The videos on these channels help me become a better guitarist and musician. I learn new guitar techniques, music theory, how to play songs, and music composition.
I recommend starting with a Playlist on each channel that is best suited to your current guitar goals and interests. I guarantee that you’ll improve as a guitarist and musician from the content that is offered by these talented guitarists!
The channels are:
- Marty Music
- John Mayer’s Thoughts
- Late Night Lessons with David Brewster
- Rick Beato
- Signals Music Studio
- Bonus: Star Licks
#1 Marty Music
All skill levels
Channel link
Marty Music, by guitarist Marty Schwartz is a treasure trove of content that is well-suited for beginner, intermediate and advanced guitar players. If you’re just starting on acoustic or electric guitar, check out his Beginner Acoustic Guitar or Beginner Electric Guitar video series.
Beyond beginner lessons, Marty has videos covering music theory, guitar gear, rhythm guitar playing and lead guitar playing. What makes his channel stand out are his tutorial videos teaching you to play songs. His tutorials cover a wide range of artists including Led Zeppelin, Metallica, John Mayer, Fleetwood Mac, Foo Fighters, Rush, Pearl Jam, Eric Clapton, Elton John, and many more.
Whenever I’m looking for a tutorial on how to play a song, I start with Marty’s channel.
#2 John Mayer’s Thoughts
Intermediate and up skill levels
Channel link
John Mayer’s YouTube channel has some excellent content to level-up your guitar playing. His Berklee Clinic videos cover a wide-range of topics from rhythm, to lead guitar playing, to song-writing and how to approach learning the guitar.
The Guitar Advice series covers topics such as the building blocks of songs, finding the root of a lick, using a metronome, using slides in solos, and mixing major and minor pentatonic scales.
It’s wonderful to have a musician, songwriter and guitarist of John’s caliber share his tips and tricks through his videos. Imagine if the guitar heroes of past generations had YouTube channels!
#3 Late Night Lessons with David Brewster
Intermediate and up skill levels
Channel link
Whenever I’m looking for inspiration to sound like a certain guitar player, I start with David’s channel. His Late Night Lessons channel provides in-depth breakdowns of what world-famous guitar players are doing to achieve their sound.
In his “chordplay” videos he’ll break down the chords and chord progressions that define a band’s sound. For example in his “Chordplay – The Chords of Toto” video, David covers the iconic “Hold The Line” progression. He breaks down the chord voicings and chord progression so that you not only learn to play it, but understand the underlying music theory.
In his “3 (insert guitar player name here) licks” he’ll cover three licks that are quintessential to that player’s sound. His “3 Steve Lukather Licks From 1990” (sticking with the Toto theme here) is a great example of the type of insights and lessons David offers in his 3 licks videos.
#4 Rick Beato
All skill levels
Channel link
Rick Beato is not just an accomplished guitar player. He is a songwriter, audio engineer, record producer, and educator. His “everything music” YouTube channel is a cornucopia of content so that you not only improve as a guitar player, but as a musician.
For guitar playing he covers foundational topics such as how to play the pentatonic scale, and how to play melodically over chord changes. He covers foundational music theory topics such as the fastest way to learn modes. He has videos on audio production and recording, such as how to record clean guitar sounds. And he has videos where he shares his expertise on general music topics such as is it worth it to go to music school and how to make a living in music.
I also recommend following Rick on Instagram. It’s a frequently updated feed of short-form guitar lessons that are jampacked with ideas and knowledge.
#5 Signals Music Studio
All skill levels
Channel link
Signals Music Studio channel is created by guitarist and producer Jake Lizzio. Jake has created a wide-range of content for guitarists that covers modes and music theory, song writing, riffing with modes, music deep dives, and scales. Similar to Rick Beato’s channel, Jake produces content that will not only make you a better guitarist, but a better musician and songwriter.
Beginners can start with his major vs minor pentatonic video or 3 rules for writing chord progressions. Jake has a great ability to analyze songs and offer you practical tips on how you can incorporate the lessons into your music, such as in his chord analysis of “We Are The Champions” video. Another example is his how to sound like David Gilmour video, where he breaks down the theory behind David Gilmour’s playing so that you can emulate Gilmour’s signature sound.
Bonus: Star Licks
Intermediate and up skill levels
This isn’t a YouTube channel, but you can find these videos by simply searching for “star licks” on YouTube.
Star Licks was a series of guitar instructional videos produced in the 80s and 90s. A typical video featured a well known guitarist who would walk you through their guitar solos and teach you various techniques that you can incorporate into your own playing. Each video includes exercises and licks that you can work on. I love these videos because they are inspirational (and humbling!) and give excellent ideas to incorporate into your guitar playing.
Guitarists such as Ted Nugent, Steve Lukather, Rik Emmett, Brian May, Nancy Wilson, Carlos Cavazo and Joe Walsh produced Star Licks videos.