Testimonial: Tom Gilroy lessons

Teacher's Lounge
#1

I don’t have any useful videos to demonstrate currently (Tom did not cure my intense red light syndrome!), but I wanted to share a bit about my experiences taking a lesson with @Tom_Gilroy last summer.

Presentation:
Tom’s ability to communicate subtle concepts is really, really good. I’m biased, because I’m also an academic (or at least a former one!). He’s also extremely generous with his time. I only have one (mild!) note here, and it’s that Tom seemed worried that I wouldn’t believe his ideas or wouldn’t give them a shot. On the contrary, I went in based on thinking that his posting on the forum was very good, and on the recommendation of @steve506 .

Content:
Tom presents several concepts that have made a huge difference in my playing. They’re not a replacement for CTC material, but rather complement it. CTC material is very geometric; Tom’s concepts are very useful for implementing the geometry. I’m being intentionally vague here: Tom asked me not to share certain things, and I don’t remember exactly which they were. He also showed me some of the “rudiments” that have been alluded to here a few times. I found them less useful, but I think that’s the result of working on a different specific issue than other students.

I hope he publishes the core concepts soon, because I think they’re extremely useful, one in particular that I’ll try to remember to point out if and when that document becomes available.

Results:
My playing definitely changed overnight after a single session with Tom. The concepts he provided have made a significant difference in how I approach the instrument, and I feel like there is now a more-or-less monotonically-increasing relationship between “time put in practicing a line” and “ability to play the line.” One major outcome of this is that I now practice less, and play for fun more, because I’m not worried about whether I’ll be able to play some harder line some time in the future. I’m confident I will, and feel freed to make decisions about what I want to spend playing time on. I may actually come back for more lessons in future if I feel like I’ve hit a plateau of some kind, but for now I really haven’t felt the need, because one or two specific concepts really plugged a hole in my understanding of how to approach learning new lines.

@tommo, I’m not sure where I should have put this thread, so if you need to move it please do.

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#2

I don’t think anyone can cure that.

#3

I’ll chime in here also! I’m still in a vocabulary re-building stage, but things are going quite smoothly. I’m pretty happy with where things are headed - thanks, Tom and CTC!

Time spent with Tom was instrumental in a few things for me;

  • Recognizing and strategizing a method of dealing with background tension. Some tangible coaching beyond “don’t do that”. A decades lingering issue for me that once addressed changed the course of my playing.

  • A detailed strategy capitalizing on my strengths in regards to picking. Still working on this, but we had a lot of detailed instructions about playing vocabulary, note arrangement and interpretation of transcriptions as well as “how other people do it vs how I might have to do it”

  • Detailed discussions on defining the CTC naming conventions and how they apply to me and my playing.

His viewpoints on efficient digital cycles and practice strategies were valuable as well. Lots of stuff - I totally recommend that anyone having troubles with their playing spend some time with Tom, and then come on back to the CTC material - Tom’s ideas dovetail quite nicely with the concepts presented here.

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#4

My very sincere thanks to @eric_divers for posting this, and to @Scottulus also.

There are a few things I’d like to comment upon and/or clarify.

I am not a conventional guitar teacher. I’m well aware that much of what I teach is incompatible with typical guitar pedagogy and is directly contrary to what some prominent teachers and players advocate.

I don’t take the positions I take just to be contrarian. I genuinely believe that much of the “conventional wisdom” of guitar instruction is just plain wrong, based on physical, anatomical/physiological or motor learning realities. If asked, I’ll happily explain my reasoning on any point.

I have had students come to me who were very skeptical of the concepts and methods I teach. I am also quite sure that some students found the lesson structure and the process quite different from what they imagined. This is understandable, even somewhat expected.

It’s good to be skeptical, but I need students to be open to new ideas and to be willing to try new methods.

I want to make this crystal clear. I have absolutely zero desire to poach students from CTC.

A month of the Masters In Mechanics subscription is less expensive than an hour lesson with me, and it gives access to the Technique Critique platform. I would strongly recommend that anybody considering taking a lesson with me try MIM and the TC platform first. If it works for you, that’s fantastic.

If you’re still struggling after that, or you’d like to try a complementary approach while working on CTC material, I’d be delighted to help you, and we’ll have the benefit of shared terminology.

I felt this would be the case, your wrist mechanic was already more than capable of these tasks. I mostly taught them as an example of how I design task constraints to find movement solutions, and in case they would be a valuable tool in training your elbow movement, which wasn’t at the level of your wrist movement.

I think you’re referring to the discussion we had on invariants, movement phase, chunking and synchronisation? That’s my next project.

This is genuinely wonderful to read. However, I can’t promise these kinds of results to everybody. I have to meet you where you are.

My aim for every student is to help them get where they want to be to as quickly and directly as I possibly can. I never withhold information to keep students “on the line” for more lessons, I’m genuinely pleased when students feel they’ve reached a stage where they can continue towards their goals without me.

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#5

Excellent. Yes, that’s the discussion I was referring to.

If “invariants” you refer to your instruction on how to play slow, that’s the thing that really seemed to help me with whatever issue I specifically was facing. On a good day (or good 15 minute stretch) I can play inside Gilberts at 130+ now, which was one of my white whales for a long time (Vogg, Decapitated, Three-Dimensional Defect solo has been a goal of mine).

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#6

I’ll chime in as well and vouch for @Tom_Gilroy who straight up transformed my picking. I was hell bent on getting my whole form to match my strengths in 2 string down-down-up sweep/economy licks, and Tom helped me do just that. I now have a Forearm/Wrist based USX technique, as well as a Wylde forearm/elbow technique which is allowing me to hit speeds I was never able to hit with my previous elbow and wrist based DSX form. It didn’t happen overnight, and there were definitely periods of frustration, but I can now confidently say I did it and am super happy with my results, which continue to keep improving.

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#7

Toms lessons alt account has somewhat improved my rhythm at least

#8

I concur with the positive feedback shared in this thread. Also, I commend @Tom_Gilroy, specifically, for his ability to make students realize that there’s nothing wrong with themselves. Thank you for that.

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#9

That. Right there. Thanks again, Tom.

It might seem like someone’s playing/technical issues are plain as day (And they are to the outside looking in), but most people (myself included) can’t necessarily “see” it. They’ll think they’ve exercised every option and will genuinely require some step by step assistance. Tom has a real gift for honing in on the actual issue, and not making it about anything else while suggesting a lot of really tangible options to advance 'from" if that makes sense. I am STILL sorting out stuff I discovered with Tom. And yep, planning to hit him up for more coaching once we’ve levelled up a bit. Here’s what I really liked on the tangible side, just a couple of key points, sorry if I come across as a fanboy but I am very grateful to Tom;

  • Rudiment approach to driving successful picking escape consistency.
  • Using EDC concepts in musical contexts in conjunction with LH/RH
  • Really defining CTC naming conventions and concepts. Like, I seriously didn’t know wtfDSX/USX etc really was, Tom clarified and explained them, and better yet as they applied/didn’t apply to what I do/did.

Rock on.

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