JMills60 - Posted - 05/03/2023:  17:27:10

Has anyone taken the lessons given by Tony Trischka in the ArtistWorks Series? As a beginner, I’m always looking for that extra edge. Thanks…

perltone - Posted - 05/03/2023:  17:40:12

Signing up for his course gives you access to all lessons, beginner through advanced. I have done it for two years and I think it is the best value and most informational of all of the online courses I have tried. He has really thought it out

JMills60 - Posted - 05/03/2023:  17:56:26

Thanks for the info Bob. I started out with Jim Pankey and his 10 lessons and started a foundation. Moved to Ben Clark, where I am now. I just saw this promotion from ArtistWorks and was intrigued. And I have always enjoyed Tony’s style. May have to try it out.

m-dion - Posted - 05/03/2023:  18:12:00

I am as well. I picked the banjo up again a year ago after 4 decades of not playing. I was making some progress but not as much as I wanted and knew I was missing not having an instructor to play along with. But my ability to set a regular schedule for lessons is complicated with family and work.

The Trischka lessons on Artistworks have several elements that have been helpful for me ...

- Trischka is one of my banjo "legends" and the chance learn from him, even online, is rewarding.
- The video format, where you can set "start" and "stop" points to loop his playing examples makes for an excellent opportunity to try playing exactly in sync with him over and over. Different speeds as well.
- Seeing the other students video submissions provides examples of other regular mortals going about it.
- I'm finding even the earliest lessons in Beginner to be good exercise.
- Available when I am.

I was able to get a 40% of discount code offer with a bit of playing with the site before signing up.

It's nice if you can have a second monitor so that you can have Tony on one screen and the PDFs on the other.

JMills60 - Posted - 05/03/2023:  18:16:24

Thanks Mark, this is good information. I received a 30 day introductory ad and I am thinking some of the same things.

Old Hickory - Posted - 05/03/2023:  19:12:06

30 day offer may be good, but right now they're offering 3 months for $55. Use the code MAY55 at checkout.

If you do subscribe to ArtistWorks, go into you account settings right away and turn off automatic renewal. Then watch for other offers to avoid paying full price.

You can use offers any time of year to extend a subscription regardless of when it ends.

JMills60 - Posted - 05/03/2023:  19:17:49

Thanks for the tip. I need to look at this more closely.

BigFiveChord - Posted - 05/03/2023:  20:11:52

I've mentioned this before, but if you happen to live in Texas the Central Texas Bluegrass Association offers year-long scholarships to Artistworks. CentralTexasBluegrass.org

Timothy Lindblom - Posted - 05/04/2023:  03:47:50

I highly recommend that course. That’s how I learned from a pretty much total beginner. Great foundational lessons all the way through intermediate and advanced

Ron Lacey - Posted - 05/04/2023:  05:10:53

I’ve subscribed for the past two years and I’d agree with the above comments. Around the first of the year I got 50% off on a one year subscription for the past two years. Hopefully that will come around again.

In addition to the large number of lessons divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced categories there are a lot of additional tunes. Plus, Tony takes video submissions from students and comments on their playing in a very constructive manner. I haven’t done this yet, mostly because I need to figure out how to record myself for a submission. It’s clear he loves to teach. Tony also responds to posts on the site. The only thing better would be face to face lessons.

And there is more! There are interviews by Tony (and some others) of many of our banjo hero’s, many of whom are no longer with us.

Life has gotten in the way of my regular use but this thread reminded me to get back to it.

Debbiej - Posted - 05/04/2023:  12:50:23

I love artist works! They always have some kind of deal going, right now they have the 3 month thing but if you wait a few days or a week they'll probably have a 40% off deal on an annual subscription which gives you unlimited Video Exchanges. Tony Trischka has tons of lessons in his curriculum. Around Christmas time they always (at least for the past 8 years or so) give 50% off on their annual subscription. I think the best after that may be 45% off . Have fun!

JMills60 - Posted - 05/04/2023:  15:20:45

 quote:

---

Originally posted by Ron Lacey

I’ve subscribed for the past two years and I’d agree with the above comments. Around the first of the year I got 50% off on a one year subscription for the past two years. Hopefully that will come around again.



