Andy Guitar takes time out of his busy schedule to sit down and chat about his YouTube success. We talk about life before YouTube, how he started teaching, a day in the life of a YouTuber and much more!
We highly recommend that you watch through the entire video as it's a very interesting and fun chat! However, if you want to skip to various sections on a second watch, you can do so using the time codes below:
SECTION 1: THE EARLY YEARS (0:24)
We kick off the video by talking about Andy's origins, moving to Leeds and starting to teach the guitar privately. We qucickly establish that Andy had a very different approach to most of the guitar tutors at the time.
SECTION 2: "MISSING THE YOUTUBE BOAT" (4:59)
Andy sets his website up, andyguitar.co.uk, and starts to make YouTube videos just to advertise for local lessons. At this point there was very little thought about any wider influence. He also thought that he had already missed the YouTube boat!
SECTION 3: THE BEST GUITARISTS ARE NOT THE BEST TUTORS (7:17)
We talk about how Andy had to work to be comfortable on camera and how his regional accent helped him get noticed! We also discuss how the best tutors are not necessarily the best guitar players.
SECTION 4: HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT TO TEACH? (10:11)
Andy talsk in detail abotu how he constructs syllabus, how it works on his website and the upcoming release of his brand new app! There is certainly a lot happening for this guy!
SECTION 5: WHEN IT REALLY STARTING TAKING OFF (14:56)
Andy pinpoints the exact moment that it really started taking off for him. He had the 'eureka' idea of how he wanted his lessons to be, and people loved it! We also find out that his first 100,000 views came from a basic iphone recorded lesson!
SECTION 6: THE LEGACY VIDEOS (18:59)
We discuss Andy's 750,000 subscrobers, and how quickly the number seems to be rising. He talks about his legacy videos, but also how he wants to continuously make more content so as not to rely too heavily on them.
SECTION 7: THE DAILY LIFE OF A YOUTUBER? (23:56)
"Boring"! Andy shatters a lot of myths about the daily life of a YouTube superstar, and explains just how much hard work it is to keep on top of the channel and keep it growing!
SECTION 8: BEING A YOUTUBER IS THE NEW ROCKSTAR (28:07)
Andy discusses how he gave up on his riginals band pretty early on and decided he could make a living from teaching the guitar. We also talk about how kids look up to YouTube stars now and want to become pro YouTubers rather than rockstars!
SECTION 9: MARTY McFLY AND THE DARKNESS! (32:21)
We talk gutar influences, and Marty McFly and The Darkness make up two of the major factors in Andy's guitar style. We also discuss a little bit of music business and how positive an effect it can have on any musicians career.
SECTION 10: THE HAND INJURY THAT KNOCKED ANDY OUT FOR A YEAR (40:29)
We look at Andy's album 'First Words' and how his Dad was a major influence on it. We then dscuss the hand injury, brought on by RSI, that stopped Andy for a whole year!
SECTION 11: YOUR LESSONS WITH YOUR GUITAR ACADEMY (50:22)
Andy is taking advanced classes with one of our tutors in Brighton, and we find out more about this. It seems that Ajarrod and Andy both benefit from the lessons in very different ways!
SECTION 12: DO YOU GET RECOGNISED (59:23)
Depending on where Andy is, he can get recognised and people do tend to come up to him for a chat! However, he also gets often mistaken for a few different celebs...
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Congratulations
You've now completed Guest Corner: Andy Guitar and taken a huge step forwards in your guitar playing journey.
Feel free to bask in glory for a while, or go ahead and try another course if you're hungry for more.