Guitar YouTube channel?

Nerine

I’m in the process of starting one up. 

I have been doing some test shoots etc this evening. I think I know what my process is gonna be, and I have (what I think) are some pretty good topics I want to cover. 
It’s going to be pretty broad. Some videos will be pretty in depth and others will be hopefully amusing. 
I want to cater for pretty much everybody really. 

But. 

Content is king, and this seems like a good sounding board to perhaps get a bit of a feeler for what people like to see and conversely, find annoying. 
I’d also be interested in people’s thoughts over what sort of topics I could turn my hand to?

So far, I’ve jotted down: 
Tone, playing in a band, practicing, techniques, licks, reviews, how to’s, demos, recording, how to sound good for not much effort, hero amps, comparisons, dialling in amps, tuning properly etc. I could go on. Some will be in depth. Some shorter obviously. Hopefully all presented pretty professionally. 

I also want to analyse what a Tubescreamer actually does, what frequencies it cuts, what harmonic content it adds, and all sorts of other things. I’ve got a pretty interesting experiment that I want to do with that one involving sines and frequency analysis. Mainly because there’s so much mystique around boutique clones, that I’d like to try to get a feel for what’s going on. 

My first video is going be a demo. Friedman Smallbox. All the audio will be decent and it will (hopefully) be filmed well too. I’ve got a couple of cameras that I’ll be using and I even took delivery of some LED soft boxes today to improve the visuals. Eventually I’ll upgrade the cameras further, but I can’t go out and drop a Grand right now on a new camera. I’m also waiting on some new mic preamps etc so for the first couple of vids, I’ll be using my iPhone to capture speech, which actually seems to sound pretty good when I’ve imported into Pro Tools and given it a bit of love. Even so... 

So yeah, be cool to hear some general thoughts! 

(I’m certainly not doing it for financial gain, it’s more that it’ll push me further as a player because it’ll force me to work on more advanced techniques more often.) 

fastonebaz

Say goodbye to all your free time sounds fun. 

GoldenEraGuitars

Sounds good so far. The only thing I can think to add is have you got anyone to co host with you? Just for some banter and discussion? Or have you planned it around yourself as the sole presenter?

Fuengi

Get a hat.

Every Youtube guitar guy needs a hat. 

http://imgur.com/gallery/MXe5J3o

Adam_MD

You'll know you've made it when there's endless threads on here about how much people hate

1) The same licks you play over and over again
2) how you make everything sound the same
3) your hair
4) your face
5) how untalented you are and they can't work out why people like you
6) your shit taste in guitars
7) your name
8) your Fuengi approved hat

Other reasons to hate are available 

Good luck 

Th4fonz

You seem to have most bases covered there,  I think its more just doing your first video and getting feedback on here than thinking of 30 different topics to cover before youve created your first one.  Maybe try not to cater for people but create content that inspires you to create.  That would be my avenue if I was looking at starting youtube. 

dindude

There’s a fine line between someone covering a subject in depth and with substance and a gob-shite who likes the sound of his own voice wittering on - you tube is full of the latter, the former is rarer and should be aimed for.

Think about what makes you add some value to a subject that’s probably been covered before many times - is it experience or your unique outlook or ability to break it down etc.

Also with such a broad subject range, you’ll need something, I.e. a recognisable style of your own, to tie it together and make it your own. If one episode you’re reviewing an amp by playing and the next you’re a talking head, it’s hard to build an audience I would think. 

Sassafras

For God's sake no co-host, no excruciating banter!

Danielsguitars

don't forget to talk about tonewoods, that's always a crowd pleaser 

axisus

It's hard to get noticed. Be prepared to be watched by one man and his dog. And the dog is only there because he thinks he's going to get fed.

munckee

I don't think there's any right answer, sometimes I'm in the mood for an hour of pedal widdling from TPS if I turn down the volume when Dan is talking, sometimes I want 10 minutes of Sean Daniel.  I like Dave Simpson but he solo's for 10 minutes at the start of the videos which has started to stop me watching.

You may as well just make videos you would want to watch and not worry about having a niche.

