Hello there! Just writing this to get some feedback on an idea...
At the moment I'm looking at moving south, which will mean my outgoings will be considerably higher than they are right now. This means I need to be making more money. One way in which I intend to do this is by making video tutorials - basically teaching guitar online.
The idea is that people would pay around £1 and get a video, probably about 10 minutes long, and a tab to refer to. I could give them all difficulty ratings and each lesson could include one song (most likely something I've covered on youtube). There are a number of advantages over real life lessons - the ability to pause, rewind and replay the video would mean you could get an hour's worth of lesson/practice time out of each video, you could come back to it in a year when you'd forgotten it, and it would cost 10% of the price of a normal lesson.
And from my point of view, It'd probably take me an hour or so to make the video/tab, so then I'd only need to sell about 10 for it to pay better than a regular teaching job, plus I wouldn't be stuck to a timetable - I could make the videos whenever I had the time.
Any thoughts, problems, improvements etc. please let me know in the comments. And if you play guitar (or want to!) do you think you'd consider paying for lessons online like this?
THANKS!
xxx
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I've been playing for about 2 years and I'd pay for a few online lessons here and there. I like your playing style.
Do It!! I can't play for shit! and yeh, i'd pay like this.
As long as there's some way to contact you with questions.
It'd completely depend on what you were teaching really, but your taste is great so I reckon I'd get a few. Just make sure that, however you go about doing this, you make it so that it's easy for newcomers who are just searching for TABs like normal to find you, because the majority of buyers will be coming from there in the long run.
@Mr. Burns Yeh I'll set up either an email address or a comments section on the page, I might even have a youtube channel involved so people can video respond with problems/questions.
@Charlie yeah that makes sense. I'm thinking that I'd do some that were for beginners - really simple stuff right from learning the basic chords and notes etc and those ones would be free so people can get started. Then if they get into it and like the way I teach they can try some of the more difficult song tutorials.
It would depend on the song really. I've played guitar for years and can handle most songs, and tabs are pretty easy to come by. I would be more likly to get ones for some of your own songs, like the world's still ending etc
@Anon Yeah I thought I'd do some of mine for free, or maybe do a whole album for cheap. I'm definitely going to have the tabs up there.
I think it is a really good idea. I would definantly consider this approach when i eventually get round to learning. I allready have the guitar. It just sits there begging to be played.
The biggest problem i think (and this applies to DIY teaching DVD's as well) would be that you wouldn't be able to advise on mistakes and (for lack of a better term) interact with your "pupils". We could all make video responses of us doing the lesson. But the back and forth exchange would be a long process. However i still think its a good idea and As i mentioned DVDs have the same issue and they do very well. Also like you say you will have some interaction if people need it so yeah i think it is a good idea :)
@Wyatthaplo Yeah man I agree, nothing can compare to quality one on one teaching, but I reckon it'll be good for people like yourself who never get around to booking lessons. Also it's so much cheaper, so there should be an audience for it. Will just have to make sure I bridge the gap as well as I can - that might even be a way to provide a better service than other e-courses.
@JC I'll have to look into that, I'm sure paypal will be an option as I use that already, but I might be able to add others too.
I think it's a great idea. I've been playing for a year but as I'm self taught I feel there is many holes in my learning. If I like your teaching style I would most deffinitely pay for the lessons.
Hey, I sent you a reply on twitter, but thought I would add my thoughts here in a bit more detail.
The idea is definitely good- but what you're trying to do is just online video tutorials. There are a lot out there, following a similar format to yourself.
You'll need to have something to make your stand-out. Your price will definitely help with that, but you might also like to consider other things to make it more engaging. I would recommend starting with a forum/chat/skype link so that people feel like they're being supported in the process.
For example, if they aren't getting the right sound from their guitar you might have a forum where they can ask the question. You can then perhaps create a video on tuning etc. and make it available to buy, or possibly even give it to that customer for free, and make it buy-able for others.
Ideally videos would only be a small part of your teaching materials- write-ups/diagrams would be helpful to download, as well as downloading tabs to your own songs etc.
So many things to think about! I guess I come from a position where there are so many interactive things you could do- getting students to think interact with the computer to create sounds/songs/notes etc. but they cost money and time that by the sounds of it you're not wanting to invest at this stage.
Anyway- have a think about how you can add extra value to what you're doing. Good luck!
@Talia thanks for your thoughts.
Yeah video tutorials is what I meant, I clearly don't know what e-learning means! And it is just gonna be one part of a website so to begin with it'll just be videos and tabs to refer to. Though I do want to look at ways to encourage interaction.
I am gonna do a bunch of free ones for proper beginners - basic chords/notes etc. And I will probably do some for my own songs for free or cheap to promote the idea.
The main advantage I have is that I have the songs on youtube getting a lot of views and already have people asking me for tabs and stuff, so I can link direct from there and not rely solely on search engine traffic.
ive been playing for about 5-10 yeas...would love to see how this turns out
I wish you well, Dave, but I am skeptical of immediate (or even near-term) success.
Without knowing how British laws work, I would discourage you from adding full songs that you covered, unless you are very certain this won't lead to legal tangles.
You might want to offer a few free lessons of each chapter or difficulty level so people can get a taste of what more they would be buying. If you make it available via YouTube [I would suggest Bandcamp], you could utilize playlists to segregate types of lessons: beginner, rock, blues, other specific techniques. You could include lessons in how to play your songs or those of other artists. Is it worth letting people buy access to lessons via live web cam? No clue. But you might also consider consulting on other creative work &/or laying down tracks [for a price] for other content-creators to use in their materials.
Best of luck!
@Woodland In terms of success I'd only need to sell about 10 for it to be worth doing, I don't think that's unrealistic.
I'm fairly confident about the legal side of things - you're allowed to used material that is copyright for instructional purposes, and I wouldn't include my version of the song (though people can get them all for free anyway).
I agree, free example videos are a good idea, I plan on doing a few beginner lessons for people just starting, then a few of my own songs to show the difficulty levels.
I won't primarily be using youtube or bandcamp as it'll run through my own website.
Your last idea is one we were just discussing the other day, and a very good one I think! I'm going to add an incompetech style royalty free music section, I'll build up some songs myself and hopefully will get users to submit their own as well.
I think it'll work out well, you seem to have a nice plan sorted out. And I've been trying to learn how to play for a couple years now; I got a guitar for my birthday. So its something I would look into/ pay for.
can you do this for piano too? i would definitely pay for them.
@Keith I don't see why not!
Hey, just asking a question.
Would you have a small taster option so people can get an idea of how the lessons will work or something like that, like a small video a few minutes long with some really basic things? If the answer's no I can understand why you wouldn't- being ripped off and all that.
@ghoul yeah I'd definitely have a few free ones... I thought I might do a short series of real basic stuff so people can get started.
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