User Manual

Please choose a strong password – different from your username, and not recognizable word!

Please read this as a guide: Selecting a Strong Password

If you have a weak password, this whole site could be at risk. Don’t be scared of a long, complicated password – read the article above, and you’ll see how easy it is!

The latest and most effective types of password attacks can attempt up to 350 billion guesses per second, and that number will no doubt increase significantly over the next few years.

Thank you! – Adam

No problem! Just Click Here to reset your password. A special reset link will be sent to the email address you used for signup.

The first thing you should do after signing up is configure the “social” links in your account. These links will then appear in a text box below your videos.

Click HERE or on the “Account” Link in the upper right hand corner.

There you will see REQUIRED fields for your first name, last name, email which we will use to email you.

Following that you will see OPTIONAL fields for:

• Facebook
• Youtube
• Google +
• Youtube
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Your Website
• Your Display Email for other Members

To add your photo, you have to set up a “gravatar” here and it will post a nifty image of you: https://en.gravatar.com/

To submit videos you will need an account at a video website, to host your videos. I recommend:

Vimeo

I love Vimeo. They have a great FREE account, the videos look great and you can control the privacy easily.
Join Vimeo for Free

However, if you have a Vimeo Plus, or PRO account – and set the entire account to “private” there will be less likelihood of any copyright issues, should they arise. It may cost a little, but it is worth it IMHO! Read about the copyright update HERE

Youtube

This is of course the biggest one, and you may already have a YouTube account.
If you have a Gmail or Google+ account, then you already have a YouTube Channel.

For your YouTube video to embed (be visible to me on Study With Adam) you must set in within your YouTube to PUBLIC.

You can set it to PRIVATE here on Study With Adam if you want. That hides it from the other students here on the Study With Adam site.

If you don’t want your Youtube audience to see your uploaded videos on YouTube, consider a FREE Vimeo account for usage on Study With Adam – that way you can be “vulnerable” and not have your YouTube audience see mistakes / questions etc.

Join YouTube for FREE

Other Video Sites that will Work Just Fine

• DailyMotion
• blip.tv
• Flickr (both videos and images)
• Viddler
• Qik
• Revision3
• Scribd
• Photobucket
• PollDaddy
• Google Video

There are free, awesome sites dedicated to video hosting only, with huge amounts of storage and bandwidth. That’s where you will upload and host your videos.

When you submit your videos on StudyWithAdam.com, they will be “embedded.” This means, that with just the URL (web address) of the video, you can make the video appear & play here on this website.

See the next step in the User Manual called “Submitting Your Video” for detailed instructions.

(For Youtube, you can set your uploaded videos to “private” on their side, so that no one discovers them on the Youtube website. Don’t worry but they will still embed here just fine.)

Hey – I just discovered a free, no sign up service that will allow you to record video quickly and easily – online. No software needed, no extra equipment needed – check it out HERE.

Once your video is hosted on one of these platforms, then login to StudyWithAdam.com

Then, in the “submit video” form you will put only the URL of the video. The video will automatically embed.

For example, the URL to my Superstition video is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVvfFtb3Y9s

But it will automatically “embed” like this:

Fill in any other info you’d like regarding the video on the form, and then hit the “submit” button.

You can also make a video of yourself asking a question and submit it to me the same way that you would submit a video performance.

You can submit an audio track instead of a video if you like.

(I prefer videos from you though so I can watch your technique!)

There are 2 ways to do it.

1) I recommend Soundcloud.com for this, it will automatically embed onto this site as well.
Upload your track to Soundcloud.com and copy/paste the soundcloud URL in the “video upload” form.

The url will look like this:

https://soundcloud.com/adamrafferty/my-funny-valentine

And it will embed this:

2) You could also make a “YouTube video” with your mp3 and a still photo image. Technically it’s a video but you didn’t have to “shoot” a video.

Here’s one from me like this – “O Come all Ye Faithful” from my Christmas CD. It’s an mp3 together with a graphic of the CD cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cJPxTkQSLQ

Once you are logged in, click “My Videos” on the menu.

You will then get a page listing your videos. Next to the title, you may click the link that says “edit.”

On the next screen you can literally change anything you’d like.

For example, if you would like to replace the video you have submitted, just put a new video URL in the field.

Scroll down and click “Update”.

Sometimes when you are learning, you don’t want to open yourself to everyone’s eyes ears and possible critiques.

Exposing yourself musically is “intimate” and as your teacher, I respect this and understand it completely.

By default, when you upload a video it will be “private.” You have the option to set each video to either “Private” or “Public.”

Who can see “Private” Videos?

