Good day/evening to all,
I was just searching videos for the best travel guitar on youtube and I realized that many channels which made video about “best travel guitar” are also teachers. Maybe it’s dumb question, but I do not understand what is the reason for so many teachers and even more is there really a need for so many teachers on guitar playing? I mean, yeah, everyone learns differently, yada yada yada, but I realize all of them boil down to same things. Everyone promises “new, revolutionary, one-of-a-kind learning method” which is better than everyone else’s, but it really all boils down to same things. Maybe this is because I come from small country which isn’t that much into capitalism like USA is, but I reckon if Justin is only one or just one of few guitar teachers I’d not be any less happy. I adore Justins method and I like his way of thinking, pacing and general structure of lessons. What I also appreciate is that he repeats some things few times (in lower grades, later in higher grades again) so stuff can really sink in and the way courses interact is genius. I’m learning barre chords in grade 4 and 5 and there is also barre chords in music theory grade 6+. It really is great for consolidation. This might sound snub and like I’m shilling but I checked many other teachers before and none come too ease and simplicity of Justin. Makes me wonder why the heck would anyone choose someone else? I know, folks need to earn living, but what’s the point of 10000s of teachers when they all teach same thing.
In my country we have only one music college and I think it would be nice that internet wasn’t so fragmented. Ok, maybe Justin having monopoly ain’t great but having 1000s of choices is even worse. I still remember my unpleasant start of my learning journey… Where to start? Which guitar to buy? Which teacher to choose? I’d take less choices over more every time of day. nevertheless, maybe it’s just because I (luckily) haven’t been raised in country with bazillion of choices and I am grateful to Lord for that!
Competition is good. The competitors either continue to improve and provide a good product or they fail. When there’s only one provider, there’s no incentive to excellence. The customer gets what he gets.
I don’t think there is thousands of guitar teachers on YouTube, certainly not if you look at teachers with more than a couple of dozen lessons and have any sort of staying power.
If there’s a song I want to learn and I search on YouTube there’s Justin and a handful of others that come up regularly (maybe a couple of handfuls). What Justin offers is a full course, for free and he’s more or less unique in that.
Personally I think it’s good to have choice, there’s more than one way to play most songs, particularly as a beginner (like me) looking for a way to play a song that’s the right mix of fun / authentic / challenging. I often mix and match parts from a few different lessons.
It’s much complicated when it comes to guitar gear and guitars. That space is dominated by people who sell stuff so almost every video is more of sales pitch than it is any kind of review that you can use to inform a purchase but as long as you know that in advance they can still be useful.
that right there is the problem with Youtube. Quality isn’t Youtubes style, Quantity is. That’s why only the teacher with lots of hype get pushed to the top. The good one fade away into the black void.
Justin spent a couple of day off with his family and came on here asking for clicks, likes and for people to subscribe to get him back up the ever growing list of click bait crap.
I do agree with you Competition is good. The internet needs a better youtube to compete
I think a lot of people want to put song tutorials out there because they genuinely enjoy doing it, and even if only a few people learn something, they are satisfied. Then there are the people who think about making a living from it, or a few extra bucks in their time off. And very often, it’s probably a mix of both.
And for some songs, I do only find one or two tutorials, like children songs in German, for example, or old folk songs. And sometimes, I find nothing, because nobody took the time yet to record it. And that makes me think I could maybe do it in the near future.
And yes, you are right, I know only a few people who are as structured and thorough in their tutorials as Justin is, and they all also have online courses, some free, some not. I think it is good to have choices when trying to learn, if only to combine what you like from one with what you like from the other. It can be overwhelming if you do not find someone with a good course structure like Justin, always running around learning individual songs and snippets of chords or theory. But I don’t think that is more important than having the chance to express your own passion for something, and having it help someone, even if it is only one person.
We have a tendency to underestimate the shear number of people in the world. 9 billion is a lot. Hence a million types of toothpaste and thousands of guitar teachers . Good for them!
I would take a thousand more online guitar teachers like Justin
There are so many songs and genre specific lessons that Justin unfortunately does not have time to do. We are lucky to have other youtubers who specializes in other styles like classical, rock, metal, fingerstyle chord melodies etc…
I believe that having a bazillion choices is probably a good thing in most instances. Sure, it can be overwhelming sometimes but often having multiple choices is good. Take beer for instance… there are thousands & thousands of different brews available to drink… I would venture to say that I could drink a different beer every single day for the rest of my life and not even cover 50% of all the Ales, Stouts, IPAs, Hazy IPAs, Porters, Lagers… etc. This is a bad thing???
In musical terms, the internet has broadened our available choices amazingly… my first guitar was before the web was invented & I walked into a music store - there were about 6 or 7 brands with a very few models from each brand… maybe 25 guitars to choose from. They had 2 teachers - one male & one female who both taught several instruments. Now, it is very easy to find the gear you want or a teacher online. This is a good thing. Competition helps to keep companies continually improving their product & prices are more competitive.
I really enjoy Justin’s method but recently wanted to find some help to play an Ed Sheeran song & Justin doesn’t have a lesson for it. Yet, by searching on the web, I found some help from a different teacher to figure out the chords, BPM & the strumming pattern. I have a subscription to Ultimate Guitar & also Moises which helps me to play the songs I love. For that matter, in the Ultimate Guitar app, often there are multiple versions of the same song which have been placed there by other musicians… not to make money but to "P(l)ay it Forward!!! So, again, more choices!!!
Yes, the USA is a capitalistic country - but so are most of the countries in the Western world… also, from what I’ve seen, many, many of the Internet Guitar Gurus (Justin S., Mary S., Paul D., Dave T. etc.) are from Australia, Belgium, United Kingdom & so on… us Yanks don’t have a monopoly on trying to generate income from what we perceive as a marketable skill.
My 2 centavos…
Why are there so many guitar teachers on youtube? For the same reason you can find 17 (!) different flavours of Pringles potato chips on your supermarket shelves: money!
All I know is that I cringe every time I see an email or YouTube promo for guitar lessons that leads with:
“Play like a PRO in five days!”
“You MUST do THIS to become a top notch player.”
“My FOOLPROOF method to make you a guitar wizard!”
“These THREE TRICKS will make you a Rock Star!”
“Never struggle with barre chords again - here’s the SECRET.”
Yeah, you are right. 9 billion doesn’t sound much until you think about it. The picture for comparison is both amazing and, honestly, scary.
Maybe I ended sounding harsh, but in all this jungle it’s much harder to find a tree. It’s all good to have some choices, but I literally get anxiety when shopping for toothbrush. Yes, in so many choices you’ll find something for you, but it’s mentally draining to sift through tons of aisles with all kinds of junk, then find toothbrush aisle and then sift to find that one brand which I like. Same with guitar gear, teachers, almost everything. Perhaps I am mentally impaired, which has some basis, but for me more than handful of choices and I start to either fall apart and panic, or just give up on the thing. If I told you how many times I quit trying to learn some instrument or music production software… I’m glad I had strong will to dedicate to guitar and Justin as a teacher.
What I say it certainly isn’t easy to find right thing in this jungle. Like trying to spot that one nice palm tree in the huge forest, compared to spotting it on the big, mowed lawn.
but having 1000s of choices is even worse. I still remember my unpleasant start of my learning journey… Where to start? Which guitar to buy? Which teacher to choose? I’d take less choices over more every time of day. nevertheless, maybe it’s just because I (luckily) haven’t been raised in country with bazillion of choices and I am grateful to Lord for that!
… you know that all those dots around it are mostly other galaxies 
