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I’m 78 and during Covid I resumed piano having stopped age 15. I have an excellent teacher but decided to join Tonebase (life Subscription) as the best on line resource. I think I’m not alone in finding joy in piano once again but I’d love to see more for the early intermediate slow learning player. Not just exercises but pieces dissected and simplified for an older slower brain. My aim is not just to rattle through pieces, but to play melodically within my ability and a fraction beyond.
Thanks Kaja….. PS. I also play tenor Sax with my local country town Concert and Stage bands, bit beyond my ability but enjoyable.
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I'm a lifetime member of the guitar forum and I love it, but here are a few suggestions:
1. More content for beginners and intermedite players, particularly of the classical repertoire: i.e. complete opuses of etudes from Sor, Guiliani, Carulli, etc.
2. For some reason I find the navigation menu somewhat confusing, please consider redisigning it.
3. Just today I received a message about an interesting workshop, so I eagerly clicked on the link but instead it took me to a landing page asking me to subscribe or login. After I login, I'm not taken to the workshop but I have to look for it manually, and it took me a while to find it. This is a usability and user's experience issue.
4. A regular course of harmonic analysis of staple pieces, i.e. one that is updated regularly and builds up over time.
5. There is a lot of emphasis on technique and performance topics. But what about a course on arranging for classical guitar? That'd be fab!
Happy practicing
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I really don’t like the layout design and functionality of the community pages. Too much information, and it’s hard to find things. My head hurts looking at them so I avoid going there. I also posted a question two months ago which is yet to be answered. I had hoped it would be answered by the TB team. Did I post it in the wrong spot?
Sorry for the grumble. I love TB, but a part of me thinks perhaps the site is now trying to cover too much? -
It would be appreciated if live and recorded uploads were pitched/grouped at a level that is appropriate for the student.
The latest 4WI is a good example. I have reviewed the comments and my understanding is that many of the contributors so far are teachers in their own right.
There appeared to be a prevalence for Rachmaninoff in the pieces that are going to be learned by those students - from scratch and within a four-week time scale.
It's not helpful to me to be spend time and effort uploading videos that are much less advanced than others and I am sure that you would not appreciate my efforts with Rach 3, that is, over the defined four-week timescale.
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When TWI was on, it didn’t seem l was invited/ informed of anything, but after some days, after the courses were divided in groups, I started to get notifications. This happened a few times.
I would like ‘Bookmark’ via ‘Menu’, too. It feels intuitive to look up my own content from’Menu’.TB is wonderful. It’s difficult in my area, an adult playing piano as hobby, to have access to a high quality teacher with conservatory education. So thank you, and please keep developing TB.
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Hello! The app on the phone has got so much better so good job on that. I would quite like the possibility to have a library of downloaded videos on my phone like on Spotify, so that I don't have to use big amounts of data when using the app outside of a WiFi connection. I would also find it useful if each lesson on repertoire would have a full performance of the piece by the teacher attached in order to be able to see body position, pedalling , hand position etc throughout the piece and see all the elements of the lesson blended into a performance.
Other than that, bravo for your work Dominic et al!
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The core of Tonebase for me is the classical repertoire presented, dissected, and given opinionated guidance by artists who care deeply about all aspects of the piece. Context, overall arc of, technical analysis, minutiae of fingering, interpretation, etc., etc. Sooo good. I like everything else too, but please "budget" so to speak such that this core is continuously invested in and expanded.
That said, some comments:
- Some sites make it a setting whether you always want light, dark, or "system determined" themes. The overwhelming number of requests above seem to prefer light, but I have worked with plenty of people who like dark too.
- The All Scores and Syllabus buttons at the bottom are great. they're quite valuable for returning to the lessons which I do quite a bit. Work for a while on one piece, try another, come back later...
- In general, mobile apps on my iPad *can* work well, but they tend to box you into a certain navigational structures, and I will frequently prefer the "mess of tabs" in my browser so that I can stash where I've been and go back to it quickly without waiting for multiple navigation updates. Which is to say, please don't switch entirely to the app, sacrificing the website.
I'm sure I'll have more things to say after I've spent more time with it. Love what you do here.
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I love the quality of the content and I like that you are focused on classical piano. I think that and your advanced content makes the site unique.
For improvements I would love to be able to create folders in the bookmarks section. I also think a monthly newsletter with information about live classes, challenges and more could be a nice way to get members updated and more engaged.