You’re dedication to the guitar is unmatched. You’ve practiced and practiced; yet it seems like you play the same old lick, the same old song over and over again. You’re time with your instrument is just a waste of time lately. Sound familiar? I’m coming out of a stint where my playing was pissing me off to be honest. I felt stuck and frustrated and when I’m in this state of mind, I am left uninspired and not wanting to pick up this six string addiction. I have found ways to break free from the repetitive guitar playing rut and thought I would share with you and maybe you’ll find them helpful. Record Your Guitar Playing This suggestion sounds cliche and it works! I’m going to throw a bit of a curveball here and suggest not to record just the audio but video as well. Why you ask? I have found that seeing me playing the guitar gives me insight on more than just what I’m playing. It’s giving a view of how I’m playing it. Do I look comfortable playing or do I look strange? How’s my posture? Do I look cool? These questions will give you insight and …
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I’ve been playing guitar for close to 40 years and have played many arrangements of popular songs, but I had never fully created my own arrangement until now. The process came naturally once I dove in. The song I chose was White Lion’s “When the Children Cry,” and after many months of working out the arrangement, changing voicings, and practicing it over and over, I finally posted it to my YouTube channel. Along the way, I uncovered some insights about arranging for guitar that I thought I’d share with you. My Steps in Arranging Songs for Fingerstyle Guitar 1. Know the song forward and backward 2. Learn the chords first 3. Be able to play the melody in more than one way 4. Mess around and keep it simple at first This is just a small list of what I’ve found useful in tackling guitar arrangements. As I continue developing this skill, my approach will evolve—but the key to creating original arrangements is consistent practice. Arranging is a craft that must be honed and polished over time. I know I’ll look back someday and cringe at my earlier work, but that’s okay—each arrangement represents the best I could do at …
No Views on YouTube Short Posted two guitar shorts on my YouTube Channel and it didn’t get any views after an hour. Rather perplexing and frustrating after all the work I put in to get the video published. This is also rather peculiar because my last 6 or so shorts got well over 1k views and many likes; usually a few hundred views within the first hour. I waited and waited for the views to come No need to panic, just gotta trust the algorithm right? After two hours of waiting and worrying, both videos were stuck on a big fat zero. This happened to me before when I first started but hadn’t had to deal with it in a long time. So what did I do in the past? I downloaded the underperforming videos and immediately reposted. What do you know, both videos are already at 300+ views in about 10 minutes. What could cause the zero Shorts views? I haven’t a clue why this happens from time to time and it seems as if no one has an idea of why either. The only common theme in all of this was these YouTube shorts were scheduled and not …
Having and developing your own YouTube channel, especially one as niche as acoustic guitar playing, is quite they grind but the hard work doesn’t feel like the hard work, I was anticipating. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of work and I can only imagine how much will need to be done as I grow but I enjoy it very much! Uploading Video After Video As of the writing of this post, I have published 157 YouTube shorts and videos; Mostly shorts but at that clip, I’m almost at 200 subscribers which is exciting. In most cases I have posted at least one a day every day for the past 3 months and lately it’s been two or 3 a day. My wife is amazed and wonders how I can keep it up at that clip but honestly it hasn’t been that hard. With 40 years of ideas in my brain that I’m finally able to get out and share with people, the ideas just flow. I usually record me jamming and noodling on the guitar and take the best clips for shorts but I make sure that it’s a quality clip; not mistake free but quality. My Channel …
It’s a grind! That’s what I’ve heard and I’m experiencing just that in getting my YouTube channel back on track. Over a decade ago, I orphaned it, sort to speak and am finally picking it back up. Going to be retiring in the next couple of years so why not focus on my music and have a couple of years to get it going before that happens. YouTube Shorts Are My Main Source of Content I have found with my long form videos, I don’t get as many views and in turn, not as many subscribers. My short attention span needs a bit more stimulation and YouTube shorts gives it to me. I’ve created a series of shorts called “QuickLicks” which is me ripping a fast lick in 10 seconds or less. I have found that no matter how good I think the guitar lick is, the shorter the better for retention and subs. This method keeps me engaged and I treat it like a video game to where when I get a sub, it’s like leveling up so I’m always motivated. As of this writing, I have 106 subscriptions on my channel. For context I had 12 4 months …
