Chiswick Resident Teaching the World to Play the Guitar

Lockdown boredom busted by educational fake-beard on YouTube

A long-time Chiswick resident is aiming to teach the locked-down world how to play the guitar from scratch, for free.

Alistair Pope, who has taught guitar in Chiswick since 2005, has taken to YouTube to give frustrated home-bound folk and their children something fun and creative to do.

He says, “I’ve recently been inspired by fitness coach Joe Wicks and his fun daily workouts, and seeing as the lockdown has cut my workload in half I decided to crack on with teaching the world to play guitar from scratch rather than twiddling my thumbs and waiting for life to return to normal. I hope to entertain and inspire people during this difficult time, as well as get them playing this fantastic instrument.”

Using nothing more than a battered, aging smartphone and some free video editing software, Alistair has started his mission by making a comedic and off-the-wall introductory guitar lesson video that starts with the absolute basics such as how to hold and tune the guitar before moving on to a few simple chords. The next lesson will show people how to play a whole song.

You can watch the first lesson on YouTube and share like and subscribe to his channel.

Alistair’s regular students are now learning via Skype and FaceTime, but his other job as a bandleader/tutor for Rock ‘n’ Roll Recruits, a company offering school holiday rock band boot camps for kids in south west London, has had to cease due to social distancing measures.

He adds, “I miss getting out and teaching groups how to play in a band, and that energy has to go somewhere, so these fun YouTube videos are a release for me. I like to have students to interact with, but in their absence I have started inventing guitar student characters for the videos. That’s where the fake beards and hats come in. I’ve made myself laugh in isolation while working on the first lesson, and the people who have seen it so far have told me it made them laugh too, and I’m really happy about that. I hope people tune in, have fun and start learning, and all I ask in return is that they help me spread the word with a 'like', 'subscribe' and 'share'.”

May 2, 2020