We’ve been stoking the ‘Fire here for 25 years and this is our first ever State of the ‘Fire report to the entire TrueFire student body.
Why now after all of these years, and why on New Year’s Day?
TrueFire Students have influenced all of the long-term initiatives that have finally come to fruition in 2015 and so it seems only right that we report these accomplishments back to our most important stakeholders.
We’d also like to share our vision for what’s to come in 2016 and beyond. No better day than the first day of 2016 to do that.
Some of you have been with us since the very beginning when we were delivering Notes On Call audio
Thousands of you have participated in our surveys, sent us feedback, made suggestions, and shared truckloads of constructive criticisms. Even if you haven’t been very vocal, it’s very clear what you like, what you don’t like, what works, and what doesn’t work.
You’ve made it easy for us to grow TrueFire — all we have to do is listen to you.
Your format preferences for working with TrueFire lessons vary, as do your favored devices and operating systems. So, we’ve upgraded our website to make it responsive and mobile-friendly while also upgrading our iPad app.
You can now work with TrueFire anytime, anywhere, on any device — mobile or desktop, stream or download, Mac, Windows, or Linux, and we’ll even burn a disc on-demand and ship it to you if that’s what you prefer.
Students who prefer downloaded versions of our courses asked for quicker downloads and a better way to organize and manage their personal library of courses. Our new desktop app allows students to start working with lessons immediately upon purchase and also provides a wide variety of new learning and management tools (including the slo-mo video and audio tool you’ve been asking for!).
Thanks to our partnership with the cool folk and brainiacs at Soundslice, All Access Students can now work with interactive tab and notation that is synced to our video lessons. You can loop sections, slow it down or speed it up, and even call up an animated fretboard for reference.
TrueFire Students love to work with our jam track library but yearn for more educational value in the process. Our new In The Jam series of multi-track video jams seem to have hit the bullseye (yes, many more editions coming to a screen near you real soon!).
Students asked for a better way to keep track of everything they had going on at TrueFire. The new Student Dashboard now puts its all at your fingertips — your course library, favorites, jams, recommendations, workshops, classrooms and all of your account information are now all centrally located.
Some Students prefer to study on their own, working with the courses of their choice. For those who prefer to work privately with an instructor, TrueFire upgraded many of the features in our online classrooms and workshops where students can receive personalized, private lesson plans and feedback from the instructor of their choice.
Students are always asking to learn more about our educators. Riff, our new magazine, celebrates the artists that we are privileged to work with. Pick it up for interviews (not your typical
As of this writing, TrueFire’s student body is over 1 million strong spread across virtually every country on the planet. Our course library now features 425+ courses, 30,000+ video lessons, 11,000+ tabs & notation, 7,000+ jam tracks, all of which has been produced in collaboration with 147 top-notch educators and artists.
Where do we go from here?
While it’s taken us 25 years to get where we are today, we’ve really only just begun, and the fire in our bellies rages on. And we’ll keep listening to you.
You’ve asked for more method courses to take your playing from zero to sixty. Look for an early 2016 launch of our completely re-engineered Learning Paths for blues, rock, jazz, country, and acoustic players.
You’ve asked for new courses from specific big name artists and educators. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for new course launches from many of them throughout 2016.
You’ve asked for a wide variety of new features, updates and learning tools. We have a baker’s dozen of them in store for you over the next several months.
Of course, you can count on the course library expanding across its current categories. We already have 43 new courses in the hopper for you and 27 new sessions already scheduled for 2016.
We also have a few big surprises in store for you, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy so you’ll just have to stay tuned for the time being.
On behalf of the entire TrueFire team, thank you for your support over all of these years. You are, always have been, and always will be TrueFire’s secret sauce.
Best wishes to you and yours for the New Year! Ignited we stand.
Brad Wendkos
Founder & CEO
brad@truefire.com
P.S. My favorite thing to do is interact with TrueFire Students. Please feel free to write me anytime, for any reason.