So I decided since I can't afford my violin lessons this month and she really isn't worth what I am paying her anyway, that I would look for an alternative and I came upon artistworks.com It sounded pretty good. For $35 a month you get: access to hundreds of video lessons, you get to send in a video of your playing (any time you want!) and your instructor will reply with suggestions and advice, you get access to a forum, chat and blog etc. etc. and so I did it.
It was disappointing. I signed up for Darol Angers fiddle lesson which go from beginning to advanced.
I now feel sorry for the people who are real beginners because there is no way you can learn to play the violin from this man. My violin teacher is not the worst, this man is. The videos are horrid. You sit there just hoping Darol will actually come up with his next word before the video ends. It is OBVIOUS that he put no thought into any of these videos. He is just making it up as he goes along and sometimes his videos don't even look like he can do the exercises himself (and the exercises, when there are some are really not all that helpful). The way he talks on the videos is just really terrible. I can't even explain it but he just doesn't teach you anything. He apparently does not know what a beginner is and does not know that someone learning needs lessons that progress in an orderly fashions. It looks like he just picked a song and said, "We'll do this one today" whether you are ready for it or not. I actually watched him do a horrible interview with Casey Driessen (I have no idea who this actually is, a good bluegrass player apparently---oh yeah, to Darol apparently bluegrass is the only fiddle playing too as he doesn't get into any other fiddle playing in his lessons). It was just plain hard to watch. I felt bad for this Casey. It wasn't really an interview because Darol never asked any questions. It was stupid, really. They played a tune then Darol told about what Casey was doing (he did not have all the information and Casey filled him in where needed) and that was it.
There are 23 videos before he even gets to the key of G, then he has one song for the key of G and then move on to the key of D and then one song, and the key of A and then one song but in those 23 videos there are several songs in these keys. It is like someone mentioned to him that people couldn't do the songs without having a basis in what the keys were so then he made some videos on each key.
Anyway, other than the video lessons, students make videos of themselves playing and then we get to see their video and Darol's response. He ALWAYS tells them they are doing great (even when they are so bad that I have to shut off the video) and he almost always tells them to do long bow exercises to get better...yeah. Plus a lot of the video exchanges are not matched up with the right video lesson.
The study materials sometimes don't match (according to key) with what Darol is playing. The forum is a joke. Very, very few entries and the administrators don't even answer. The chat...I have never seen anyone on it and I have tried several times.
There is something called Shout Outs which is like a chat but right on the board. It hasn't changed for two days now so that gives you an idea of how many people use it.
It is 9:30 at night and right now only 3 students are online. Not exactly a popular place.
So for my $35 what am I getting...well, I printed up some of the music in case I need it later...that's about it.
However, there are sample videos to every teacher and the classical violin player looks really good, speaks well and seems like he has a plan to his teachings although it looks too hard for a beginner but the mandolin player looks even better on his sample video and I actually learned a lot from it so maybe when I get to playing my mandolin he will be a good teacher.
In other words, it might not be all bad, just don't go there trying to learn to play from the fiddle player Darol Anger. :(
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