Dave Wirth
There are many avenues for learning guitar. That much is obvious! With YouTube and Google, the plethora of online guitar lessons is pretty staggering. I get a little overwhelmed by all the choices there are. For this blog post, I want to take a closer look at YouTube and how it could possibly help a person who is starting to learn guitar from scratch. I think there are advantages to using it, but I think there is a really good way to approach learning from YouTube that can be most beneficial.
Before I get into that, I want to write about YouTube's advantages and disadvantages.
YouTube: Sometimes It's Worth It.
YouTube has a fantastic wealth of videos, showing you everything from a C Chord to playing fast shred licks. The variety of the lessons is staggering. You can find just about everything. What this means is that you can find a simple video on how to learn a specific scale that might ordinarily not be found. Chances are, some person out there took the time to set up their MacBook, shot a video how to play it, and then uploaded it. It's pretty cool. It's definitely a "let's democratize the tools and see what happens," sort of thing.
There are some guitar teachers who have built a huge YouTube presence. I think that is great. The benefit to following these people is that you get a specific insight into their worldview, how they think that you should or should not play guitar. Of course, you have to make up your own mind, and it's my belief that education is often about connecting the dots between several teachers. It's good none-the-less to get some of these opinions
What YouTube is Not So Good For
I will be blunt: YouTube utterly fails at crucial tasks in education. First, YouTube cannot encourage you or interact with you. Other than the person in the video saying "Hey- if you are doing this, you are doing a good job" there is no way that YouTube can encourage you to keep going, even when the going gets rough (it sometimes does). In addition to this huge limitation, you are on your own when it comes to the next video to check out. Although there are people out there who have built huge YouTube bodies of work, there is no guarantee that their approach will lead you to the destination you want to arrive at.
With YouTube, there is the distinct danger that it will be a scary waste of time and energy. First, there is searching for a video you want. if you find the video, there's the chance it could be utterly ineffective. It might be too hard, not at your skill level. Worse, the instructor on the video might not say why learning a specific concept is good. For example, many teachers insist that learning music theory is a good thing, while personally I am passionately opinionated in saying that it's the student's choice to learn music theory. You might be stuck with someone who is hell-bent on getting you to learn scales, and you couldn't care less.
The nail in the coffin for me is that YouTube doesn't have the highest quality videos. Of course, they are educational videos. They just need to help you learn guitar. For me, there is something about aesthetics that is lost or forgotton with YouTube. Anyone can do it, including the mediocre. Sure there are good videos out there. Find them! But the bad ones makes the whole experience feel kind of cheap. To me at least, it feels like YouTube's staying power with education is limited because of it's lack of quality video.
How to Use YouTube?
There is one way that I have found that works particularly well when you are using YouTube as a way to learn guitar: Question a concept mercilessly. Ask someone whether or not they agree with what the instructor said. Start a dialogue! This could be a guitar teacher, or a friend who plays. Anyone with experience. Ask them if they learned to play guitar without knowing music theory. The answer might surprise you.
The way I learned guitar was anything but traditional. If I did this all over again, I probably would have searched the internet twice over for answers to my questions. I know that I would feel pretty unfulfilled, as I tend to be the insanely curious type. I guess if YouTube does anything, it's latent function is to feed that curiousity. Enjoy!
