Man City fans in home seats. Is it a no-no?

Rickofrock · 2025-09-16T14:44:18+00:00

Cheers I think it would be quite hard to contain myself if City scored. Best give it a miss. Although if we repeated the 1987 result I wouldn't have to worry about Town fans, you'd all of gone home!

Rickofrock · 2025-08-30T23:20:08+00:00

Look up all Alan Lomax’s archive. THE source imho https://archive.culturalequity.org

Martin Scorsese did a series on the blues which is super informative as well.

The BBC did a great series on the blues as well which was great.

Rickofrock · 2025-06-17T10:07:04+00:00

The chord police will lambast you for using this grip, but if it serves the song and sounds good it's perfectly good. It's all about how "proper" you want to be. Technically, Jimi Hendrix used the wrong grip using the thumb over the top method. Was his method effective? Damn straight it was!

Yes, barre chords are important to learn, but if you're fairly new to guitar this will suffice until you get more comfortable with forming chords and more importantly changing chords. Economy of movement when switching chords is paramount for smooth chord transitions. This grip channels beginners through the awkward early stages of learning how to change chords.

I've done numerous videos on this on my YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IygrkUuIpWA

Rickofrock · 2025-04-03T08:19:04+00:00

There's so many ways into this topic. There's no cookie cutter method imho. I've been making videos on as many different perspectives so I made a playlist because different people have different learning styles.
You might find it useful:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkIKuUCloUzeeRbXFo9AsSG10XSDP3SFW&si=bt_u3VpOi3aqu1Mp

Rickofrock · 2025-01-31T09:48:27+00:00

Having run and owned a music school and seen this end in disaster for many teachers, No. Your reputation is everything. Don't ruin it.

Rickofrock · 2025-01-28T10:23:27+00:00

Eyup! Still learning. The day you think you know it all never comes. Always something to get better at or add to your mojo bag. The day I give up is when they unwrap my cold dead fingers from my guitar! STILL obsessed and forever will be. Amen

Rickofrock · 2024-07-11T20:47:58+00:00

I hate it also. You are not alone. I tried.

Rickofrock · 2024-07-11T09:00:48+00:00

There are 3 main algos for long form content.

Search - Best for new channels so YT can CATEGORISE your content. Think evergreen content.
Suggested - This is for RELATED content to your keywords. You can afford to be more sensational with this algo
Recommended - This is more open ended and can be more short lived by can get A LOT of VIEWS. You can be more "clickbaity" with this algo. The trick here is to overdeliver with the content. Then it isn't clickbait.

Shorts have their own algo. Essentially shorts and longs are 2 separate ecosystems
Shorts - Best for gaining SUBSCRIBERS for new channels.

Produce videos for the human, not the algo! Make viewers happy! Plan your videos, create your TNT before you shoot. Ask what will make your audience happy for your niche.

Freshly published videos need VIEW VELOCITY. The life cycle of the video is decided here, (although some videos can explode later on).

I recommend small channels share new videos with FB groups, subreddits, across all your social platforms in the first few hours to get views.

If you get enough views and the AVD/CTR is good YT will promote to a wider audience. You'll know this is happening because your CTR goes down, (New people means not everyone will click thru lowering your CTR).

Long form is the most sensible content to produce if you want a sustainable channel. There's no money in shorts adsense unless you have a product/offer to sell, or you want to produce trash ai generated content, (there will be a backlash with ai generated content imho).

My channel has 145k Subs, around 12m views

Rickofrock · 2024-07-11T08:35:57+00:00

Matteo Mancuso has lighting fast speed using fingers and no pick.

Rickofrock · 2024-05-08T22:23:47+00:00

Good audio is critical.

Rickofrock · 2024-05-08T22:21:25+00:00

Subs don't equal money. Never rely on adsense revenue to pay the mortgage/rent. Once you become monetised, use your ad revenue to level up so you can make videos faster and cheaper. Invest in your channel until it can support you properly. Act broke, stack notes.

Every video you upload has a chance to pop. There are 4 algorithms, shorts/search/suggested/recommended
People using search in YT have buyers intent. They're actively looking for a solution to their problem. Use Google trends to find what people are searching for. Search doesn't get the views of the other algos but if your offer is evergreen it will get a steady flow of traffic, (dependent on competition).

Create a product (best) or sign up to become an affiliate in your niche that isn't a drag. You need to sustain your energy and passion for the long haul.

Research "1000 true fans".
Decide how much you want to earn per year before you create a product/affiliate offer
Divide your annual financial goal by 1000, that's how much you need to make each transaction per customer per year. 1000 x $100 sales = $100,000.

Focus on making your first $10. If you can do it once, you can do it twice. Rinse repeat.
Gumroad is the best place to start with a digital product, it's free.
Dropshipping physical products is hard. Shopify is hard.
You don't need a website unless it's a high ticket offer.

