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Marty Schwartz, the celebrated guitar teacher behind the five-million subscriber YouTube channel Marty’s Music shares some of the secrets of his success with Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto in episode three of the sophomore season of Inside the Noise. Always a popular music educator in his community, Schwartz had to contend with losing his teaching job when the economy crashed in 2008, and very quickly find another way to support his growing family.
“My daughter was three and I had a newborn son,” he says. “I’m freaking out. I’m considering moving back in with my parents with a wife and two kids. That was basically failure. It was a really stressful time.”
But two things happened that would change Schwartz’s fortunes for the better.
“When I had my daughter, I was that goofy dad who would run around recording her with a camcorder as she did these really cute things,” remembers Schwartz. “I wanted to share these videos with my family, but there was no easy way to do so back then. A musician had told me about this thing called YouTube, and I was using it to host videos of my gigs and rehearsals—a place where band members could watch them when we were working on material. And I thought, ‘Oh yeah, I could share the family videos on YouTube, as well.’
“But here's where the ‘family’ YouTube channel eventually became Marty Music. I had a guitar student who wouldn’t practice what I’d teach him. I got all the classic teenager excuses, and he’d say, ‘Well, I couldn’t remember how it went.’ So, I’d record stuff like the ‘Fire’ lick by Jimi Hendrix at the original tempo and real slow to ensure he could practice to it. I also told him I’d check how many views it got to confirm whether he was watching it. Then, I was like, ‘Wait a minute. This is a really good idea. I can do this with every student.’”
As Schwartz gained more and more students, and uploaded more and more videos for each student to study, he realized they were not just watching their video lessons, they were digging into the other lessons, as well. Eventually, he realized titling each video for specific students was limiting views.
“I discovered that naming a video ‘Mississippi Queen for Chase’ would get hundreds more views than a video with the name ‘Chase,’” he says. “I wanted other people watching—that’s kind of fun. So, I started titling everything with the name of the song first. After a month, that ‘Mississippi Queen’ video might have 2,000 views. I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to keep doing this.’”
Between his gut instincts and talents as an educator, the quality of his lesson content, sussing out what is now considered “SEO optimization,” gradually improving his production values, getting more savvy about podcast creation and completely retooling his channel as “Marty Music” in 2016, Schwartz expanded his reach to billions of views and millions of subscribers.
And while Schwartz may not be a boisterous, in-your-face cheerleader, he absolutely comes off as a teacher who believes in you and who will help you figure it out—whatever the musical challenges might be.
“I think anyone can learn guitar,” he says. “I really do. If someone says they can’t, they’re already creating a limiting thought. I try to change that thought process. Now, we all have different strengths and abilities. Keith Richards can’t solo like Slash, but he certainly did very well with his own creativity. You just have to lean into what your strengths are. But the most important thing is consistently picking up the guitar every day and being super patient with yourself.”
Catch the full conversation and other episodes of Inside the Noise with Gabe Dalporto on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any of your favorite major platforms. When you subscribe, you’ll get new episodes every Tuesday at 3 p.m. PT.