You can get pretty far with online/video lessons and ultimately the amount of time you spend practicing will define how much you progress. This format of learning is good, because it can be cost effective, you can go at your own pace and videos can be rewatched repeatedly until you “get it”.
However, if you want to progress past a certain point, you will need some type of 1-to-1 situation. A good teacher can assess what skills you have accumulated and what holes you have in your game. This is a super important step in your musical development because many musicians who are self-taught have only focused on things that have resonated with them and not the “boring stuff”. Or they learned what felt like a well-rounded approach online, but failed to realize they were missing the deeper essence, feel and/or tone which bring the concepts to life.
I was self-taught from the ages 13-16. I got far in my development from videos, transcribing, etc. But when I decided to go to college for music (Manhattan School of Music), I enlisted the help of a great teacher (Andrew Harkin). I quickly realized that I had holes in my playing, and my natural ability and ear would only get me so far. This was a humbling experience since I was playing at a seemingly high level, but would stumble on some “basic” things glossed over in my practice. Andrew helped me patch my holes and blossom into the player I always wanted to be.
At Manhattan School of Music, I studied with the late Jeff Andrews, who was an insanely talented musician and a protege of Jaco Pastorius. Again, I learned new things and was shown new inspiring perspectives on music. He had insight regarding the bass and my playing that were definitely not on my radar.
After that, I was done formerly studying with teachers, but when I fell in love with Brazilian music in my early 20’s, I took a few lessons from the great Nilson Matta. I played (for him) my version of samba, bossa nova, etc. and he quickly pointed out that while the notes were correct, my feel was not. As a native to Brasil, this was built into his DNA, but to my ears, I thought I was playing everything correctly. He helped me understand the history and feel of the music, which is something I could not have done alone.
This is what I hear a lot from players these days. A musician (on social media for instance) plays a famous song or line and while the notes are technically correct, it doesn’t sound quite right. These are things a good teacher or mentor can instantly hear and help you with.
Now, this post is only for musicians who want to reach beyond their current abilities and many are happy just doing their thing. This is also completely valid, since everyone has different goals and music is ultimately to be enjoyed at all levels! Also, I have my own e-learning music website (mymusicmasterclass.com), so I’m certainly not bashing online learning. That being said, I’ve always stated that my website is not a replacement for a good teacher, it’s just a supplementation that will help add different nuances alongside personal instruction. Happy learning!