3 reasons every guitarist should make video lessons

I've been playing guitar for 25 years or so. I'm at the stage where I can pretty much work out a song before it's finished playing on the radio (solo and complicated bits aside) and I play 25+ gigs a year.  I can twiddle a bit but I'm not one of those 'can-play-anything-at-the-drop-of-a-hat' guitar-sauvants.

I've always had a full-time job and a family, so music has always been the third part of an equation, and at times it's pretty low on the to-do list. So this year I decided to celebrate my silver jubilee by studying what I was doing and seeing how far I could take it. 

I've applied myself, drawn on what I do for a living, and become my own teacher. I use a lot of structure and use a lot of ready-made help. I bought the RGT Grade Books and started working through them alongside everything that Justin Sandercoe, Marty Schwarz and Andrew Wasson can throw at me online.  They have improved my guitar life. Check them out on YouTube and at

www.justinguitar.com
www.guitarjamz.com
www.andrewwasson.com

And then today, I stumbled across the most obvious way to improve my playing faster...

One of the covers bands I played with last year have a new guitarist and he is struggling to decide on what to play over the acoustic rhythm guitar on Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealer's Wheel. They asked me to do a quick video to help as "we'd quite like it to be the same as you used to play". So that's what I did.  It took me three attempts to get a loop done, and four takes to video my parts over the top.  Here's what I learned from doing it and watching it back :

- I rely hugely on the vocal for my cues in the song, rather than knowing how it goes
- my strumming is messy and noisier than I thought
- I don't move smoothly between positions in the solo

If this is how it sounds at home with no pressure, how must it sound in a gig with crappy foldback?

So here's three reasons why I'll be videoing my playing regularly from now on and how it can help you too.

1. You will know the song better.  The structure and the chord changes. The key, time signature, scales for the solo etc. Especially, if you write a song chart.

2. You'll get to see and hear exactly how you play in a safe, controlled environment, when you know a song well.  This will help you see if you are playing the way you want to. There's nowhere to hide on this.

3. Thinking about how you explain what you do to someone else, makes you focus. If you can explain it clearly, you'll play it better.

Here's how.....

• Write out a song chart.
• Record a loop to play over.
• Practice explaining the song structure and key etc and what you are playing over each part before you record it. If you can't explain what you are doing are you making it up as you go along?
• Record it and watch it back. The recording doesn't have to be complicated - I used a Bloggie.

The most important thing is to ask yourself the question, "Would I be happy sharing this on youtube?" It is not about being too self-critical. But it's a great way of checking if you are playing to the standard you want to be, and identifying things to improve.