Youtube guitar cover song lessons

rickenvox

rickenvox

Animal Psychic
OK, I no longer have the patience to sit down with a record (how I used to do it) and figure out solos or songs. Youtube is a great resource for people who have already done that homework just sharing the information. So my son and his friend are learning to play Hotel California and I thought I would help out by showing them how to play the solo. I searched on Youtube and found a couple vids where the guys seem to have all of the notes and bends correct. It's amazing how many other people have the audacity to post a Youtube when they don't even have the solo right. OK, but for the ones that do it's also amazing how they lack the ability to play the solo with the same technique as Walsh and whatever his name is. How can you have the ability to figure out and play solos note for note, but don't have the ability to put in the same feel in the phrasing or correct bite of the pick? It's as if people with no natural ability to play music have studied and practiced for ungodly hours and years only to play songs correctly, but without any musical talent.

Just an observation while trying to learn yet another song on Youtube.
 
They are either in a rush to get a video together after just having learned the song, since the morbidity of that comes after naturalizing it, or they played it soooooo long that they're tired of playing it now. I know what you mean.

Could also be that getting all of those licks perfect just requires too many takes and is not worth the effort.
 
Knox in Box said:
They are either in a rush to get a video together after just having learned the song, since the morbidity of that comes after naturalizing it, or they played it soooooo long that they're tired of playing it now. I know what you mean.

Could also be that getting all of those licks perfect just requires too many takes and is not worth the effort.
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I don't think so, the main guy I was using was so dry in his delivery of the solo there's no way it was just an off moment. I looked at a couple of his other lessons and he always has the same boring solo delivery. It has that stereotypical vibrato that many rock or metal players have nowadays, but none of the other technique.

Having said that I have noticed that the popular rock guitar solo stylings of the seventies, by people like Frampton, Bill Nelson, Dick Wagner mostly disappeared post Van Halen. There was a pretty complete language of riffs and inflections that mostly disappear after people starting coping EVH's techniques. That's why you don't hear anyone nowadays who can nail Jimmy Page. People don't play like that anymore.
 
I use them when I get stuck on something or if I'm just feeling plain lazy and want it to be easy. I don't care if the guy/girl giving the lesson conveys any feeling, just that they show the song correctly. (Or correctly enough that I can figure out whatever is missing).
 
I like to try to use a new cover song as an opportunity to learn some technique. If a guy doesn't have the technique at least displayed in his/her video, I move on. I screwed up my early progress in guitar trying to play a Neil Young song note for note, but not understanding at all the right hand and rhythm techniques. So now I am very watchful for that.

EDIT: Regarding your point about older school style solo technique, I will also say that one of the most rewarding things I ever did in learning guitar was take on the solo from Watchtower, Hendrix version, with instruction in our guitar class from @Mark Wein . It was extremely challenging, and taught me a lot. Another former teacher tried to do that with me on a Gilmour solo, but I wasn't ready. I cannot say that I have taken on a solo like that in a long time. Certainly not from a youtube vid. Maybe some riffs and/or hooks.

I need to get myself back into some lessons. I wish there was a good live, adult rock class around, like I see Mark put on down in Cali.
 
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There are 3 or 4 guys who have demonstrated the ability to teach covers via youtube in an informative and concise format with appropriate camera angles. There is a fine line between too much commentary that distracts from the lesson, and the guys who think just taping a bad cover version constitutes a lesson.
 
There are some that give good lessons but it can be hit and miss. Personally I have trouble watching long videos on how to play something most of the time anyways. I usually go looking when I'm trying to find something that isn't normally done with guitar like the fingerstyle version of Life on Mars that I found. Then it's all about the content and whether or not I can actually pull it off
 
Peen Simmons said:
Why can't free YouTube lessons for would-be cover band hacks be as musical and dynamic as classic performances from classic records? Why, God, why? This never happened when Obama was president! Kids today! Millennials!
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Ummm, it's for my son who's in high school. Not to try and take the wind out of your straw man argument though.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
I like to try to use a new cover song as an opportunity to learn some technique. If a guy doesn't have the technique at least displayed in his/her video, I move on. I screwed up my early progress in guitar trying to play a Neil Young song note for note, but not understanding at all the right hand and rhythm techniques. So now I am very watchful for that.

EDIT: Regarding your point about older school style solo technique, I will also say that one of the most rewarding things I ever did in learning guitar was take on the solo from Watchtower, Hendrix version, with instruction in our guitar class from @Mark Wein . It was extremely challenging, and taught me a lot. Another former teacher tried to do that with me on a Gilmour solo, but I wasn't ready. I cannot say that I have taken on a solo like that in a long time. Certainly not from a youtube vid. Maybe some riffs and/or hooks.

