improve the number of active forum members and hopefully bring some fresh vitality to this great AM community.
That might help ……. food for thought?

Regards
Richard G

from Alan L

Hi Brian,

Thanks for chiming in 🙂

I wouldn’t say “need” necessarily. As Richard mentioned, to goal of the conversation was to increase engagement of the forum itself. A forum overhaul may or may not help with that. So the big question is will the cost justify the gamble?

Personally I haven’t had issues navigating the forum, so my experience has been positive and my membership renewal certainly isn’t dependent on overall.

Just my two cents!

from Manfred

Hey Brian, hey everyone,
Like the others who has already reacted, I have the opinion, that we do not need a new forum software. It would be be enough to engage all to use all the possibilities of the existing forum. It would be enough to think about ways to reach this. And there are a few good ideas already in this email discussion. There is nothing to say against, how Steve suggests, continuing this email exchange. But we should also make it possible to have a similar discussion directly in the forum, so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute ideas.
I also like Richard’s idea, Brian, that you might point out the forum in a few videos, so more members perhaps take a look

Cheers!
Manfred

from Alan O

I agree, the site works just fine. A few enhancements would be nice but not necessarily required in my opinion. It would be nice to have a quick link to be able to easily see any replies to my replies (lessons and forums included). I believe this was also mentioned in the Zoom call. It is great to be able to use tools such as email and Zoom, and there are probably other tools out there that would be useful in the future as a supplement to the website. My main issue right now is time. I would participate more if I had more time available. Maybe I need to work on my time management skills in order to free up more time to participate in the forum 🙂.

Alan O

(Alan, we used to have a similar feature, notification of a reply to a reply, but it crashed the website.
John)

from Bill R,

Hey all,

A good discussion and I enjoyed participating in the zoom!

One thought about the forum: is this just the way the interweb is moving? With the proliferation of social media channels, it seems that folks may be spending more time on those than what forums once were a decade or more ago. I used to be active in a sailing forum but now those groups have migrated to Facebook.

I do like the AM forum as you can get for used information and feedback; whereas a Facebook group (for instance) can be harder to search, or even get your post seen based on what the algorithm shares with other users. I’m in a Paul Davids group on FB and barely see it anymore as I stopped engaging with it after a while.

I do agree a plug at the end of the lesson videos where Brian mentions the AM community and the engagement/support would be great to perhaps draw in some fresh users as well.

As for the AM forum, maybe some topic overhauls are in order…some of them don’t get much use at all. And/or a featured topic of the month to drive engagement: a discussion of a certain artist and their discography or gear, a certain type of guitar and why users prefer it, etc.

I would be happy to help with these initiatives. I’m not tech savvy but I can obviously type (haha). 🙂

-Bill

Thanks, Andre. Your collaboration with Craig is the type of thing that keeps the forum interesting.
I’m not looking to trouble Brian about making changes to the forum, I think he does enough for us and it’s very workable as is.
I think Brian promoting the forum a litlle would be great. There are two different aspects to this. The free part one video is Brian’s promotion to attract new members and he often does mention the forum community. I wonder if he could take a little time in the part two lesson to encourage current members to check out the forum. If we then have a sticky welcome package outlining the workings and activities of the forum we might attract new participants.
Craig did a great job with the AM jammers but it required significant audio and video editing. I wonder if it would be simpler to create a post with a similar kind of backing track and have people contribute their audio or video version in separate posts within the thread. Ideally, these would be kept short like Craig’s rule of 2 passes of a 12 bar.
Keep the ideas coming.
John

Hi Steve,
I always try to mention ActiveMelody.com in my comments under any AM related video I post. That’s not going to attract as many non-members as putting Active Melody in the video title. I scanned the latest challenge and saw Active Melody in about 1/3 of the titles, otherwise it was “AM Challenge”, “May 2024 Challenge” or some other.
Re: the Forum Quicklinks, I do sometimes refer to All My Posts if I want to find something I posted previously. Posts with My Reply is useful if you want to see if there’s a reply to your reply especially as we don’t have a notification system.
The headscratcher for me is Most Popular Posts and Posts with Most Replies. They seem to be identical and based on the most replies which includes the poster and responses. The “Most Popular” posts end up being those where the poster responds to every comment. I tried to get Brian to change Most Popular to threads with the most “voices” which would be a more accurate way to assess popularity. In truth, since I hope we’re not in a competition, neither is that important. Although, I always tease Jola that if the criteria was “Most voices” she would have the top 10 spots.
John