Looking for a GOOD Guitar Teacher on YouTube? Watch THIS!

Hey, guitar enthusiasts. Now, whether you are just picking up the guitar and just getting started, or if you've been playing and strumming for a while, you'll learn that there are tons of teachers over here on YouTube and not all of us are created equal. And that's a good thing. And it can also be a bad thing as well because it makes it very hard to find the right teacher for you. So with thousands ofteachers on YouTube, how do you select the right teacher? Well, we're going to talk about that in this video, so stick around because I'm going to give you some tips as you peruse different YouTube videos to keep in mind as you're trying to find the right teacher for you. The first thing I recommend is to keep in mind how you learn, you know, so for some people, they're a bit more methodical and they really need like a step by step approach. While others maybe more freestyle. I have some students who really, really want to dive in on music theory and understand why music works the way it does. And I have other students who could care less about learning music theory because they just want to strum their guitar and have fun. And neither way is wrong. Whatever your goals are, I always tell my students, listen, this is your guitar journey. It's not about me and the music I love. It's about you and the music that inspires you to want to play the guitar. For example, my approach to learning guitar, I focus primarily on working with older adults, those trying to learn to play guitar, ages 50 plus. I have a specific method developed for that and I really focus on the foundations of strumming along and playing to music. Okay, we don't get deep dive into theory. It's really just about having fun with the guitar playing songs. Because I find if people have fun with the instruments, one, they're going to want to play it more and they're going to want to practice more. Okay, if you're not having fun, the guitar is going to go back in the closet and, and that's not helpful for everyone. And for a lot of students, that method works perfectly well. But there are students who sometimes really want to be deep dive into music theory. They want to learn how to sight read music. Like they really want to be like, kind of like music purists. And if that's you, there's nothing wrong with that. You just want to find a teacher who comes to the guitar through that approach. Which brings me to my next tip, which, which is you should try out many teachers here on YouTube to find out their teaching method and what works best for you. I think this is one of the biggest benefits of YouTube is that you can try out a lot of different teachers for absolutely free. You don't have to pay any money in and you could watch five or six or seven videos. My recommendation would be to find like a song lesson or find a lesson on something and, and watch different teachers teach the same lesson and see which one or which teachers you go, oh, this. They're explaining it in a way that makes me feel good, that makes me feel like I can understand. I've often heard from a lot of my students, like, you know, I worked with a teacher, they took lessons with someone in person and they were like, I couldn't understand what the person was saying. They felt like they were talking in a language because they were using all these music terms and music terminology. And you just haven't learned that yet. And that's totally fine. You will get there, but. But you might want a teacher who knows how to go back to basics. There's a lot of amazing guitar players out there and great guitar teachers, but they're pretty advanced and they don't know how to go back to being a beginner and break things down and put them into a step by step process. Which is why you should try multiple teachers. And the great thing about a lot of the guitar teachers here on YouTube is many of us have free courses that you can go and sign up for for absolutely free to make sure that their teaching style and their programs are going to work for you. Now, if you come across a teacher and you're not really vibing or you're like, man, this really doesn't make sense for me. Don't worry, just try a different teacher. It's not you. Sometimes it is just the guitar teacher. They're not using the right language, as I said before. So don't give up. Okay? A lot of students make this. They watch one or two videos and, and they feel like it's over their head and they're like, I'm not smart enough to do this maybe, or I'm just not cut out to learn the guitar. That is absolutely not the case. Just try a different teacher. There is someone out there for you who fits your learning style. Now, you may like a teacher, but there's an important thing you don't want to overlook. And is it. Do they teach things that inspire you to. To keep playing and keep practicing? The key to being successful with the guitar is to continue to be curious about it. Motivated by it and inspired by the things you are playing. So earlier I mentioned my focus is more on, like, the singer songwriter, you know, the finger picking, strumming. I really love rhythm guitar. It really is a strong point for me. I love finger picking. I'm not the greatest lead guitar player. Do I know scales? Do I know how to play lead guitar? I do, but it's not my strength. So if you're someone who really wants to get into blues guitar, or you're someone that wants to rip a guitar solo, I'm not the right teacher for you because I don't have a method for that. While I know these things and I can teach them, I don't really have a method for teaching lead guitar. But if you're someone that just wants to, you know, sit and strum around the campfire and sing songs with family and friends, then I'm the perfect person for you because that's what I love to do. That's what really inspires me as a teacher too. So there's so many different. If you want to get into jazz, find a teacher that focuses on jazz. You want to get into reggae, find someone who focuses on reggae. That's what I'm saying. Find a teacher who really understands the style of music you. You want to play, because that's very important, because their energy comes through in the lesson. You can tell when I'm teaching something, something that I absolutely love, like, my energy is just so much better, it's so much higher, versus when I force myself to sit down and teach something that I can do, but maybe isn't my favorite to do. So keep an eye out for that. Make sure you're working with the teacher who really specializes on teaching. I wouldn't work with the teacher who's kind of like a jack of all trades. I know that there's teachers who can do a little bit of everything, but I really focus on a teacher who's really diving in deep on the things that you want to do on your guitar. And just to reiterate, remember, every teacher has their strengths and weaknesses. All right? I'm much better at working with beginner guitarists than I am advanced players. It's. It's more inspiring for me as a teacher to. To work with beginners where there's some teachers there, they hate working with beginners because it, you know, you need a lot of patience. There's a lot of repetition. So. So they would rather work with the more intermediate to advanced students. So again, every guitar teacher has strength and weaknesses, and you have to Find the person that's right for you. Now, while YouTube is a great space to assess the strengths, weaknesses, and personalities of all these different guitar teachers, you won't get far without taking this next step. Now, as a YouTube teacher myself, I absolutely love that I can reach millions of students every month with my lessons and that it's absolutely free. So it allows music education to be accessible to everyone all around the world, which is wonderful. The tough thing about YouTube is it's very, very hard to organize all that content. Now, I think I have over 600 lessons here on YouTube that are absolutely free. And while YouTube allows creators to put things into playlists, we're limited by the number of things that we can put into playlists and what we can have on our home screen. So it's very difficult to organize that content in a. In a seamlessly and step by step manner. So if you're someone who finds a teacher that you like on YouTube, whether it's me, whether it's Justin, whether it's Marty or anyone else, my recommendation would be to go over to their website and buy their course. Because one, it shows you that you support their channel and what they're doing. But two, you. You're going to get a blueprint, okay? You're going to get a step by step process. You're going to get a method to the madness, okay? And that's what my students tell me all the time. They're like, you know, I watched a few of your videos on YouTube, but I realized I needed structure. Like, what I was lacking in my guitar practice was the structure, the step by step. This is step one, this is step two. And then, you know, you're watching the lessons in the right order. Because sometimes, you know, I love YouTube. It will recommend videos, but it doesn't know your skill level. So it might recommend a video that's like, appear for you. And then you go watch that video and you're like, oh, man, this is like, way too difficult for me. Where if you buy a course, it's a progression. So you're always going to be on the right lesson at the right time. Hands down, science has shown that working with a blueprint improves your chances of success. They say, you know, any method you use, even if it's a bad method, but it is a step by step method. You will make more progress than haphazardly learning things all over the place. And if you want to see how easy it is to work with the step by step process and how fast you can make progress with a step by step program. I recommend you go check out my free guitar crash course in the link in the description below. It's where I show you how to play real music in just 14 days. Yes, 14 days. Usually I could do this in a single lesson, one on one with a student. But it's there to show you that when you learn things in the right order and you have the right process, you can make progress so much faster than you could on your own. So take a chance on yourself. Go check out the link in the description below and I hope to see you in my crash course.