Anybody tried the National Guitar Workshop?

[CaptainTapp]

I recently got this ad for a National Guitar Workshop in the mail (www.guitarworkshop.com). It's $1800 for a five day long session with 33 hours of lessons plus a few opportunities for live playing. What I want to know is, is five days really worth 1800? Anybody taken a similar course and can tell me whether they showed a noticeable improvement from it, or am I better off saving my money?

[Mateo150]

Sounds ridiculous. How much can you really absorb in 5 days?

you can get 45 hours from a teacher at $40 per hour for $1800. And you don't have to try to cram in 5 days, 45 hours whenever you want, and you get time to internalize and absorb and know what you are taught. I don't know if I'd get anything from 5 days, I've played all day for 5 days in a row before, Its not worth 1800...

Getting better at music is kinda like losing weight. The most you can lose in fat weight, is 2 pounds a week. In terms of real results, only 2 lbs. can be shed per week. Its like spending 1800 bucks on a 5 day fat camp... doesn't sound good to me.

[nuclear81]

Sounds ridiculous. How much can you really absorb in 5 days?

you can get 45 hours from a teacher at $40 per hour for $1800. And you don't have to try to cram in 5 days, 45 hours whenever you want, and you get time to internalize and absorb and know what you are taught. I don't know if I'd get anything from 5 days, I've played all day for 5 days in a row before, Its not worth 1800...

Getting better at music is kinda like losing weight. The most you can lose in fat weight, is 2 pounds a week. In terms of real results, only 2 lbs. can be shed per week. Its like spending 1800 bucks on a 5 day fat camp... doesn't sound good to me.
If you work at it you can lose a lot more than 10lbs a week. I have been boxing for about 12yrs now and has to lose nearly 18lbs in a week for a fight a few years back. I didn't have to do anything too drastic or unhealthy and was able to take the weight off with a day left before the fight. If you are compairing weight loss to guitar than by your theory, one should be able to gain insane amounts of skill and know how if they are already established musicians. I am not saying it is impossiable to get a lot of information in a short amount of time, but it seems a lot harder to do that than it is to lose weight (assuming both people have the same amount of experience in their respective fields)

[Poparad]

That's really quite an absurd amount for just 5 days.

I've done a few different music camps before, all usually about a week, and the most they ever ask for is $300-500 for ones that include rooms and food. The ones that are just classes and lessons are significantly cheaper.


I agree with the first reply though. Music is not something you can cram in. However, there is a benifit from those camps: you get to study with great instructors and hopefully take something away from it. I always took a lot of notes at the camps I went to because I would be studying it for weeks afterwards. Seminars and workshops are the things I learned the most from, and not so much one on one lessons.

[Mateo150]

If you work at it you can lose a lot more than 10lbs a week. I have been boxing for about 12yrs now and has to lose nearly 18lbs in a week for a fight a few years back. I didn't have to do anything too drastic or unhealthy and was able to take the weight off with a day left before the fight. If you are compairing weight loss to guitar than by your theory, one should be able to gain insane amounts of skill and know how if they are already established musicians. I am not saying it is impossiable to get a lot of information in a short amount of time, but it seems a lot harder to do that than it is to lose weight (assuming both people have the same amount of experience in their respective fields)I was saying theres a limit to how much you can learn within a specific amount of time. As far as weight loss, I was a High School wrestler for a nationally ranked team and thats a bit different than ametuer boxing, since its in the context of a season. In the first week of practice I lost 10-12 lbs. easy, but a lot of that is water weight and extra food in the system and stuff like that. It is medical fact that one can only lose 2lbs of actual fat per week, the rest of the weight loss will come from other places. I'm guessing your probably a bigger guy, our heavyweight commonly lost a lot more weight than our lightweights, and thats just scale. To comment on your situation you described, that is very very unhealthy and if you did it in one day, most of the weight you lost was probably - 12 lbs water, guessing you didn't eat that day so thats about 2-5 lbs of food in your system, maybe 0.5 lbs of fat loss, lots of water weight in food too. You lose 3lbs everyday in water weight, just evaporating it. You could sit around and watch TV, not eat or drink, or sleep for 24 hours, and you'll be 3lbs lighter (on average). If your at 3% body fat and have already sucked down, you'll probably only drift off about 1.5 lbs.

And on the contrary, if your an established musician, like an established fighter, you'll already be sucked down and in shape, so its all that much harder to make the progress (or losses in weight). I've had to lose 4 more lbs before a match before, spent 2 hours jumping rope in a sauna, only lost about 3 lbs. Theres a story about Jack Cuvo (olympic gold medalist/world champ that went through my school district) spending 6 hours straight in a sauna cuz he had to lose something like 22 lbs, he barely made it. Normal people in these situations would lose this weight easily, but if your already "established", then its much more difficult. I've had to cut insane amounts of weight in my lifetime and wore many a rubber suits in 95 degree rooms, One thing I really know about is weight loss.

Anyway, this is way off topic, my point was theres a limit to how much REAL progress one can make in a short amount of time. Key word is REAL, not water weight. If you have truly lost 10lbs of fat weight in a week, then you are a medical miracle and should have yourself documented.

[Unhorizon]

It isn't $1800 for 5 days. It's a little under $1000. It's still quite a steep price, but this year you can take classes with Allan Holdsworth, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, John 5, etc. My guitar teacher teaches at NGW and so do some other great musicians. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Terry Syrek, who is an incredible guitar player and I'm sure some of you have heard of him.

I feel the main reason for the high price is because of the atmosphere. You are surrounded by other guitarists at the same skill level as you, and you are being taught by some of the greatest (if not the greatest) guitarists in the WORLD. One class at Connecticut this year is taught by Terry Syrek and the guest is Allan Holdsworth. I might go to this class for a week. I don't know about you, but I feel spending 5 days (6 hours a day) in a class of 10 people of about the same skill level as you for only $1000 is a low price to pay for being taught by these 2 guitar geniuses.

[CaptainTapp]

You're right unhorizon, it's actually about 850 and that includes the cost of a place to stay, I misread the form. That does sound like a pretty good deal, although the one I would go to would be this one in chicago where they teach some jazz-blues type stuff and I don't know if there's gonna be a sick guest teacher there. What I'm wondering is if I shouldn't save more money and try getting into the Guitar Institute (I believe that's what its called) in Los Angeles for one of their longer summer courses. I need to read up on the comparative prices and whatnot before I decide but can anybody tell me how hard it is to get into summer classes at the Guitar Institute? I know for their regular classes they want you to record yourself playing and take some tests, are summer classes that restriced?

[Unhorizon]

I believe every site has a few guests. Even if they aren't super famous, you can be sure every guest is extremely dedicated to their instrument and could easily make any one of us feel badly about ourselves.

[prodigy84]

I recently got this ad for a National Guitar Workshop in the mail (www.guitarworkshop.com (http://www.guitarworkshop.com/)). It's $1800 for a five day long session with 33 hours of lessons plus a few opportunities for live playing. What I want to know is, is five days really worth 1800? Anybody taken a similar course and can tell me whether they showed a noticeable improvement from it, or am I better off saving my money?
Invest that money on videos of concerts and instructionals. That would be a better investment.