kudzurunner
5901 posts
Feb 26, 2016
7:47 AM
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I've just sent out an email to my mailing list but I wanted folks here to have the same heads-up. Here's the complete email:
Dear Friend:
I'm looking to spruce up my Modern Blues Harmonica website. As part of that upgrade, I'd like to add a few testimonials from folks--you, perhaps?--who have made transformative use of my teaching materials: not just my free videos on YouTube, but the videos and tabs that I've been selling at MBH for the past nine years.
To make things interesting, I'm sponsoring a little competition, with a $100 cash prize.
I'm looking for the best, most convincing video testimonial. The winner will find a way of saying, in effect, "Adam Gussow taught me how to play like this." Not necessily in those words, but you get the idea.
The winning video will not only claim the cash prize, but will be posted prominently on the Modern Blues Harmonica homepage and Beginners page. (Second and third place videos may also be posted in those locations.)
I'm more interested, frankly, in people who have learned how to play with the help of my for-pay videos and tabs. But because there are some people who have made extraordinary progress with the help of my several hundred free video tutorials on YouTube, this competition is open to those folks as well.
Do I have your attention? Good. Here are the rules.
1) Videos should ideally be no longer than 30 seconds or so, and shorter than that is fine, but allowable length is up to 60 seconds.
2) All videos entered in the competition must be posted publicly on YouTube and must be titled simply "Modern Blues Harmonica testimonial".
3) There are no rules or guidelines for the form that your video must take. Talking heads are fine, but voiceovers are fine, too. Samples of your playing--"before" and "after"--are welcome, and some actual on-camera harmonica playing is highly advisable, but it's not absolutely required. Be creative, or not. What counts, finally, is the total effect. I'm looking for a video that will convince somebody to visit my site and choose me as their harmonica teacher.
4) Actually, there's one guideline: please be honest and authentic. Don't make stuff up. And don't oversell like a maniac. I like the Shamwow guy, too, but that's not what I'm looking for.
5) Once you've created and uploaded your video to YouTube, email me (asgussow@aol.com), put "Modern Blues Harmonica testimonial" in the subject line, and include a link to your video in the body of your email. I must receive this email from you, with a link, or you won't be considered to have entered the competition.
6) Deadline for entries is Thursday, March 10. All entries must be received by 12 midnight, Central Standard Time.
7) I will announce the winner on Friday, March 18. The announcement will be made in a dedicated thread on the Modern Blues Harmonica forum. I will also contact the winner and two runners-up by email, and I will pay out the prize money promptly via PayPal or, if the winner prefers, by a check in the mail.
8) Although the winner is the only person who will receive a cash prize, the second and third place entries will each receive $50 credit towards any of the digital products I sell at MBH, including audio books and music (i.e., albums).
That's it. That's the competition. I'm looking for a few good videos.
Before I go: one final thought, and an important one. Please don't assume that you must be an advanced intermediate player, or better, in order to enter this competition. What matters to me isn't how good you are right now, but how far you've traveled. So I'm just as interested in somebody who started from scratch three months ago and is actually playing SOMETHING that sounds bluesy--and is filled with joy and amazement at their own progress--as I am in somebody who has taken five years to go from raw beginner to a gigging musician. Both players interest me equally. Both have an equal right to enter this competion. Both have the same chance of creating a video that catches my interest--and the interest of the future students I'm hoping to attract.
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