Just out of curiosity, has anyone seen or looked into Tom Hess’s picking technique? He calls it “directional picking” but is he an upward pickslanter? What kind of picking technique does his way fall under?
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Having watched a few videos I’d guess he is a primary upwards pickslanter!
I think directional picking is the same as economy + occasional “inside” string changes.
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Between his “Guitar Sex” or whatever paid instructional series and his staff spamming a few websites I’ve been involved with trying to sell us on his “affiliate/partner” program/pyramid scheme where we direct students to him for a cut of the revenue, and the fact that he just generally comes across as arrogant and kind of a jerk, I refuse to watch anything he’s ever put out. Which is nice, since I understand people who have generally either drink the snake oil wholesale (or are getting paid for referrals), or realize that he isn’t actually all that good a teacher.
REALLY not a fan of the guy or his business practices, and I’m generally one to hold my tongue or keep my own council on this sort of stuff.
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And it’s annoying because I found his articles useful up until he wants you to pay for his ‘practice generator’ and mocks you for thinking it’s too expensive.
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Before I fully realized what was up, I subscribed to that guy’s email marketing list. He uses the same emotional manipulation tactics as pickup artists, abusive spouses and cults: alternately trying to make you feel inadequate, then trying to make you feel like he’s doing you a favor because you’re “special”. Haven’t looked at any of it for ages, but it made my skin crawl. I’ve seen some other online marketers attempt similar “Psychological Warfare 101” bullshit, but his was the most offensive.
While everyone online has to market themselves to make a buck, I strongly prefer when people take a page from Dale Carnegie’s tactics: try to cultivate honest, genuine, positive qualities in yourself and your interactions with people, and your prospective customers will notice. And while people who haven’t actually read Carnegie are sometimes rightfully skeptical, his advice isn’t a matter of superficial manipulation. Carnegie doesn’t advocate pretending to be interested in other people, he advocates training yourself to genuinely become more interested in other people.
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Having watched a few videos of the guy, I agree that this is exactly his method. After realising it I also unsubscribed from the mailing list.
Not that one needs a degree to figure it out, but I recently completed my lecturer training in the UK, and this is pretty much the first thing you learn not to do as a teacher!!!
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That was the gist of his spam marketing campaign to another site I’m an admin at - if a whole bunch of our “readers” (I think his employee, who wrote as if it was Hess himself, but the email address was something like "[email protected]" or whatever) were already customers of his already, hey, he was doing us a favor by letting us get a 30% cut of that. Which of course is idiotic, because who in their right mind would just give revenue away they didn’t have to, unless they expected to get something in return? And then soon thereafter we had a couple new members signing up to ask for advice on online lessons, and then other new memebrs sign up to suggest Hess, etc. It was just kinda sleazy.
I mean, this shouldn’t be a huge revelation or anything because if I’ve learned anything about sales it’s that it’s a lot like dating, but really, that’s just pretty good advice across the board.
Anyway, I apologize, I sort of pulled this one off-topic. Hess just really rubbed me the wrong way, and his “Guitar Sex” lesson plan is hands down the creepiest, most chauvinistic thing I’ve run into in an industry that definitely veers that way anyway.
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Dale Carnegie’s books are great, the advice in that book isn’t as obvious as we may think — it’s still selling millions!
I’m a big fan of self-improvement books in general. Maybe we should have an off topic thread dedicated to the books we’re reading?
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