The Great YouTube Experiment: From Student Resource to Global Community

I initially started uploading student-shot guitar lesson videos to YouTube purely as a practical structural resource for my private students if they got stuck practicing at home between cycles.

I had absolutely no idea that the channel would ever be watched by anyone outside my physical studio network. Fast forward four years from that launch, and the channel was suddenly knocking on the door of 1 million total views.

It has been incredibly fascinating to observe which specific breakdowns have become the most popular. At number one, by a very fair margin, is Metallica's "Mama Said," followed closely by Tame Impala's "The Less I Know the Better," Solomon Burke's "How I Got to Memphis," Foo Fighters' "This Is a Call," and Billy Bragg's timeless classic "A New England" rounding out the top five.

And for the most part, the broader internet community has been overwhelmingly positive. I must admit, when I first made the videos public, I fully expected to be trolled to within an inch of my life — but it appears not! While there are always a select few folks who are less than complimentary, 99.9% of viewers have been exceptionally lovely, supportive, and appreciative.

So there you go — the great YouTube experiment was an absolute success. The archive rapidly climbed past 200 lessons, changing the entire baseline of how I teach.