Student Interview - Gil Alvarado - 10/09/2024

there you are there we go hey yeah awesome good nice so how how are you I am happy nice I really happy your course is so wonderful I'm learning so much from you I am so appreciative oh thank you makes me happy no makes me happy yeah so maybe first you can uh you know would be nice if you can introduce yourself uh shortly uh your background interests a little bit about you so who are you okay my name is Gil Alvarado I am retired I spent 40 years as a naturopathic physician and acupuncturist uh very very rewarding and now I am free to pursue music and uh I am very excited to find your course because uh it's not just about your course I have seen it now and it's not just about learning technique it's about learning to play music and to play from my heart and that's what I've been looking for and I didn't find it anywhere else and uh now I find it here in your course and I'm really putting myself into doing the best I can to go through your course and learn and do this nice that's nice so and how long are you in the course at this point at this point about two and a half weeks I just started um I've been able to do some of the beginning stuff a little bit faster I had previously learned chords on a piano although only in the root position and it took me a long long time the training was not as clear and concise and helpful as yours uh and now I'm learning much more with to you and I'm just starting my first song Oh W starting my first song that you have written and also one that I have written so one that you have written yeah you composed your first song yeah well I yeah amazing I love to hear that sure uh whenever you that's amazing yeah nice nice so you know about um playing um how much can you find the time to practice well that's the thing when I uh before I retired I worked I don't know 60 70 hours a week probably uh including all I really was dedicated to my patients and would research and do a lot of work and so I had no time uh really for other things now that I retired I have the time and I find I have been averaging about two hours a day uh I would like to do more I I it's the way you've structured it it's very fun for me and I'm very excited so but that's what I've been able to nice two hours that's crazy keep up the good uh work and uh keep progressing like that it's amazing to see uh and that you are so excited and and motivated it's really nice well I've looked for I've looked for music courses other places and I couldn't what I find with you so it's exciting Me Maybe you know I want to ask you if you um compare where you are now at this point right now compared to when you started a course okay it's only two and a half weeks it would be interesting to to ask and uh you know people uh who are longer in the course like one year half a year you know in any way you are there two two and a half weeks what can you say about your Evolution and your growth compared to when you started this course well before I started the course if I sat down at the harmonium I could uh in in a clumsy way play the chords in the root position I had no way of transitioning from one chord to another uh fortunately I knew that I had to press keys before pressing the Bellow so I didn't break the harmonium yes good one but I really didn't know very much at all and uh I couldn't play any songs couldn't do anything really um uh and then you started I started with your course and um each step progressed you know beautifully uh I know from other parts in my life that uh when I'm studying uh the best is to get something perfect even very slow and then after you have that you can speed it up rather than go over and over going fast but making mistakes so uh uh I progressed in that way and um uh now two and a half weeks later uh I'm playing my first song in the course I've written a song I'm playing that uh I can sit down and kind of fiddle on the keys and make it sound reasonably well and uh and I do that for fun and also to get that flowing as you suggested in the course and uh my heart is a glow my heart is a glow with what I'm getting and being able to do here wow and and how do you think this course could help others well if they didn't think they could do music or play harmonium or they have tried and hadn't hadn't had any real uh I don't want to say success because it's it's more than and different than success but hadn't been able to progress uh and make it sound the way they wanted I uh the course has done that for me and uh it's doing that for me and U I'm uh you know and I'm just getting started and it's already doing that and uh you know what is it going to be year from now you know God knows it will be it's great fortune and I'm I'm just so I that's what I'm seeing and uh I'm so grateful that uh I I'm so grateful that I went ahead and looked at it at the beginning I wasn't even going to look at it because I thought oh this looks good but it will definitely be too expensive for me and uh so so um do you have anything uh until this point that you think could be improved in the course that you think you know um I don't like this so much or maybe this is a little bit uh I don't know boring or I can you can work on this and make it better is there anything you want to say about that uh I