Eli Brill and Chris Huriwai Beginner Tutorials

General
21

Years ago I was messing around with an electric guitar and a distortion / wah pedal. With distortion, one can play only two simultaneous notes and get a pretty “thick” sound. Under the right circumstances, I could hear very strong difference (sub) tones. It only took a mild amount of distortion to make it happen, but the strength of the difference tones relied on the wah pedal being in a particular position. Moving the wah to a certain position allows the amplitude of the two vibrating strings to be matched. The resonance peak of the movable-band-pass-filter (wah) is placed at a frequency between the frequencies of the two strings, allowing the attenuation on either side of the peak to match the amplitudes of the two tones. Duh, sorry for my not-totally scientific explanation. Without matching amplitudes, the difference tones will not happen, or they will be weak.

Once I got the strong difference tone, I could bend one of the strings and listen to the resulting change in the difference tone. In the process of bending a string, the difference tone could be brought from an audible range all the way down to a sub-audible bunch of beats. Needless to say, this was pretty cool! It became very clear when I was playing in tune, because the difference tone formed “root” of the chord formed by the two strings. I used to occasionally hear, in orchestra, difference tones produced by two clarinets playing in tune. Over time, however, I heard it less and less. This is because, on average, orchestral clarinetists nowadays play with “darker” sounds, sounds lacking higher overtones. Adding harmonic distortion to my guitar sound strengthened the difference tones. I surmised that a superior method of tuning was to listen for these difference tones (which in an acoustic situation are pretty weak and mostly create a subtle change in the texture of the sound). Not sure if this relates to your own experience singing in tune.

Regarding the “veil” comment, I was not very clear. My professor felt that some musicians threw a veil over the music, obscuring it. In fact, we call a “dark” sound “covered”, which is the meaning of obscure. Taking the veil off the music is the opposite of obscuring it. There are all kinds of examples of music being obscured. Auditorium acoustics, for example. People start associating classical music with reverb, but that starts to obscure a lot of the detail of the music. They don’t know what they’re missing, but that’s okay because reverb is so ingrained into their classical music aesthetic. Reverb also hides inaccuracies in the ensemble. So, my professor was saying we should keep things as real as possible.

Thread-jacking complete!!!

22

I have been practicing for over a year now and I still consider myself a beginner. For me, this type of video tutorials mainly means inspiration and both videos are beautifully made. The problem I have with almost all of these videos is that they mainly show how well the maker masters the skills and not the troubles that a beginner experiences. A number of things I see in the two videos are impossible for me, for example how Chris shows in his video from the second minute on how he gets on with the pedals horizontal and a hand against the wall.
At this moment I am practicing freemounting. No video seems to help me with that. It seems that the only way is to try it endlessly in the hope that I will one day succeed.

23

Despite whether the unicycle leaning forwards or backwards is correct, most learners will associate the blue line moving forward with them having to lean forward to do it. So most likely a learner attempting to lean the unicycle forward will get their body in the position that is needed (they wont realise the unicycle i still technically leaning backwards however as they cant see themselves side on)

And OneTrackMind if you actually approached the videos without acting like a dissmissive know-it-all dickhead FinnSpinn wouldn’t have responded so bluntly to you.

You giving your resume of all your skills and knowledge doesn’t really impress, it is the internet equivalent of yelling “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?” when getting in an argument with someone.

People learn from many different cues. I agree with a reasonable portion of the video and many riders on this forum have taught a huge number of riders with many different cues.
If you ever do an actual study where you teach 15 riders Eli/Chris’ way and 15 riders your way, and then show that your cues are the best cues that ever existed, THEN I will hands down admit that it is the best method for the average rider.
Until then you are just a person putting shit on other people who have done something constructive over the internet while telling everyone that you alone are smart enough to know the real methods.

1 Like
24

I would not characterize OneTrackMind’s comments as dismissive. The comments below, however, fit my definition of dismissive.

This last quote disturbs me. Being critical of someone’s instructional video is not the same as disrespecting them, IMHO. In our current media environment, it seems the two have been conflated. Whatever we produce is an extension of ourselves and must be respected?

Dismissive means you’ve found a reason to disqualify yourself from even thinking about another point of view. OneTrackMind was not dismissing the instructional videos. He studied them and found things he disagreed with.

