The Guitar Player's Resource
Hello there, guitar slingers!
Today, I am going to give you five reasons why you should not learn guitar from YouTube. Before I begin, let me clarify, that I do not mean YouTube is not a good way to supplement your learning. The point of my answer is why YouTube should not be your primary method of learning.
In many cases, you can not be sure if the person on the video knows what he is talking about. Sure, he might be a good player, but there is a significant chance that he might really suck at teaching. Very often, he might be doing some things in a suboptimal way that works for him, but would not be applicable to you.
Some people are going to upload videos every couple of days but for some others, it may take even months before they upload a new video. If you are relying on when other people are going to put up new material you are not going to see any progress at all. It is of utmost importance to have your own consistent stream of practice materials (depending on your daily schedule) and this is something you cannot do with YouTube.
Despite the fact you might be a beginner, you have unlimited access to lessons that normally you should not. Apart from the information overload, the main problem here is that you can not tell whether the lesson is applicable to your level, and if you try it, especially without supervision, there is a good chance of hand injury. This is very common!
Some people can learn specific things faster than others. For example, I have had many students who are really good at learning fast new techniques, while some others are pretty good at memorizing songs and guitar licks. When trying to learn from YouTube videos, there is no way for them to be customized to your own personal learning pace.
Let me give you a real-life example. During the summer season, there are some people that give way more effort into learning the guitar, while others decide to take it more casually. Other examples are the students who are not able to practice the guitar during the exams. For these kinds of situations, their guitar practice material will be way less than the period after their exams. Obviously, when you are getting your guitar education from YouTube videos there is no customization to your own life situation at all.
So, there you have it! These are the five reasons you cannot learn to play guitar from YouTube and why self-taught guitarists are not getting any better.
But wait, there is one more:
Do you want to know the most important reason of all? The main reason why I do not think YouTube is a good learning platform (by itself)?
Then I suggest you watch this video down below, where I explain this in detail and you can decide for yourself. This is part of my Ask the Guitar Coach video podcast series, where every week I answer guitar-related questions.
Ioannis Anastassakis is a guitarist from Greece who has produced recordings in a variety of moods and styles, including flamenco and fusion.
His CD is entitled "Suspension Of Disbelief", his long-awaited rock/fusion instrumental album.
