Rick Beato is one of the most popular and influential music YouTubers, with more than five million subscribers and almost 1.5 billion views.

The multi-instrumentalist, teacher and producer has attracted such names to his channel as Noel Gallagher, Brian May, Sting and David Gilmour. He is coming to the Ambassador Theatre in Dublin in November.

Did you grow up in a musical household?

On my mom’s side of the family, a couple of her sisters were music teachers, her brother played bass and my grandfather was an amateur guitarist. And then my dad was an avid record collector, even though he never played an instrument. And myself and my youngest brother, John, both played guitar.

Do you think there’s a music gene? Or is it just that you’re playing music at an early age and you’ve got somebody to teach you?

I think there’s some of both of those. I think that motivation is inherited, and I think motivation is the strongest predictor of whether someone learns to play an instrument, because the learning curve is very steep. It takes a while for something to become enjoyable and not a chore.

Today it’s more difficult. My kids don’t want to practise their instruments. Pretty much everybody that I knew played some kind of an instrument when I was growing up, in the 1960s and 1970s.

Do you think everybody has the ability to play music?

I won’t say everybody. There are people I’ve met that are literally tone deaf, but I can count them on one hand.