As sassafrass says the banter thing is becoming a little dreary, to the point andertons are now putting up videos called banter which if you have to say its banter kills it stone dead!

57Deluxe

and don't say "That's AWE-some" every five secs to everything

Norwegian_Blue

Scott Devine (Scott's Bass Lessons) put this together for Basschat after a particular bit of nastiness lately. There's an interesting insight into the work that goes into his channel, and later on a bit about getting noticed. Might be useful! 

guitars4you

customkits said:

don't forget to talk about tonewoods, that's always a crowd pleaser 

and the proven scientific theory behind it all

Nerine

Thanks for the feedback so far chaps. 

Ultimately, I want it to be a channel that I’d watch. I find some of the current channels are great at some things, less so at others. 

I won’t be having a co host. That said, I do know some good players that might be able to share some licks etc. 

My plan is to keep it pretty snappy, but detailed enough to keep it interesting. So I’ll be editing videos pretty hard to keep it moving along. 

I’m also very open to elaborate on particular riffs and licks I’ll use to demonstrate stuff or ideas and will probably put them in separate videos to break them down a little more. What scale they’re coming from, what progressions they’ll work over, and I think crucially, how to incorporate them and the pathways to get to them. I.e. how they extend from a familiar pattern or shape and my thought process. 

Stylistically, I’d like to cover a lot of ground. So whilst I really like TPS, and always watch, etc, some of the playing is irrelevant to my tastes. I’m not a blueser, really. So hearing about another overdrive into a clean amp is not how I run my rig so sometimes it’s a bit redundant. I know they switch it up a lot, and I’d be very happy to have a channel like Dan and Mick, but it isn’t always relevant to me. I’m not saying what I do is always relevant, but I want the playing to have a bit more structure so comparisons are more easily drawn. 

A lot of work and thinking to do, and I appreciate the comments so far. Will be bearing it all in mind.  

EricTheWeary

Norwegian_Blue said:

Scott Devine (Scott's Bass Lessons) put this together for Basschat after a particular bit of nastiness lately. There's an interesting insight into the work that goes into his channel, and later on a bit about getting noticed. Might be useful! 


I'll try to watch that later. My son watched a bunch of his videos and I started but Scott seems a good example of how YouTube eats content as you have to sift through his channel to find the good stuff. Certainly he's not alone in that if he made fewer videos the content would be better but, I guess, once you are on the merry go round it's very hard to get off.
 Nerine said:

I’m in the process of starting one up. 

I have been doing some test shoots etc this evening. I think I know what my process is gonna be, and I have (what I think) are some pretty good topics I want to cover. 
It’s going to be pretty broad. Some videos will be pretty in depth and others will be hopefully amusing. 
I want to cater for pretty much everybody really. 

But. 

Content is king, and this seems like a good sounding board to perhaps get a bit of a feeler for what people like to see and conversely, find annoying. 
I’d also be interested in people’s thoughts over what sort of topics I could turn my hand to?

So far, I’ve jotted down: 
Tone, playing in a band, practicing, techniques, licks, reviews, how to’s, demos, recording, how to sound good for not much effort, hero amps, comparisons, dialling in amps, tuning properly etc. I could go on. Some will be in depth. Some shorter obviously. Hopefully all presented pretty professionally. 

I also want to analyse what a Tubescreamer actually does, what frequencies it cuts, what harmonic content it adds, and all sorts of other things. I’ve got a pretty interesting experiment that I want to do with that one involving sines and frequency analysis. Mainly because there’s so much mystique around boutique clones, that I’d like to try to get a feel for what’s going on. 

My first video is going be a demo. Friedman Smallbox. All the audio will be decent and it will (hopefully) be filmed well too. I’ve got a couple of cameras that I’ll be using and I even took delivery of some LED soft boxes today to improve the visuals. Eventually I’ll upgrade the cameras further, but I can’t go out and drop a Grand right now on a new camera. I’m also waiting on some new mic preamps etc so for the first couple of vids, I’ll be using my iPhone to capture speech, which actually seems to sound pretty good when I’ve imported into Pro Tools and given it a bit of love. Even so... 