• You can see it
• I can see it
• No StudyWithAdam.com members can search and find it
• If you send another member a link they can see it!
• Make sure that the privacy on the 3rd party Video site you use is set the way you want

“Private” simply means it will not show up in searches here on the site.

This way our “lesson” is “behind closed doors” so to speak, only you and I will be able to participate in the conversation, should you want it to be that way.

Who can see “Public” Videos?

• You can see it
• I can see it
• Any member logged into the StudyWithAdam.com site can see / discover your video if you set it to “Public”.
• No one from the outside (non members) will be able to see it.
• “Public” videos show up searches and when you click “All Member Videos.”

How do I switch videos from Public to Private?

Just click My Videos and then next to the video title click Edit.
On the edit screen, choose “Public” or “Private”. Hit “UPDATE.”

Each video’s visibility must be individually set to “Private” or “Public”.

By default, when you upload a new video it is set to “Private.”

I have a few “safety” features in place, and I will explain why. It’s a little weird.

You can’t actually delete the posts containing your videos – but you CAN of course take your videos off the site!

You will actually either set it to PRIVATE and / or swap a special video in its place.

Simplest WAY to Hide Your Video

1. Go to MY VIDEOS and next to the video title, click EDIT.

2. Set your video to “Private”, then click “UPDATE”.

This way the page and video stay on the site, but the community cant find it.
It’s not “gone” but it’s invisible. Only you & I can see it.

That’s sort of like a “delete.” If that’s not enough for you, go to step 3.

If you really want it GONE then do this…

3. If you really want to get the video OFF the site, just Click MY VIDEOS > EDIT > enter this video URL in place of your video’s URL.

https://vimeo.com/116092064

It will swap this very polite 7 second video in its place:

Click UPDATE.

This is a friendly “Study With Adam” brand video, saying that the video has been deleted. Your video will no longer show on the page.

If you do both steps listed, you will have deleted your video (no public view AND it’s been replaced.)

You can also remove any text info you want in the edit screen.

4. If you want to upload a “BETTER” version of the song you’ve uploaded, No problem, but NO deleting is needed.

Just paste in a NEW URL for the video. For example – you have submitted a song, but tweaked the video sound and color after you submitted it, and want to replace your original with the spiffy new video.

I repeat, there is no need to DELETE and make a new SUBMISSION just replace the original video.

WHY NOT JUST HAVE A DELETE BUTTON?

If I have worked hard to post videos & answers to you, I don’t want that “conversation thread” and page to be lost forever by you deleting the video in a moment of frustration.

You never know, you may be happy in a few months to look back at it. What seems crappy in the moment can be a very important step in learning.

Plus, it would be a pity if by ACCIDENT a whole lesson conversation thread was deleted.

NOTE: The “url” of your video page will still exist, even with the blank info:

For example If I put up “Shelter Island” and subbed in the “Deleted Video” Video the page address is still:

https://studywithadam.com/member-video-post/shelter-island

It won’t matter though – no one will find it if it is set to “PRIVATE” and / or do the video swap to the “Polite” video above.

As soon as you upload a video I will be notified via email.

Additionally, when you log in to SWA, you will see “MY VIDEOS” on the right hand side.

Just look to see if there are comments! Those will be Adams responses.

Subject to my schedule, I will listen to it / watch it as soon as possible. I am expecting to have replies to you within 5-7 days.

If I am on tour, please expect slower replies from me 🙂

When I post a reply, you will be emailed automatically by our system.

When I send you Video Feedback ™, you may want to continue the conversation and reply to my response with an updated video – showing me the improvement you have made.

(The URL method will not work the way it did for your original post.)

Here’s how to post a video in the “Leave a Reply” box.

You will have to use the “embed” code provided by the video site you use.

For Youtube

1. Go to the video page.
2. Under the video click “share”.
3. Next, click “embed”. You will see code there.
4. Copy and paste it into the “Leave a Reply” box.

For Vimeo

1. Go to your video page.
2. Above the video, click “embed”.
3. Look at the upper right hand corner of your video on the screen.
4. Click “get embed code”.

Copy and paste the code into the reply box and enter. It should show the video when the page reloads.

Absolutely!

You will need to use the Google Chrome Browser and install the FREE plugin / extension entitled “Vimeo Repeat / Loop Videos With A/B Repeat.” Click Here to Get it Now.

Simply install the plugin and watch this short instructional video on how to loop the desired section:

Absolutely!

You will need to use the Google Chrome Browser and install the FREE plugin / extension entitled “Vimeo Repeat / Loop Videos With A/B Repeat.” Click Here to Get it Now.

