Is learning guitar on YouTube a good idea?
YouTube as a free video platform offers many opportunities to improve your guitar playing. Therefore, in this article we want to shed light on the advantages and pitfalls of learning to play the guitar with YouTube.
Let’s start with the biggest plus. As long as there is an internet connection, YouTube does not cost any money. This enables the consumption of many different videos for learning guitar without financial restrictions.
Why Technique Matters For All Guitarists, Whatever Your Style
YouTube also allows videos to be played at slower speeds and even frame-by-frame. This enables the guitar techniques to be copied 1-to-1 from the video.
Another strong point for YouTube is its variety. Music videos and often explanatory videos can be found for every taste in music.
But are these points really that helpful in making guitar-playing progress?
The consumption of videos is by no means the same as the acquisition of new skills, although the weaker self likes to lead us into thinking so. It feels good to click from one video to the next and “learn” a little more that way. So a lot of time goes by that doesn’t bring you closer to your goal.
The variety is also to be questioned critically. The threshold to producing YouTube videos is lower than ever. This also means that people present content that they may have little idea about. A professional appearance of the videos may lead you to trust the presented information. It is easy to learn wrong guitar techniques this way.
No video platform like YouTube can replace the experience and knowledge of a guitar teacher who will help you achieve your goals as quickly as possible. You should therefore use the possibilities that YouTube offers to support lessons with an experienced and professionally-trained guitar teacher. For example, there is nothing against playing songs that you have practiced in class at home on YouTube. The offered features (especially the slow motion function) can be very helpful for that.
Using it as your primary source of information and guidance is going to leave you with large gaps in your knowledge. In addition there will be no feedback on your playing. You will definitely develop many bad habits along the way. This should and can easily all be avoided by finding a professionally-trained guitar teacher.
Happy guitar-playing!
About the author
This article was written by René Kerkdyk. He is the head teacher in his guitar school Rock Gitarre Hildesheim.