10 Lessons I’ve Learned From Posting Guitar Tuition Videos In 2024

Dec 23, 2024 | Beginner Guitar Lessons, Online Guitar Lessons, Teaching Guitar | 0 comments

Always keep learning. It’s the only way to stay engaged.

I teach guitar and have taught guitar for a long time. I may once have looked at it from the perspective that I knew about my subject and people who came for lessons didn’t.

There’s a lot of detective work needed as a teacher to understand things about the people that come to you to learn. It’s very much a 2-way interaction.

We can both learn from each other.

I started posting guitar tuition videos online 2 years ago. Here are 10 Lessons I Learned In 2024….

How territorial we can be about gear: I have ventured into gear reviews this year as a way to stay interested, informed and try new things. I had favourite things and still do but I’ve added to my capos, tuners, apps, pedals etc and feel much more engaged. The conversations the review videos started in the community has been really inspiring and interesting and left me wanting to learn more about new things other than just sticking to what I know (unless it is indisputably the best!).
Learn from everyone: I have learned lessons from people at all stages of guitar playing. This is good to remember and keeps me humble and curious. It’s impossible to know everything. I have played guitar consistently since 1995 and only learnt in 2024 that the length of a guitar neck affects how easy it is to bend a string and that the radius fit of a capo on the fretboard determines how effective it is.
Most people are good natured: It took me a long time to pluck up enough courage to start recording lesson videos on YT. One of the fears I had was worrying what if I got negative feedback. What I know now is…most people are good natured. Even if they disagree with me they will share their opinion. This is great, useful and is done in a way we can all learn from. They may be right, I may be right but it really doesn’t matter. The conversation is there to be had and people observing those conversations can ultimately make their own mind up.
Negative feedback: People who leave comments saying something is rubbish or being offensive is rare. When this happens these people very rarely get involved in further conversations to explore or explain why. Due to my outlook, these conversations should at least offer a point of learning or something useful. If there is no engagement here the original negative comment is a waste of time. I now have no fear of negative feedback.
The simple things often have the biggest impact: the lower you hold your thumb at the back of the guitar neck the wider you can stretch your fingers on the fretboard, chords are made up of scales, count while you strum to hammer home the rhythm. 3 very simple concepts that have been points of revelation to some of my students this year. Always take time to go over the fundamentals.
A lot of teachers go too fast: I hear this a lot and it reminds me to stay slow when I’m describing things, even if it feels repetitive. It’s easy to think some descriptions are too basic and need speeding past. Not so, If someone knows what you’re describing already they can skip past it in a video. If someone doesn’t know the info it will be the difference to how something lands and could be their lightbulb moment.
The importance of describing finger placements: I’ve heard this from a few students now. A lot of online teachers don’t describe which fingers to use on the fretting hand. People with visual impairments have to fill in the gaps of which fingers to use when teachers omit to mention it. It sounds simple and maybe teachers think all people taking instruction from their videos will have perfect sight. This is definitely not the case. This was a revelation for me.
How inflammatory capos can be in the guitarist community: I’ve used capos for a long time. I see them as a tool. They are something to be used or not used depending on the voicing, texture or key needed. I came across the opinion this year that it’s more noble to use barre chords instead of a capo. The attitude exists that playing barre chords is a reflection of how good you are and that to use a capo is cheating. Yes, conquering barre chords is a right of passage and an excellent sign of development but to know when to use a capo is a further sign of your playing ability and maturity.
Consultations and feedback: Most private students that have come to me from Youtube self-learn from a variety of tutors online. What they want from me is a check-in, confirmation they’re doing the right thing, someone to bounce concepts off of and to ask questions so they can clarify what information they’ve picked up that week.
The easiest students to work with are those that are interested: I’ve known this for a long time but it has repeatedly hit home this year. Those lessons are effortless. It’s genuinely more like a balanced interaction between two people with a common interest than it is a teacher/student situation.