Instructional videos.
 

I've learned alot since the dawn of youtube and bought a fair share of 'how to play' video's in my time, and i've on and off tried doing it myself but it's never taken off at all.

What would you say constitutes a good instructional video in terms of teaching for guitar, bass etc.

addressing the needs of the student rather than instructor's desire for attention.



sorry if that seems harsh but it happens far too much, pay attention to the language used in most instructional videos. if you here 'I' far more than 'you' or 'we' then you know where the focus really is.

consider this, putting the terms 'guitar lesson' into youtube returns 427 THOUSAND results. making new ones for the sake of being new is redundant. on the other hand if you're offering lessons to people online first, then a video might help specific lessons, but make them specific for that student. you might not get the most views but those who do check it out will walk away with something worthwhile, as opposed to the tens of thousands of clips showing some lonely soul explaining the intricacies of playing a song no one else cares to learn.

1 - Make sure you explain things that are appropriate to the lesson only. You can allude to more complex ideas in order to give the student a place to go next, but keep yourself focused. Nobody wants to listen to 10 minutes of loosely linked rambling when all they googled was how to play a tapping lick.

2 - Don't overplay your examples. If possible, keep them long enough to show the point, but short enough that its not just you showing off.

3 - At the same time, make sure the examples are cleanly played. If you're learning from someone, you expect them to have mastered the things they're teaching you. A sloppily played example is often worse than no example at all since it makes it difficult to discern whats being shown.

Alternatively, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwZLFg7npuI