In addition to the large number of lessons divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced categories there are a lot of additional tunes. Plus, Tony takes video submissions from students and comments on their playing in a very constructive manner. I haven’t done this yet, mostly because I need to figure out how to record myself for a submission. It’s clear he loves to teach. Tony also responds to posts on the site. The only thing better would be face to face lessons.



And there is more! There are interviews by Tony (and some others) of many of our banjo hero’s, many of whom are no longer with us.



Life has gotten in the way of my regular use but this thread reminded me to get back to it.

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Ron, thanks for the additional info. For me the costs are reasonable if the value is there. From what I'm hearing, that might me the case. 

Old Hickory - Posted - 05/04/2023:  15:24:09

What Debbie said.

I've been re-upping during the December 50%-off sale every year since 2016. Maybe 2015.

I think they also offer 50% off around July 4. And as Debbie says 40% off 12-year memberships pops up from time-to-time. As does $100 off (35%).  Never any reason to pay full price at ArtistWorks.

And as I said in my previous message, if you buy more months before your current membership expired, their system knows to tack those on to the end.

Unlike the cable company, these deals are never for new subscribers only.

JMills60 - Posted - 05/04/2023:  15:26:39

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ron Lacey

I’ve subscribed for the past two years and I’d agree with the above comments. Around the first of the year I got 50% off on a one year subscription for the past two years. Hopefully that will come around again.



In addition to the large number of lessons divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced categories there are a lot of additional tunes. Plus, Tony takes video submissions from students and comments on their playing in a very constructive manner. I haven’t done this yet, mostly because I need to figure out how to record myself for a submission. It’s clear he loves to teach. Tony also responds to posts on the site. The only thing better would be face to face lessons.



And there is more! There are interviews by Tony (and some others) of many of our banjo hero’s, many of whom are no longer with us.



Life has gotten in the way of my regular use but this thread reminded me to get back to it.

---

Ron, I have seen life get in the way, but that's ok. Beats the alternative. While I see the deals come through, I'm looking for background on the lessons themselves. Thanks for your insight. This is sounding like a well grounded plan. Thanks...

Ron Lacey - Posted - 05/04/2023:  16:34:18

A typical lesson is Tony playing through a tune at a reasonable speed then he breaks it down section by section. The videos are 5 to 6 minutes and there may be 3 or 4 videos for the tune. Probable a holdover from the days of slower internet. There is good camera angles on both of his hands so you can follow pretty easily. There is also tab to go along with everything. Sometimes he will give some background on the tune or talk about where he learned it, sometimes it’s just the tune. Sometimes he will focus on a particular player’s style (Earl, J.D., Bela, etc.)

I’ve worked through the beginner section and about 2/3 of the intermediate course. I think the grading is pretty accurate. I can’t comment on the advanced lessons. Maybe I can get there by 2024.

One other thing is that Tony continues to add new stuff to the site. I think it’s a deal at full price but I like to save a buck as much as the next guy so the occasional sales are appreciated!

JMills60 - Posted - 05/04/2023:  16:59:18

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ron Lacey

A typical lesson is Tony playing through a tune at a reasonable speed then he breaks it down section by section. The videos are 5 to 6 minutes and there may be 3 or 4 videos for the tune. Probable a holdover from the days of slower internet. There is good camera angles on both of his hands so you can follow pretty easily. There is also tab to go along with everything. Sometimes he will give some background on the tune or talk about where he learned it, sometimes it’s just the tune. Sometimes he will focus on a particular player’s style (Earl, J.D., Bela, etc.)



I’ve worked through the beginner section and about 2/3 of the intermediate course. I think the grading is pretty accurate. I can’t comment on the advanced lessons. Maybe I can get there by 2024.



One other thing is that Tony continues to add new stuff to the site. I think it’s a deal at full price but I like to save a buck as much as the next guy so the occasional sales are appreciated!