25

I’ll show you what I find dismissive, or probably better worded: “not giving different methods than his own any chance” with the original comment. It’s between the lines, so I’ll give the benefit of the doubt that it may not have been intended. But either way, this is what I read:

In a different discussion, this is a fair statement. In this context however, the only purpose of mentioning it, I can see, is to preface the comment with the suggestion that the videos are doomed to be bad from the start.

Pointing out staged falls as evidence isn’t really a good point, isn’t it? Anyway, I guess Onetrackmind was focussed on the fact that the body and wheel aren’t a straight line, but missing the point Eli wanted to make. The inverted pendulum falling forward and being held upright by the base beeing accelerated is the forward-backward equivalent of “steering the wheel under the fall”, which I’m pretty sure no one here denies is one way of staying on a unicycle.

This is fair as a statement. Still makes the fact Chris explained essentially the same position as Onetrackmind is describing as “leaning the unicycle backwards” in a different way sound negative:

Would be less negative. I’m not expecting international diplomacy levels of being aware of the “inbetween the lines” in internet comments (I certainly don’t have those either.), but I think the difference in underlying messages between the original and my rewording is pretty clear.

Bringing up wrong advice not mentioned in the videos, to then say: “The only good thing is they didn’t say this wrong thing too.” Just adding more negativity to the comment, without it actually being a fault with the video.

As I said, this is likely a difference between starting with support on a wall, and “launching into space”. But the bias against a different learning method than his, made him jump to the conclusion that what doesn’t work in one method, won’t work in the other way either.

Especially the first section I quoted got me to say this, out of frustration:

Which, in hindsight, I shouldn’t have said. Onetrackmind made a similar comment on Facebook, and was (as far as I saw it) treated respectfully and with interest in his method. Not “Wow, your method is so great I will stop everything I developed, and now do what you do”, but fair, and with further explanation of why people choose different methods, and the honest encouragement to make a video with his method too.

Through the facebook comments, I happen to know that Onetrackmind knows of Chris’s extensive teaching experience. I think everyone who tought more than 5 people will know, that through teaching, you’ll see people struggling with many different parts of the skill that you didn’t even know could be an issue. So suggesting Chris is so far removed from learning to ride he doesn’t know the difficulties of a beginner is just plainly unfair in my eyes.

It’s not someone saying and pointing out things they don’t agree with that I have an issue with. I absolutely accept the fact that Onetrackmind and I will probably both offer different methods to beginners probably forever. We both had very good experiences with our ways, and seen bad with others. I likely wouldn’t have said anything if there wasn’t the first paragraph of the comment.

Disclaimer for people that will try and interpret things I didn’t want to say:

No, I don’t think Chris or Eli are the greatest unicycle teachers in the world.

No, I’m not trying to find every fault in Onetrackminds comment I can come up with in this reply. I’m trying to explain what frustrated me so much about it, it made me say things I shouldn’t have.

26

Who needs a learning method anyway?

Certainly not this dude :sunglasses:

27

Okay everybody, raise your hands if you kind of hate Greg, the guy in the video. Yeah Greg, you’re ruining it for everybody that spent days, weeks and months learning! BOOOOOOOOO!

Okay not really. (Just on the inside). Good on ya Greg! Clearly you have a lot of natural body awareness talents, and/or experience with other balance sports. I wonder what else he does? Anyway, it also looks like being tall helps, perhaps. He doesn’t have to bend his legs as much, which may make it easier to make the pedals go where he wants without them getting away from him.

I think Greg is a cyclist of some sort. His seat never twisted, which means he has definitely used a quick-release before. NOBODY gets that right on the first try. And his balance is really solid.

He will crush people who think they’re supposed to be able to do it in a few minutes!! :astonished:

28

No, not what I would call a beginner. He could already ride a bike on one wheel not to mention jumps and flips and stuff.

29

The shape of his calf muscles attest to that. He also has a natural instinct.

Notice how the uni popped out from under him at first. This is the first thing the beginner needs to stop happening. Avoid it by putting most of the weight on the pedals. Gripping the saddle between the thighs can help some but this guy doesn’t need to.

Then he got basic control with weight on the pedals until he could keep the wheel in more or less in the right place. Once he achieved a couple of turns he focused on getting his weight on the seat as he said.

Right from the beginning he gets away from supports and rides into the open. (At the end of the video, his cousin clings to pole and fails.)

He is leaning the uni backwards a lot. However we don’t see the uni clearly from the side until he is out on the road. Take a look how far it is leaning back at around 7:15. Much more than an accomplished unicyclist whose more precise wheel positioning allows them to be closer to upright where the uni is also far more responsive.

