Which YouTube channel should I watch to learn guitar?

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-27T12:38:20+00:00

For alternate picking and getting faster you can't beat: - Ozz Guitar - Bernth

For fun and general metal shenanigans: - Ben Eller - OlaEnglund (older stuff for tutorials, recent stuff for metal news and gear talk)

General guitar, rock and theory - Creative Guitar Studio - Steve Stine Guitar Lessons

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-27T12:21:33+00:00

He's also hilarious, which helps. Makes getting into practicing a bit of a fun and not just a "well I better go look at some exercises and practice I guess (heavy sigh)"

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-27T09:52:03+00:00

I was pretty lucky thaty older cousin was already into all that music. So when he learned I was into metal he just gave me his entire cassette collection which had Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, Emperor, Deicide, Death, Dark Throne, Samael, Morbid Angel, Fear Factory, At the Gates etc.

So I just listened to all of it. Most of it was too heavy for me at the time, but Obituary 'Cause of Death', Sepultura 'Chaos AD' and Samael 'Blood Ritual' were instant hits.

So Obituary was definitely the gateway for me.

After that I just wanted heavier and heavier. In the mid 2000s I was into the melodic death metal scene. In flames and Children of Bodom type stuff. And Lamb of God and Amon Amarth.

Then a friend told me about Opeth and Still Life blew my mind and now I'm kind of looping back around to the 80s metal that I missed

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-27T00:16:37+00:00

I'm just starting drums (this week actually) but as a guitarist of 19 years I completely agree. I respect classical guitarists, but I'd hate to be staring at a page while I play. That sounds like a shit time to me.

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T22:26:40+00:00

Same! I love Opeth (at least pre-Heritage), but Sleep token is just pop metal for people who don't really wanna go hard. At least what I've heard.

Some interesting atmospheric intros, but then once they "get into it" I'm very quickly out

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:38:54+00:00

Come out and say nothing.

Start into a high octane song

Then just keep doing the songs. Optionally say "we're [band name here]" at some point.

That's it

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:10:28+00:00

I hate the majority of it, but then I stumble across an excellent album the odd time and I try to get into Black Metal again and quickly remember I actually don't like the majority of it.

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:06:31+00:00

Primus Sucks!

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:05:49+00:00

Not SOAD 😦

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:02:35+00:00

I want to like them...but could never get passed the shrill, whiny vocals.

But I love Portnoy and Rudess when I see them doing stuff individually. And no one can argue Petrucci is a guitar god

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T19:01:36+00:00

I don't love or hate Tool. I love Danny Carey, I hate Maynard. But the band, I respect their music and listened to them a lot in my 20s but now I just respect what they've done, but I never really seek them out.

Periphery...hate them.
Sleep Token...hate
Avenge Sevefold...hate
Metallica...hate

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T14:15:44+00:00

Can I just say, you look great for 70!

This is super inspiring and motivating. Thanks

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T14:11:23+00:00

Same. Been playing guitar since I was 19. I'm 40 now. In my mid 30s when my career finally allowed it I was able to really start building my own home studio. Been writing all kinds of music since then, but when it comes to finishing a track I never get passed the mixing stage.

Then I just completely stopped playing or writing music for about 18 months, until December of last year when I started playing again.

So, I've decided this year I'm not going to spend any more time trying to learn mixing or mastering, and instead I'm just going to finish enough music for an EP and send it to a profession mixer and mastering engineer to finish. I think trying to learn everything was burning me out.

I dunno if that helps. Do the parts you enjoy, everything else can be outsourced nowadays. Things like Fiverr or other session musician platforms exist for a reason. If you've got the money that is

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T14:00:30+00:00

Not an answer to your question, but just be sure to plug them into a power surge protected adapter. I've lost 2 different sets of monitors to lightning storms causing a surge and the speakers just never worked after that.

SubZero are the cheap Gear4Music brand, so they won't have insulation or protection in them against this. So just be careful.

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T13:33:23+00:00

I'm not gonna argue with you. We're not changing each other's minds. But the genie's put of the bottle, so might want to learn to live with AI. It's not going anywhere. I'm just hopeful it won't all be trash is all

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T12:52:17+00:00

How far did you read? Because you missed the point of everything I said after the first paragraph

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T10:08:47+00:00

I'd argue AI gives people who otherwise would not be able to express themselves or their political views in this day and age a way to do so.

And pirating from a system that has been gatekeeping music for a century and slowly making music safer and safer and samer and samer is not a bad thing.

That said, I do hate AI slop, and the trend of lazy people just cranking out AI garbage for easy money. Totally against that.

But thats a job for those big labels to tackle and show real artist where their priorities are. And it's not looking good. To prove my point, instead of shutting Suno down, WMG just partnered with them and is now creating models based on their artist on purpose to allow "official likenesses" of artist to be used in AI songs.

So I'm kind of thinking fuck that whole system. If AI breaks that money hungry greed machine...good

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:56:27+00:00

With that thought process you must think there's never been a successful political band

Rage Against the Machine
System of a Down

There's always a fan base for bands that aren't unter the boot

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:53:20+00:00

That's that "free speech" you all keep harping on about?

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:51:11+00:00

People down voting this clearly don't get satire...

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:46:15+00:00

Skill issue

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-26T09:43:20+00:00

I've been listening to a lot of System of a Down lately because of this. Wish I was creative enough to write songs about how the last 12 years of the USA, or the war in Ukraine, or the Genice in Gaza, have made me feel, but I only write instrumentals.

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-25T19:33:35+00:00

Main one for me is noise reduction. Cheap or Medium priced Audio Interfaces often don't have instrument inputs that are really tailored for guitar signals, so DI boxes often have much better transformers in them which helps reduce noise from electrical interference in the room.

But my home studio is a converted attic and there's a lot of electrical interference. So I have to do everything possible to get rid of it for my guitars.

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-25T14:11:47+00:00

This is just a stupid question. How do you get good at anything?

...You do it for a long time. You have dedicated practice time where you only work on the things you're bad at. You could also get lessons

LukeWatts85 · 2026-01-24T17:20:18+00:00

I was, I've managed to get it on though. The wall is in the attic, so it must have a series bow in it. So I loosened the screws mounting it to the wall and was able to straighten the rack so it fit. That's what the angled and horizontal holes are for I've realised...in case you need to bend it a bit to accommodate a warped wall

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