What the Heck is a Custom GPT?!? (And How It Is Helping Me Learn to Play Pipe Organ!!) + Weekly Roundup
Custom GPTs Are the Coolest Thing I’ve Been Playing With This Week
Have you explored generative AI (like ChatGPT or Google Gemini) yet?
Recently, I expanded my use and it has become an invaluable tool for my creative projects.
What is a Custom GPT?
A custom GPT is a customized, “personal assistant”—except you don’t have to go through an interview and hiring process, and the assistant gets more informed and efficient as you engage with them.
The Advantages of a Custom GPT
You can create versions of ChatGPTs chat tool to assist you with domain-specific tasks/projects.
You can designate the tone, persona/role, types of tasks, etc. You can also upload templates or other documents for the GPT to reference as a “knowledge base” when helping you with tasks or answering questions.
📌 PRO TIP: Ask ChatGPT to help you design the ideal custom GPT! (When I started, I didn’t even know what they were or how to create one…so I asked ChatGPT, and it educated me and guided me through the process).
As of now, custom GPTs require a Pro subscription. 😭
If you don’t have a subscription, you have a couple of options…
Subscribe for a month to test the value (this is the tact I took, and now use it routinely)
Access ChatGPT’s library of public custom GPTs that others have created (free without subscription)
How I Use Custom GPTs
The great thing is the more you use the tool, the more you learn.
I have several GPTs that I’ve set up in the last few weeks. In all cases, I asked ChatGPT to help me format and create them since I had no idea how they worked or what they could do.
One of the most recent ones I’ve created is a pipe organ mentor…seriously!
I have played piano for 40 years, and I am learning to play the pipe organ this year. Although they both have keyboards (on the organ they are called manuals), they are completely different instruments.
I practice on the 120 year old tracker pipe organ at the Episcopal church in my town.
So I provided the GPT a list of all the stops (pulls that activate different pipes to create different sounds) for my specific instrument. I also provided the types of music I will play.
My “mentor” is now equipped to provide me with specific voicing or registration (which stops are pulled) suggestions based on the music I am practicing, and these are custom to my instrument. I can also ask for help on technical things like fingering, foot technique for the pedals, etc.
How could a personal assistant make free you to be even more creative?
Weekly Roundup: Facing Hesitation and Making Friends with Uncertainty
Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to get started—even if you’re working on a project you want to do?
This week’s roundup sheds some light on why our brains are hard-wired to stop us.
Monday Motivation: Freeing Your Creativity → Read it here
Deep Dive Tuesday: Hesitation is Killing Your Potential: Unlock Your Creativity Once and for All– Hesitation is your brain’s outdated survival mechanism. Learn how to overcome it. → Read it here
Wednesday Q&A: Tell me about a time you hesitated…what was the result? → Share your thoughts here.
Thursday “Get Started” Creative Challenge: “No stakes” draft experiment – Give it a try here!
I’m Just Curious
Reply & Share: What’s one insight or small creative win you had this week?
Forward This: Know someone who’d love this roundup? Please help me spread the word!
Join My Livestream
In addition to this Substack, I do a weekly live painting show on YouTube (Mondays at 6pm Mountain time).
Please stop by and say hello.
This is upcoming livestream: Paint Party Livestream, Ep 162
