A guitar player has strummed his way to success after becoming an internet hit.

Justin Sandercoe, from Chiswick, set up a channel on video-sharing site YouTube seven years ago, posting simple step-by-step videos of himself playing notes, chords and riffs.

But from humble beginnings Mr Sandercoe’s video tutorials have become a hit, achieving a staggering 58 million views. His own site now attracts a reported 650,000 unique visitors a month.

Mr Sandercoe, 34, said: “For music video is the perfect medium because most of the senses are being engaged.

“Learning from a book is really difficult. Learning is about listening and looking.

“I got an email from a viewer saying ‘I’ve been learning from books for five years but I watched your videos for one night and now I’ve learnt how to play’.”

Mr Sandercoe’s YouTube fame resulted in him teaching the guitar and touring with singer Katie Melua.

He has also played with French First Lady Carla Bruni and jammed with Queen guitarist and former Feltham resident Brian May.

The guitar teacher, whose only non-musical job has been working as a bar man in the George IV pub in Chiswick High Road, began strumming away at the age of just six on a ukulele.

His teaching career began six years later, at 12, when he would teach other children, and some adults too, how to play in his home town in Tasmania Mr Sandercoe moved to London in 1996 after receiving a grant from Arts Tasmania and chose to study at the Guitar Institute, now the Institute of Contemporary Music. Performance, where he continued to teach after finishing his studies.

He now has students worldwide, with his short video classes being watched by budding guitarists from Germany, Canada and even Guatemala.

Speaking of his success Mr Sandercoe said: “I wasn’t really anticipating it. I just thought at the start it would get me a few more lessons.”

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