Be A Guitar Teacher
How to be a guitar teacher You don't need to be world-class to teach guitar.
You just need to be better than your students and willing to work at developing your skills as a guitar teacher.
Why teach guitar? Teaching guitar to others is good for us; musically and financially speaking.
It forces us to put our own playing under the microscope and uncover any weaknesses in our guitar playing abilities.
It can also provide a reliable income as in the uncertain world of the music industry.
Preparation Having suitable prepared material to use when teaching guitar is vital for delivering high quality lessons that will keep your guitar students coming back for more.
This means chord charts for chord-based repertoire from beginners up to higher levels of difficulty.
This also could mean preparing or sourcing tablature of rock-repertoire riffs and licks.
Marketing yourself as a guitar teacher You need a website.
It doesn't have to be big or flash; just a photo of you with your guitar, your contact details and a clip of you playing is all that required.
Make sure you indicate where in the country you teach.
Being professional Keep records of your lessons so that you always know what you taught your student last lesson, and therefore have an idea of what to teach them next lesson.
Keep an accurate diary.
Be punctual; start and end lessons on time.
Make your terms of business clear in lessons one.
It's reasonable to ask for 24 or 48 hours notice for the cancellation of a guitar lesson, or else to expect payment.
Your students will of course expect the same in return.
If you cancel a lesson late then you must provide a free guitar lesson to make up for it.
Acknowledge your limitations If you have never played classical guitar, don't pretend you have.
Similarly, if you have only ever played classical guitar, don't pretend you are an expert at jazz.
Be encouraging It's far more important to reinforce what goes well when you are teaching guitar to someone, than what goes badly.
Morale must be kept high otherwise students, quite naturally, get demoralised and give up.
This is a disaster for them and you! Try different approaches We all learn in slightly different ways.
Some people like technicalities, others struggle with them.
Tailor each class to suit the learner.
Learn from your guitar lessons What went well? What could have gone better? Learn from your experiences teaching guitar to continue to improve the quality of your guitar tuition.
Is there a gap in your material that needs filling?
You just need to be better than your students and willing to work at developing your skills as a guitar teacher.
Why teach guitar? Teaching guitar to others is good for us; musically and financially speaking.
It forces us to put our own playing under the microscope and uncover any weaknesses in our guitar playing abilities.
It can also provide a reliable income as in the uncertain world of the music industry.
Preparation Having suitable prepared material to use when teaching guitar is vital for delivering high quality lessons that will keep your guitar students coming back for more.
This means chord charts for chord-based repertoire from beginners up to higher levels of difficulty.
This also could mean preparing or sourcing tablature of rock-repertoire riffs and licks.
Marketing yourself as a guitar teacher You need a website.
It doesn't have to be big or flash; just a photo of you with your guitar, your contact details and a clip of you playing is all that required.
Make sure you indicate where in the country you teach.
Being professional Keep records of your lessons so that you always know what you taught your student last lesson, and therefore have an idea of what to teach them next lesson.
Keep an accurate diary.
Be punctual; start and end lessons on time.
Make your terms of business clear in lessons one.
It's reasonable to ask for 24 or 48 hours notice for the cancellation of a guitar lesson, or else to expect payment.
Your students will of course expect the same in return.
If you cancel a lesson late then you must provide a free guitar lesson to make up for it.
Acknowledge your limitations If you have never played classical guitar, don't pretend you have.
Similarly, if you have only ever played classical guitar, don't pretend you are an expert at jazz.
Be encouraging It's far more important to reinforce what goes well when you are teaching guitar to someone, than what goes badly.
Morale must be kept high otherwise students, quite naturally, get demoralised and give up.
This is a disaster for them and you! Try different approaches We all learn in slightly different ways.
Some people like technicalities, others struggle with them.
Tailor each class to suit the learner.
Learn from your guitar lessons What went well? What could have gone better? Learn from your experiences teaching guitar to continue to improve the quality of your guitar tuition.
Is there a gap in your material that needs filling?
Source...