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Thank you Ron!

paulhealey - Posted - 05/05/2023:  06:17:12

Full disclosure, I’m a clawhammer guy. I wanted to mess around with three finger, and I signed up for an Artist Works course to do it.
Ultimately, between life commitments not giving me enough time to properly practice both styles, I stopped.
However, I thought the lessons were the best video lesson platform I had done. I tried CH lessons on Peghead Nation and on some other video platform and felt Artist Works had the best in terms of multiple angles, play along tracks, well thought out track and material.
Also, Artist Works were the only lessons where I was a true “beginner”. On the CH stuff, if I couldn’t get it from watching the video, I could listen to the video and look at the tab and figure it out fairly easily.
I’m not saying Peghead Nation and the other platform were bad (something Fire maybe?) just that they weren’t as thorough.

Old Hickory - Posted - 05/05/2023:  09:29:09

And one more bit of advice for anyone subscribing to ArtistWorks:

Be sure to make time during your membership to download everything. You can't download videos; you can only watch them online while your membership is active (unless you have some technology for capturing video). But the PDFs of the lesson tabs are yours to keep forever. So get around to grabbing them all.

I have downloaded everything, and have organized them in folders named Trischka Beginner,Trischka Intermediate, Trischka Advanced and the other categories in which the tabs appear on the site. Some of the tabs from Tony's regularly posted "Welcome Message" lessons I've put into other folders where I thought appropriate rather than just keeping them as Welcome Messages, but that's just me.  Since I did the mass download a few years back, it's been easy to keep up and just download new tabs once a year.

It seems to me Tony posts a new Welcome Message a bit more frequently than once a month. These always have a lesson on a song or technique. The most recent one is on pentatonics. So it's more for increasing your fretboard awareness and giving you a tool for improvisation than teaching a song.  The lesson and tab ends with an etude that's full of phrases you might lift outright as licks. Mainly the lesson is about teaching you what notes to play and which to avoid when trying to use the pentatonic scale. The great thing about pentatonics: Regardless of the underlying chord, there are no wrong notes.

I have "Trischka" as part of the folder names because I also subcribe to Noam Pikelny's school, so I want the folders named differently, even though they're sub-folders to their respective Trischka and Pikelny folders. Noam's school is newer, so there are fewer lessons, and because of his active touring, he doesn't post new Welcome Messages as frequently as he did in 2020 and 21 when the pandemic kept him isolated at home.

Jack Baker - Posted - 05/05/2023:  09:44:44

Hi Ken,

I just went to Artist Works for the 1st time and had no idea of how much that site has to offer. Every instrument in Folk, Pop, Classical or Bluegrass is in there. I prefer to do my own arranging I guess but this is a great deal for those who want more direction in what they play and how much more they can learn. Mind bending site as far as I can see in that every major Artist in there...Jack

Edited by - Jack Baker on 05/05/2023 09:47:54

Old Hickory - Posted - 05/05/2023:  11:22:48

Yes, Jack.

Bluegrass just scratches the surface. And they do have some luminaries throughout the site.

The ArtistWorks system is a great blend of canned/at-your-own-pace/one-way video instruction (same as a DVD or YouTube) and the interactivity of a private lesson (if you choose to upload a Video Exchange video of yourself playing a lesson or anything else you want the teacher to comment on). These VEs become available for all members of that school to see and that's a benefit, because the teacher's commentary and sometimes suggested variations have value to not only the student who posted the video but to anyone looking for new ideas to up their playing.

Noam has posted VE response videos that are close to a half-hour long! It's amazing to see him working out alternatives in real time. A window into his thought- and creative process. Plus, his comments on students' playing are amazingly insightful. He really sees what people are doing. Tony tends not to go as long, but his VE responses are always encouraging and helpful.

The most value I've received from ArtistWorks is in Tony's VE responses to intermediate- and advanced-level players who upload tunes looking for correction and suggestions. Tony will often end these with several verses of improv. "Jamming out" he calls it. And the licks and techniques he throws in are almost always the subject of lessons elsewhere in his curriculum, so these videos are great examples of putting those things to work.