Simply install the plugin and watch this short instructional video on how to change playback speed:

Several of my well known Youtube arrangements are inside and a new lesson will be added each month.

This is an ever changing list. Feel free to sign up for a FREE 14 day trial and take a peek inside!

If you are seeing a black screen and no lesson video is loading, try clicking PAUSE and then PLAY.

That helps load the videos. Take a look at this video which shows the solution:

We have discovered that with Vimeo’s “embedded” videos there are some loading issues. Sorry about that and thanks for your patience.

In the “Watch and Play” library of guitar lesson videos you will find

• Fingerstyle Guitar Arrangements
• Special Techniques
• Arranging Concepts
• Blues LIcks, Intros & Endings
• And anything else I can think of…

And much more. New lessons will be added each month!

“Tabs” of songs require print licensing. If I gave out tabs without having licenses it’s flat out copyright infringement, so I won’t and can’t do that.

This means NO cover song TABS will be available here, but you may watch the lesson videos as often as you want 🙂

If a copyright holder requests that I remove a lesson for which I don’t have licensing, I may have to take the lesson down.

I will do my best if this sort of thing happens and notify you immediately.

NO! They cannot be downloaded or saved. You have to be logged into the site to watch everything here ONLINE.

Why? Because I don’t want them to be pirated (stolen), re-uploaded and distributed illegally on another server.

(Most of my DVDs and CDs are on illegal torrent sites in China, Russia, etc – which I am not too thrilled about!)

Yes of course! For creating “Watch and Play” ™ videos I will give priority to my most requested arrangements from Youtube & my live shows.

I just put a survey on the new Watch and Play Lesson Request page. Just let me know which songs & lessons you’d like next. This is better than getting hundreds of emails to make sense of & track!

I’ll refresh this every few months as the library grows and new titles come up.

When I get requests for lessons, it helps me show where your interest is.

Note – I will not create lesson videos for songs not in my repertoire – i.e. if you ask me to do a lesson on “Freebird” – well, I just don’t play it so I won’t make a “Watch and Play” ™ video.

But, if you upload your own video of it, I will gladly coach you on it 🙂

You can contact other members using the built in “social networking” system in the site. It is similar in functionality to a mini-Facebook.

On the navigation bar, hover over “Community” and 2 tabs will drop down – “Activity” and “Members.”

• “Activity” will bring you to your own profile page. Here you’ll find your message inbox and overall social activity. Please click the links to become familiar with the functions.
• “Members” is an index of the site members, shown as a list. You may also search for members here.

YES! If you’d like to leave supportive comments for another member here’s how:
Use the “Community” Tab on the Navigation bar, and use the system there to contact the other member DO NOT comment UNDER the submitted video, on the video page. That’s where I will add my comments & Video Feedback ™ instruction.

Negative or harassing members will be reported to me. Inappropriate speech or behavior may result in account termination.

Hover over Support on the main menu bar. You will get a drop down menu with 2 choices:

• “User Manual” – you are now here. Please look for an answer here before contacting support. Answers to most questions can be found here.
• Non members – visit the CONTACT page
• Logged in Members – visit the SUPPORT page (premium support)

We will give support tickets from logged in members priority.

I will get all your video uploads personally.

• “User Manual” – you are now here. Please look for an answer here before contacting support. Answers to most questions can be found here.
• Non members – visit the CONTACT page
• Logged in Members – visit the SUPPORT page (premium support)

We will give support tickets from logged in members priority.

Before we start “fixing” the site, we have to recreate the problem on our end. Sometimes, the problem may be on the user (your) side.

You may want to try this:

1) Restart your computer.
2) If the problem persists – first try the site with a different browser. In building this site I was amazed at how different browsers behaved.

• Firefox was a sometimes a nightmare, but always loaded fresh pages when changes to the site were made.
• Safari, Opera and Chrome offered up “cached” versions of pages, did not show changes as they were made.
• Don’t even use IE. It stinks!
• Just goes to show, it can make you crazy, and it’s sometimes the browsers fault!

3) Sometimes your internet connection can be slow.
4) Sometimes MY server can be slow.
5) Clear your cache. You may need to accept cookies.
5) If others have the same problem, then I will determine where the problem is and get to work on it!
6) If we can’t recreate the problem ourselves, it may be on your end.

We’ll do our best to get it all working!

If I am on tour or traveling there may be a slight delay in answering your email. If that is the case, I will get a team member to contact you.

If it is urgent you can call me – USA (347) 878-9412.

Thank you for rolling with the punches! I will do my best!

Adam