Question: What to do with my YouTube channel?

Mark Wein

Mark Wein

Grand Poobah
Staff member
I hit a point of burnout this month with the livestreams and I haven't had time to do much else video-wise. Now that my major project at work is mostly wrapped up (I had to record both of my bands online and make videos for their semester project) I'm having a moment where I can rethink my Youtube strategy.

I do need to start making packing tracks again. What styles interest you guys to jam over?

Lessons...I have a really good power chord/fretboard lesson written up that just needs to be shot and the project backing track finished. I was thinking of doing some of my picking/technique etudes as individual lessons, too. I've also had requests for Albert King solos.

Or should I just start shooting videos of myself unboxing and eating chicken sandwiches from various fast food establishments?
 
Maybe once a month pick a song to take apart - the arrangement, the production, classic guitar parts and why they're great , musical choices that were made, etc.

It doesn't have to be classic rock, could be a great song from any genre.

By doing it once a month, when making a schedule, 1 week is already accounted for.
 
:grin:


I’m in a weird mood. It feels like this is the start of a new phase of life in general for us (me and my family) for various reasons which I won’t get into here but I’m all about changing things up and trying to shed some of the negativity and bad habits of the past year.
 
I hear you. It's like we all need to re-learn how to properly be or behave in society again.

Here's another idea - live sound, or making a band work. How do you take a song played by 6 musicians and do it in a trio format. Or how to make 2 guitars work together. When is too much too much.

How about a series of arranging sessions. Basic horn charts, that kinda thing.
 
Mark Wein said:
:grin:


I’m in a weird mood. It feels like this is the start of a new phase of life in general for us (me and my family) for various reasons which I won’t get into here but I’m all about changing things up and trying to shed some of the negativity and bad habits of the past year.
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It's because your son is as tall as you are now, isn't it?
 
I'm more of a "long tail" customer, so the livestreams don't appeal to me (not just yours--nobodys). The rest of your videos are nice, because they're pretty stand-alone, but also build on one another.

I'd watch pedal demos that are more about applying pedals, more than just putting it through its paces.
 
Hey Mark, your videos are always informative so anything you do, I will watch. Especially chicken sammiches.

Just a few ideas that come to my mind that interest me:

Picking apart progressions, riffs, and solos: Not instruction on how to play something, but more of a theory break down. This solo is using blah blah scale in blah blah position and then he switches it up to blah blah other scale. My theory know how is so poor that I can rarely tell what's going on, but push in the right direction will really help me with the musical context.

Bass guitar for (dummy) guitar players

Explain the alchemy behind EQing, in terms of guitar tone and mixing recordings. I could never hear enough about this stuff.

Jazz chords for (dummy) rock/blues players

And a specific one, the guitar solo for Panama: there's one part that for the life of me I can't play, it's the really fast legato lick right before the solo starts to slow down

Guitar face techniques
 
Chicken Man said:
I'm more of a "long tail" customer, so the livestreams don't appeal to me (not just yours--nobodys). The rest of your videos are nice, because they're pretty stand-alone, but also build on one another.

I'd watch pedal demos that are more about applying pedals, more than just putting it through its paces.
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It's funny, because I have the "long tail" videos that get regular traffic which are mostly the single chord backing track videos and the livestreams which get a ton of traffic for about a week but the lesson videos are really slow.

I just feel like I need to make a couple of backing tracks a month and pick a few lesson topics or gear things that interest me. Still do the occasional livestream but make them fewer and farther between.
 
I know I brought this up before when you asked the question and you thought they’re would be issues with copyright, but I’m going to say it again because I think it’s a great idea. Jamming along to a track for the first time hearing it and then explaining the theory behind how did would be super cool and it wouldn’t require any preparation on your part. I bet there are forum members who would be happy to provide you with tracks. I know I would.
 
I would like to watch you visit all the various chicken places around Southern California and rate them much like the one bite pizza guy reviews.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I’ve watched a number of videos by other “content creators” (blargh) wherein they break down the theory and techniques that make up particular genres. Maybe something teaching people how to write and record X type of song might get eyeballs. Something in the 20ish minute timeframe that people can watch and engage with without having to take action. You could show off some pedals and gear/settings and then teach people how to make a new wave tune or a heavy blues rock recording or Simpsonswave rock opera or whatever.
 
Here’s a kooky idea...why not treat yr channel as a kind of Cover Band University and teach people to do what you’re successful at. Set list curation. Gear recommendations. How to fake songs that come in as requests. Soloing tips to impress dinguses. Getting gigs. Basically help people pack the MILF Pit in whatever town where they live.
 
Peen Simmons said:
Here’s a kooky idea...why not treat yr channel as a kind of Cover Band University and teach people to do what you’re successful at. Set list curation. Gear recommendations. How to fake songs that come in as requests. Soloing tips to impress dinguses. Getting gigs. Basically help people pack the MILF Pit in whatever town where they live.
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I dunno if you want to focus in this direction, and I don't know if it would be any fun to do it, but it's interesting. You could at least do a series and make it its own playlist.
 
A demo on death metal ukulele, using a reggae backing track.

Banjo sludge metal with an accordion backing track.
 
BlockInlay said:
This would be too time consuming but it would be cool to watch as you build a band from scratch and get it up to gigging/recording.
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That’s probably too much work and has too many variables to make regular content drops possible. Successful YouTubers tend to have a predictable schedule and pretty standard formats. Something where Mark can offer something to viewers but draw on his own experience and, for lack of a better term, coast on 1/3 or so of the episodes without having to research or do a bunch of work will probably make it easier to execute.

Getting a band up and running in a YouTube series would be like self-producing a reality show and require too many people, locations, etc.
 
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