I'm sure the teachers of other instruments in other genres do the same.

The site itself could use some improvement. It's always been slow on every computer and browser I use. And its search function -- which it didn't always have -- leaves something to be desired. Every now and then they roll out a new feature or enhancement, so it's better than it used to be.

Jack Baker - Posted - 05/05/2023:  11:31:30

Ken,

It sounds like you're having a great time there. It should be very useful to you or anyone seeking to expand their playing and repertoire. Have fun there...Jack

"I just went to Artist Works for the 1st time and had no idea of how much that site has to offer. Every instrument in Folk, Pop, Classical or Bluegrass"

Edited by - Jack Baker on 05/05/2023 11:46:10

stevebsq - Posted - 05/05/2023:  13:03:33

I’m taking lessons from what I think is a good instructor. I wonder if taking artists works sessions would be a supplement or be more of a conflict with my current lessons.

Just as a simple example, my current instructor could teach pull offs (or something else) differently than Triska.

Jack Baker - Posted - 05/05/2023:  13:26:52

If you don't fully trust your current teacher then by all means, leave him. Go find what you're really looking for whether it's Tony and Artists Works or a hundred other teaching sites..

I'm telling you this because I've been through this many times. A student will leave me, go to a hundred other teachers and end up back with me. Make up your mind; either trust your teacher or forever be dissatisfied with what you've got...Often, if a student is just a lost wandering soul, I don't take them back because they do it over and over 'til the teacher just cans them...

Edited by - Jack Baker on 05/05/2023 13:37:53

stevebsq - Posted - 05/05/2023:  14:07:34

It’s not about trusting my teacher. I have no plans to leave. I was just wondering if recorded sessions such as Triska’s could be a supplement or a conflict.

Jack Baker - Posted - 05/05/2023:  14:19:26

Well, ultimately it's up to you to decide. There is no absolute answer to your question. Tony always does good work. It would probably just be another version of a song. Recorded versions are just another way of comparing how your teacher plays a tune. You will probably get hundreds of answers to your question--good luck on that...Jack Baker

Edited by - Jack Baker on 05/05/2023 14:22:52

pmartin9363 - Posted - 05/08/2023:  12:55:11

I have been using Artistworks for about 2 1/2 years. Noam Pikelny is my teacher. I love it. I had a very rough start. Absolutely no background in music. I think some of the basic stuff is no covered in enough detail. But, I feedback that I have gotten from Noam has been great. I also use BenjoBenClark, who goes in to a lot of detail is the basic stuff, but you do not get the video response.

Old Hickory - Posted - 05/08/2023:  13:43:23

quote:

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Originally posted by pmartin9363

I have been using Artistworks for about 2 1/2 years. Noam Pikelny is my teacher. I love it. I had a very rough start. Absolutely no background in music. I think some of the basic stuff is no covered in enough detail.

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I think Tony's ArtistWorks school is better for beginners.  He has over 90 lessons by my count, to just over 60 for Noam. Whether the difference is more tunes, more exercises, more technique, or just more talk, I can't say.

JMills60 - Posted - 05/08/2023:  15:01:30

quote:

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Originally posted by Old Hickory

quote:

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Originally posted by pmartin9363

I have been using Artistworks for about 2 1/2 years. Noam Pikelny is my teacher. I love it. I had a very rough start. Absolutely no background in music. I think some of the basic stuff is no covered in enough detail.

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I think Tony's ArtistWorks school is better for beginners.  He has over 90 lessons by my count, to just over 60 for Noam. Whether the difference is more tunes, more exercises, more technique, or just more talk, I can't say.

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I have to agree with you Ken. As a fairly fresh beginner, there is a bit more structure there, defining a path forward. Not to take anything away from Tony, a damn fine player. 

JeffJo - Posted - 05/11/2023:  05:49:45

I've done both Noam & Tony lessons. I would recommend both. The looping feature on their videos make them better than anything else I've found so far. Also you get that endorphin release when you get a real video from a banjo legend telling you everything you did wrong! :)

Edited by - JeffJo on 05/11/2023 05:58:06