MusicTrainer Making Some Progress

Brendan Miranda called in on TWiST #32 to pitch MusicTrainer a website that will teach you via video how to play different instruments.  While Brendan’s pitch wasn't necessarily great, that can be improved, his idea Jason says is genius.  Jason and George gave great advice on how to improve and simplify his idea and even sketched up a wireframe. (recap)

I asked Brendan if he could update us on his progress and what he took away from his call in.

- The experience with TWIST was a valuable introduction to the entrepreneur community. It has opened many doors and resources for me and the community has been supporting me with everything ranging from SEO tips, design feedback, to suggestions for my business model.

- Being on the show has also been a great ice breaker in discussions with many people that had heard me call in.

- Recently finished production on 20 DVD's worth of Video Instruction.

- The current MusicTrainer site has over 100,000 video views in the past 3 weeks.

- Working on possible video production deals with international equipment manufacturers.

- Site Design is almost complete just finishing up a few things. Website should soon be ready for launch. A preview can be seen here. http://bit.ly/9TLSbZ

I checked out his preview site and watched a couple videos, the production quality is very nice.  I even learned where to place my fingers in relation to the fret on an electric guitar.  Be sure to check out the instructor page I was very impressed, these guys are professional musicians who have worked with some amazing people.  I did ask if a "how to play x song" will be included and Brendan assures me it will.

I was thinking how might we help Brendan and I know the preview is incomplete but I think feedback of the current design would be beneficial.  What to you all think?  What do you like or dislike, anything you would change?

Comments

[Jonathan]

I feel like the font on the main tabs (lessons, news forums, instructors, forums, support) could be different. I'm not exactly sure what to change it to, but it's not appealing to my eyes. Maybe it's because the whole bar at the top seems thick (including the search engine). I think if you shrunk it down a bit it might come off as less blocky.

Once your site gets a whole catalogue of videos, I think you will need a better organizational method (newest videos, top videos, etc.). I'm not sure if you plan to implement this.

If you would like to go the social networking route, it would be interesting to see if people could post videos asking for help on certain sections of songs. For instance, somebody might respond to a video saying, "you need more vibrato on that last note" or "rest your palm closer to the bridge of the guitar."

My music social networking site, HypedSound, includes an "Encyclopedia" of links; maybe I should include music training sites, haha. Hope my suggestions help.

-Jonathan