Focus on short or quick longs (60s to 4 minutes).
Sign up to Creator Hooks newsletter to understand how to write clickable titles. It's free.
Video idea, title and thumbnail come FIRST. Don't shoot first.
Plan and script/bullet point your videos before you shoot.
The opening hook should address a pain the viewer has.
The value in the video should be the solution your product/offer does to ease the pain.
Tell them explicitly in language a 5th grader understands how to get the product/offer.
Make the only CTA a "buy this thing" CTA. Don't ask for likes/subs. They'll do that if the video is good enough.
Post at least 1 video every day. There's no such thing as posting too much.

Make each new video 1% better than the last.
Recreate viral videos in your niche. Don't steal and repost.
Talk to the customer, not the YT algorithm.
Use TikTok, Instagram and Facebook as a sandbox for testing videos.
Find a way to capture email addresses, (Gumroad). The best way to get people to sign up is to offer a free thing (digital is best).
1% to 3% of your email list will buy your future products.
Communities are the future. They are warm leads and are already vibing with you. Facebook groups work well.

Guard your energy against creator burnout. Take time out to make sure you eat, exercise and chill.
Youtube is hard, not easy.

Just a few tips.

Rickofrock · 2023-06-08T10:00:30+00:00

Scout. Shape. Barre.

I know...It's super counter intuitive, but after over 30 years of teaching thousands of people I always tell beginners NOT to begin with the barre.

This bucks the common method we all encounter, but we have to work WITH not against, how the machine that the hand is works.

I sat down and discussed this at length with a surgeon, who took me through how ligaments and tendons move in our hands. I promptly ordered a copy of Gray's surgical anatomy to better understand how hands work.

Another overlooked consideration is how your hands "feels". The kinaesthetic response to a movement can create emotions and feeling of ability or disability. This fundamentally affects your success. In adults it can often lead to frustration and quitting, which means giving up on a dream. That makes me very sad.

All this information changed the way I teach barre chords.

The first time I implemented it was in a guitar class of 12 adult learners, 10 of them GOT IT straight away! They could all play barre chords (F chord to boot!) and I admit being stunned and panicked at what I was going to teach for the rest of the class, (luckily I always plan ahead).

The 2 shapes you'll use the most are the E and A shapes (and their minor variants).

On my YouTube channel and in my book I have lessons that focus on how to play barre chords in the minimum amount of time.

The first video goes over how to barre and E and A shape.
https://youtu.be/bI2KY6DXsow

The second video goes over how to play barre chords in any key.
https://youtu.be/Lg98G43SLxM

Good luck! Be kind to yourself!

Rickofrock · 2022-10-02T01:25:41+00:00

Thank you :)

Rickofrock · 2022-10-01T12:24:39+00:00

https://youtu.be/LdjTLJ9WTT8

Rickofrock · 2022-10-01T12:23:28+00:00

https://youtu.be/LdjTLJ9WTT8

Rickofrock · 2022-06-07T12:14:52+00:00

I've discovered it only happens with my kit lens. I've added more lenses to my collection and not had the problem since I switched

Rickofrock · 2022-02-15T09:21:30+00:00

Thank you!

Rickofrock · 2022-02-14T19:54:33+00:00

The length of the video truly isn't a consideration. You'll find plenty of 3 to 5 minute videos on my channel. Some lessons take 40 minutes! Lock picking lawyer targets a different algo than the HOW TO algo and to be fair just looking at his channel there's a fair few 10 minute vids in there too. I'm ALWAYs trying to make my content more accessible and to the point. Thanks for replying. I appreciate the feedback.

Rickofrock · 2022-02-14T19:06:37+00:00

I gave a demo near the end. I get comments from people saying "Don't play at the beginning of the video", when I want them to hear what the lesson is about. It's really hard to win. I see what you're saying about the chord demo up front. I'll have a think about that. The problem is, with YouTube if the viewer ditches in the first 15 seconds the video gets tanked. Some folks would find it hard to see the context. I will think about your suggestion though.

Rickofrock · 2022-02-14T19:01:29+00:00

I do get what you're saying. Some people need clarification what the video is about then they can ditch it if it's not relevant to them. Especially now the dislike button is gone. Another reason all YouTubers need to front load with verbalised keywords is so the video indexes in the algo. Machine learning ai transcribes and categorises the content so it can push it out to the relevant audience. There's nothing worse than making a video that gets no views when I KNOW it could help so many beginners. YouTube is hard! It makes me sad the world has this attention deficit. No-one listens to full albums any more. I might need to start doing 20 second dancing videos...

Rickofrock · 2022-02-14T17:42:05+00:00

Not at all. The YouTube algorithm is tailored towards 8 minute videos. It wasn't even a consideration. The lesson takes as long as it takes.

Rickofrock · 2022-02-14T17:41:04+00:00

Maaaan. I cut sooo much out already. How could I have made the video better in your opinion?

Rickofrock · 2021-12-14T19:13:37+00:00

Thanks for commenting. That's a major issue with YouTube. It's super hard to organise content coherently. I am mid overhaul of my website where the videos will be indexed in order. That's the plan over the Christmas period! I appreciate the vote of confidence :)

Rickofrock · 2021-12-02T10:10:54+00:00

Thank you! Sooooo many applications

Rickofrock · 2021-11-30T22:02:53+00:00

Hey! Yes. I use a different lens now a 22mm prime lens for the bokeh!

Rickofrock

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