His learning techniques are exactly what I have seen and encouraged in my rapid learners. I promise that the geometry above all else is the key to high speed learning.

It is also exactly what experienced riders do when we need to increase stability on encountering rough terrain. Lean the uni back and put weight on the pedals. It makes the uni a lot more forgiving of imprecision.

30

LOL! What really sickened me was how fast he learned to free mount. It appeared he was using a 6:00 / 12:00 mount. His seat was low enough for him to be able to mount in this position. Greg looked pretty tall, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the length on the seat post was already at its max.

31

We don’t know that he hasn’t been reading here on the forums, and picking up on OneTrack’s techniques… :slight_smile:

Also he figured out really fast that he wanted the seat to be higher.

33

Gotta Support Onetrack on this

A beginner should be focusing on riding with maximum “control/balance”. That can only mean more weight on the pedal and less on the seat. Not the other way around.

The physics is simple. If you have weight across your pedals, it’s like a ballast that maintains vertical torque from both sides. (How does an ultimate wheel stay up, Right?). Think of walking across a tight rope with your hands tied. You need them, right? Next time you ride over grass or roll down a curb, how do you keep from falling? Full weight on seat, or more pedal weight? Have you ever ridden over a speed bump with all your weight seated? Yup, you know what happenned!! So, why tell beginners to do that? He/she will figure out the fully weighted thing naturally as they get better.

Anyways, this is my humble opinion. Also, regarding the statement who’s a better teacher the guy who could do it in 2 hrs, or the guy who took 70 hrs(…tried everything, watched everything, read everything, and invented some new methods)? I think it’s obvious, now.

Experts can teach experts(or high potentials). These “naturals/potentials” can watch an expert, and think “i can do that”…and then they do it. Just like that.
However, for Lousy beginners(like myself)we know a lot more tricks/methods from our fails to share with other “unnaturals” who are ready to give up after 15 hrs.., 100 or more hrs!!!

Peace…and keep on riding…all

34

Well, I’ll move this discussion on (hopefully).

There’s now unicycle school on:
Getting Comfortable on Your Unicycle

180° Twists

180° Unispins

Crankflips

While the editing is a little bit ADD friendly for me, I like the concept of the “homework”: Little things to practice, that most people won’t need an extra tutorial for.

35

Chris Huriwai’s tutorials

In case he shared his intentions elsewhere, does anyone know what the deal is with his Uniquest series?

36

elpuebloUNIdo, I just looked at a bunch of videos and pictures I had taken while I was trying to learn how to free mount. I mount left foot forward, in all the vids and pics, I am holding the saddle with my left hand. Once up, I let go and flapped both arms for the entire flight.

37

I should have clarified that I think holding the saddle while mounting is a good thing. Details like this are important for beginners. If Brill attempted to cover every little detail of mounting, the video would take forever. Whether or not to hold the seat while mounting is, in my book, a biggie. While holding the seat may cause the number of successful mounts to drop, I think it helps to avoid ugly UPDs during mounting.

38

The Crank flip is a basic building block, yet yous write a massive accomplishment. Sounds a bit contradictory…

39

One rider’s building block is another rider’s massive accomplishment. I don’t see the problem with rider’s valuing different skills differently.

Personally I don’t see the point of crank flips. Others see them as an end in themselves.

40

True. As I do my uni-rides, it becomes more and more clear what I find important for me. Mostly I just like to ride and where I ride off-road, it doesn’t require me to do (rolling) hops, let alone crank flips. I consider myself too old for all those tricks and what I can do on unicycles gives me enough joy as it is.

I do like the concept of all the different skills together like in the video.

41

It’s not. When you do your first crankflip, you have opened a completely new category of tricks for yourself: Fliptricks. That’s a great accomplishment, as that’s a completely new thing, unlike any other tricks you have done. But a crankflip is just the beginning of fliptricks, once you get one, there is many more to get, that all build on the crankflip, so it’s also a building block to hickflips, treyflips, doubleflips, lateflips…

Just like learning to ride is a massive accomplishment, but also just the very first building block to any other unicycle skill.

They are so much fun. Very few tricks beat the feeling of a nice, early caught flip down some stairs for me. Unfortunately, they are not a good show trick, to the untrained eyes, a treydouble and a 360° unispin are the same..