I have mixed feelings about music tutorials on YouTube. On one hand, I love that they offer many students a chance to work independently on music they’re excited about. Learning a brand new song in a matter of a few hours both exhilarates them and works wonders for their confidence.

Yet there’s something always something missing when one of my students plays a tune learned this way. Sometimes it’s a technical thing, like an odd chord choice or off-sounding rhythm. Other times they omit a difficult part of the song that the video didn’t really explain it well, and quite often a student will admit that there’s something fishy about the way the whole thing sounds.

It never manages to surprise me. [Read more…]