would suggest I'm thinking um what I mentioned before about knowing about getting it so I could really do it before slowly before moving on and speeding up you could add that into the course uh because I didn't I don't recall seeing you saying that and uh if I didn't have that I probably wouldn't be coming along as quickly as I am or as happily as I am okay so you're saying to stress out the fact that you have to practice slowly and then gradually speed up and so it's very important to practice things slow is that what you're saying I'm saying it's important that I practice at a speed where I can do whatever it is if it's playing the chord and then a transition or you know movement from one to another to play the chord so I get it so it's not like uh I almost get it or I uh hit two keys at once and then correct or things like that yeah yeah sure and then when I can do that reliably then I can speed up doing it and like that uh otherwise I uh just know from my past work for how the mind works and and like that people end up practicing mistakes and then uh as long as they go they're making mistakes so that that was important for me to know uh and so if you find a way to put that into your and and so you didn't see that in the course is that what you're saying I did not see it in the course and where are you now in the course if you can say it's like yeah I'm just starting the first song uh okay I forget yeah Brahma Vishnu gur Mantra yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm quite sure so what you are saying definitely is 100% you know it's I agree you know I couldn't agree more um and I'm actually uh sure also that it's somewhere in the course I would I can't remember where exactly but I'm definitely stressing out that um yeah it's important to play slow in the beginning you know definitely in I think um when um learning songs then it I think when rhythm is involved so later in the course you you start to uh learn Rhythm yeah and and so you know when we learn the songs first so the first songs you learn are without Rhythm right so there where I say you can play freely uh don't mind about the the the the Rhythm about the pulse uh just forget about it for now just focus on combining the chords yeah because now you know about the chts you know about inverted chords but now you're going to combine chords and make it in music and we add Melody to it so that is all what you you know this is new so then you cannot right away add Rhythm to it it's it's too crazy so the first songs you learn are without Rhythm and then um we learn about Rhythm uh and uh how that works and then um definitely I'm stressing out those Alo the fact that you know Rhythm should be slow slow tempo uhuh and you know you shouldn't play faster it's like driving a car you know yeah drive a car if you go too fast you're danger you're a danger for for yourself making mistakes but also for others so that's why you know you you want to play at a pace that you know this is a a Tempo that I can handle my my you know my Brink and process everything so that's important yes and then when you're 100% sure that you master that Tempo you can increase the speed and make a little bit faster so and don't worry about going there too fast because uh you have to play it slow like you know uh so many times and at one point it comes and thenly you can play it fast without no problem but you can only get there if you take enough time playing it slow so you are completely uh correct yes definitely and it's I'm also sure that it's in the course but maybe it I mean it will be a bit later in the course yeah maybe that's it's a very good advice uh definitely yes yeah yeah you put some hints of that earlier in the course or something that might be helpful yeah maybe I'll I'll add that in the in the beginning as well definitely stress out the fact that playing slow is super Portland yes good uh good good good good idea and um yeah is there anything else you want to share you want to say some I don't know uh test that I am so truly grateful that you have uh made this course I know it was a lot of work and uh um it's going to make uh a lot of people be able to bring a lot of beauty and beautiful music into the world and thank you oh nice thank you very much thank you at first when I was just starting your course uh it was um a challenge for me to think that I could really play music that people would enjoy that would carry forth Beauty in the songs to people's heart Hearts now after two and a half weeks as strange as it sounds I'm already on the verge of doing some of that uh and I'm only into the second week of the course uh you know second chapter and uh there's nine chapters and I'm like I'm just blown away so I'm I'm able to play a couple of songs in a very rudimentary way but it can sound beautiful already and I'm thrilled nice it's so nice to hear thank you very much thank you very much and U we keep in touch and uh you know it's um also super nice to see that you are so motivated and and enjoying the course so much it makes me really happy that's you know my first um my main goal my main concern is that you know I'm genuinely helping people and people are having benefit you know from this course and enjoying you really are and I'm I'm so appreciative nice thank you