So yeah, be cool to hear some general thoughts! 

(I’m certainly not doing it for financial gain, it’s more that it’ll push me further as a player because it’ll force me to work on more advanced techniques more often.) 

Like a Tory MP it's very easy to know what you don't like but much harder to put forward a good suggestion. However, I did a couple of 'demos' of songs on non public YouTube for my band members when we weren't rehearsing and yes it makes you think about things a lot more and how hard it is to communicate information to a camera rather than interacting with another human being. 

prlgmnr

Nerine said:

So far, I’ve jotted down: 
Tone, playing in a band, practicing, techniques, licks, reviews, how to’s, demos, recording, how to sound good for not much effort, hero amps, comparisons, dialling in amps, tuning properly etc. I could go on. Some will be in depth. Some shorter obviously. Hopefully all presented pretty professionally. 

I also want to analyse what a Tubescreamer actually does, what frequencies it cuts, what harmonic content it adds, and all sorts of other things.

My worry would be that this list is lacking any sort of USP, everything there has already been done, both by people with massive followings and by people with fairly large reputations outside of Youtube (why would I want to watch what you have to say about a Tubescreamer over one of Brian Wampler's lengthy breadboard and whiteboard vids for example), and then by tens of further people trying to get in on the action.

I realise at this point that I've automatically assumed you aren't someone with an independent reputation in music/gear in your own right so that could be my mistake.

I'd be inclined to look for someone who's gone from nothing to Youtube prominence in the last year or two years*, see what they offered that no one else offered or what they did that was already done but better (or just in a more noticeable way), and then try and work out what gap is there to be filled now or what content is currently out there that can be improved on. 

*as opposed to the Tom Quayles and Martin Millers of the world who've been on there for 10 years by now

Zukabak

Nerine said:

I’m also very open to elaborate on particular riffs and licks I’ll use to demonstrate stuff or ideas and will probably put them in separate videos to break them down a little more. 

Just be aware that these riffs will have to be of your own design, not someone else's work unless you want to be flagged for Copyright infringement - i.e - Don't decide to break down the opening two bars of Hotel California for instance.

YouTube has very recently gone IP Infringement mad, with take down requests left right and centre. It's not too big a deal on a tiny channel but it'll stop you being able to monitise your videos if you do start to build the channel.

BRISTOL86

Zukabak said:

Nerine said:

I’m also very open to elaborate on particular riffs and licks I’ll use to demonstrate stuff or ideas and will probably put them in separate videos to break them down a little more. 

Just be aware that these riffs will have to be of your own design, not someone else's work unless you want to be flagged for Copyright infringement - i.e - Don't decide to break down the opening two bars of Hotel California for instance.

YouTube has very recently gone IP Infringement mad, with take down requests left right and centre. It's not too big a deal on a tiny channel but it'll stop you being able to monitise your videos if you do start to build the channel.

How does this work with people like Justin Sandercoe and Marty Schwarz, who’s channels are almost exclusively teaching songs? Do they have to pay a fee to the copyright holders? 

DLM

prlgmnr said:
I'd be inclined to look for someone who's gone from nothing to Youtube prominence in the last year or two years*[2], see what they offered that no one else offered or what they did that was already done but better (or just in a more noticeable way), and then try and work out what gap is there to be filled now or what content is currently out there that can be improved on. 

*as opposed to the Tom Quayles and Martin Millers of the world who've been on there for 10 years by now[1]

[1] Beast-mode-level playing technique

[2] kmac2021

Zukabak

BRISTOL86 said:

How does this work with people like Justin Sandercoe and Marty Schwarz, who’s channels are almost exclusively teaching songs? Do they have to pay a fee to the copyright holders? 

Essentially, yes. 
Any money made via ad-revenue (Adsense) no longer goes to them, it goes to the rights holders.. it SHOULD be protected by 'fair use' policy, which allows copyright to be 'overlooked' almost if the portion is being used for education, parody etc.. there's a couple of exceptions. 
However over the past few weeks YouTube has been full of people putting out videos basically saying they're being hit by a sudden new influx of Copyright Infrinegment emails.