I need to get myself back into some lessons. I wish there was a good live, adult rock class around, like I see Mark put on down in Cali.
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I've only played original material in bands with an occasional esoteric obscure cover. But I enjoy learning solos, note for note, and coping the styles of those players. There's always some little piece that sticks and works it's way into my own playing.
 
dodgechargerfan said:
The lessons convey information.
You add the feeling.
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wrong, lessons done properly include every aspect of the playing. feeling and phrasing are critical to pulling off a covered solo. And you can't just pick the same old sloppy way you're grown up picking. If you've ever studied gypsy jazz, you'll never get it to sound right unless you pick with an unanchored hand and the pick embedded firmly between your thumb and the side of your index finger. No weak fingertip grip on the pick. It's crucial to the sound. Same goes for everything thing else. If you trying to play Jimmy Page you better learn how to stutter around with your picking, adding sloppiness, it's not clean.
 
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telecaster911 said:
Go listen to Phil X. I think he still has that old school fire. That's why he's one of my all time favorite players.
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Don't know him. Is there a band name or is it just Phil X? I also like good songs with good singing. That's why Frampton Comes Alive is such a great album (I actually hated it back in the day, but have grown to love it). I also like good songs with not so great playing - like Oasis.
 
rickenvox said:
Ummm, it's for my son who's in high school. Not to try and take the wind out of your straw man argument though.
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Oh, well, in that case...it's totally legit to expect YouTubers to play their lessons with the same nuance and intensity as found on classic LPs.
 
Wow! OP seens more than a bit harsh. How do you reconcile the fact that someone can "learn all the notes and bends", with the phrase "no musical talent"?

That is a bizarre equation.

I dislike the overwhelming majority of YouTube "Here, let me show you how to play this song" videos because so many of them are wrong. Most of them are VERY wrong. Sometimes, I'm not even sure they're playing the right song.

Having said that, no two players are alike, and no one is going to do your homework for you. There's a cavernous divide between being able to play a song, and being able to play a song EXACTLY as it sounds on the record. So much of what you hear in those original recordings is based way more on individual techniques and dynamics than anything else.

Factor in that many of those original recordings, especially the guitar solos are spliced together from multiple takes. Your average "guitar god" can't even perfectly duplicate their own work.

Then consider the particular gear used, the settings on that gear, how it was recorded, what was added in post production, and you're asking the impossible while shitting on people for not being someone they aren't.

Come on man!

If you're so inclined, by all means... spend countless hours studying and trying to duplicate the nuance of someone else's work. I'd rather spend that time forging my own unique signature style... after all, that's what Walsh and FELDER did...
 
rickenvox said:
wrong, lessons done properly include every aspect of the playing. feeling and phrasing are critical to pulling off a covered solo. And you can't just pick the same old sloppy way you're grown up picking. If you've ever studied gypsy jazz, you'll never get it to sound right unless you pick with an unanchored hand and the pick embedded firmly between your thumb and the side of your index finger. No weak fingertip grip on the pick. It's crucial to the sound. Same goes for everything thing else. If you trying to play Jimmy Page you better learn how to stutter around with your picking, adding sloppiness, it's not clean.
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While I'll agree with what you say if you're going for an exact cover of a single recording, I'll say that you're wrong for calling me wrong.

It's music. Not even the original artists play it the same way every time.
Why do people keep going to see music performed live? Why is there more than one orchestra in the world if they're all playing the same pieces exactly the same as the original?

If you need music to be that perfect, fire up your sequencer and load in a saved program and hit go. Sell your guitars.
 
I've never had the patience to take a solo ( of any substantial length) apart note for note and put it back together exactly.
I guess that's why I've never played lead guitar in a true cover band.
The most disciplined I've ever been is to learn a few flatpicking fiddle tunes note for note. And even then, when I play em they don't come out exactly like the source.
 
Yt instructional videos are hit or miss. You get what you pay for. I am always surprised at the number of people who both have the song completely wrong and decide to share their "lesson" anyway. But that is the case for transcriptions as well.
 
I've learned a lot from youtube videos. Steve Stephens has an awesome one describing how to play Bill Idol's "Rebel Yell" that I've spent watched a bunch of times. I still have to pick my jaw up off the floor at times. Usually, I find that a minute or so is sufficient to determine if the video is worth watching or not.
 
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