Alessi music studios reviews?

[MJL]

Hello,
Has anyone used the Alessi Music Studios website? Membership gives access to a wide range of practice and pedagogical material and is a way into Alessi's style of teaching and playing. I would be very grateful if anyone could let me know their thoughts about this website. Although I think very highly of Alessi as a player and teacher, I am hesitating about joining, as the annual subscription Is 100 dollars a year, and need to be fairly sure before committing that sort of money. Thanks for your help.

[Mikebmiller]

Well, one lesson with Mr. Alessi at the recent STS event was close to $300, and I am pretty sure he sold out all the available time slots at that price. So I would say $100 is fairly cheap even if it helps just a little bit. Just watching him do a master class for 90 minutes was a great learning experience.

[Noahharry]

I'll comment. I have the student subscription (only 50$) and Id say its really only good if you are in hoping to/are in the process of studying to be in an orchestral position. Its fairly focused on audition preparation and excerpts. Maybe 80% orchestral excerpts and audition prep and 20% general tips. As a student with the hopes of being in an orchestra its a fantastic resource, but as someone who just wants to improve on trombone for fun its not going to be worth your 50$ for the student and especially for the 100$.

[Neo Bri]

For the right student (and arguably anyone) that sounds like an awesome resource.

[BurckhardtS]

I have a student subscription, which is just a discounted version of the full subscription.

There is a lot of great stuff in there, but it is far from complete. There are a lot of video tutorials which explain his technique to playing and approach well, but the 'Orchestra Machine' and 'Excerpt Recordings' are VERY incomplete, and in fact are missing a lot of the major excerpts. It's 'updated regularly' but usually only once a couple of months. What is there is very good, I just wish there was more content, as it seems to have been launched with a very 'bootstrapping' approach, and hopefully it will grow more in a few years.

[MJL]

Thanks very much for the above; I think it looks as though it might be worth waiting awhile to see how the site develops.
Best wishes,
MJL.

[BassBoneFL]

$100/yr ?? That's under $2/wk. Do you think $2 is worth a tutorial course from one of the best practitioners of your craft? If you don't like it after a year, don't renew. IMO, you pay more for a mouthpiece and this site will likely do you more good than a new mouthpiece.

[MJL]

As I said, I am very well aware of Joe Alessi's reputation as teacher and performer, and I am certainly interested in what he has to say. However, my impression (possibly incorrect) from the above was that some of the tutorial material on this site is still under development and will be of more use to me in a while - I can wait to see things develop further - especially as, like most musicians, I don't have lots of money stashed down the sofa - for mouthpieces, websites, or anything else. I would, however, be interested to hear reviews from some more people who have used the Alessi website, and who may have different opinions. MJL.

[VJOFan]

If I knew I had the time to practice everyday lime I did when I was a student, I would be all over this resource. Just listening to him play two or three excerpts is almost worth the money.

I'm not a user so I am going on just clicking around the site. The stuff on offer (even simple things like drones) is good.