YouTube for musicians: boosting the burn!

This is the first in a series of articles about using YouTube to accomplish your goals as a musician. Many of these goals overlap, but today, we’ll try to keep our focus to using YouTube as a source of inspiration.

There are times when we all go through periods of, well, “reduced motivation”. How do we get the burn back to continue our relentless drive to improve, enjoy, and share our music? How to we get back “into the zone”?

YouTube: Buglers Holiday!

As mentioned in previous articles, attending a live performance or watching a movie with a great score are two ways to keep the flame burning brightly. YouTube offers another…although it does have a few downsides.

First, nearly anyone can post a video. This may be YouTube’s greatest strength, but it is quite possibly its worst flaw. Little Bobby down the street can produce a video that does little but consume bandwidth/time and crowd out more helpful offerings. (Admit it: you’ve seen videos like that, too.) Worse still, someone who seems knowledgeable can provide how-to advice that can be detrimental or downright dangerous. The internet gives with one hand…and takes with the other. Caveat emptor.

But back to the positives. On balance, it’s great for a Part-Time Musician (PTM) to have the breadth of videos available that exist on YouTube. Many clips provide helpful information, and many also provide inspiration to those watching. For today, let’s stick to the inspiration.

Like J.K. Rowling’s Mirror of Erised, YouTube can consume hours of your time and give little in return…but an occasional visit can be a nice boost. You want examples, you say? Glad you asked!

Below is a video that should inspire you to pull out your chosen instrument and really take it to task…even if you aren’t a trumpeter. Enjoy!

In future articles, we’ll take a look at how PTMs can use YouTube for equipment setup and maintenance, technique, and ancillary training ideas…all good things for your inner musical geek.