guitar cookie cutter

To find the right guitar Teacher

The electric guitar has advanced far beyond the time when someone could teach himself (or herself) to become a world-class player. If your ambition is to become a competent player and a competent musician, you need a competent teacher. Even if your goal is more modest, you can reach these goals much more quickly, easily and efficiently with the guidance of the right teacher.

Much of the information necessary to learn about guitar playing (and music in general) is available from many sources. There are hundreds of books, instructional videos, CD-ROMs, and of course the internet. Although a lot of information is readily available, There are a lot of incorrect, incomplete and otherwise bad information (this is especially true for a lot of information found on the internet!).

You get need help of an excellent teacher to teach you how to fully understand and apply the correct information. You can save a lot of unnecessary frustration and disappointment by studying with a good teacher. Remember that textbooks, CD-ROMs, instructional videos and the Internet can not answer your specific questions. They can not offer you advice on your playing, songwriting, ear training, etc. They can not listen to your games and point out any errors or omissions that may be present. Some textbooks is great, and I've seen some pretty good CD-ROMs out there too, but you still need the help of an excellent teacher to guide you through everything, and to help you to develop your skills and musicianship correctly and efficiently.

Great teachers manage and schedule new materials and effectively explain their importance and meaning. A teacher should encourage you when you are doing well and correct you when you make mistakes. Good teachers will show you how to organize your practice materials and show you how to effectively manage your practice time (this is crucial to your progress!). They help you build your confidence level (if you're not consciously aware that this happens). A great teacher will help you to be confident with your technical skills so you can perform difficult techniques on your guitar comfortably. These teachers emphasizes creativity (songwriting and improvising) and performing.

Great teachers want to ensure that you fully understand what you are learn and, most importantly, teach you how to use it by giving you detailed explanations and encourage you to ask questions when something is unclear. A good teacher sincerely cares about your musical growth and development. An experienced and competent teacher will take you far beyond what you can learn on their own. Unfortunately, guitar teachers not licensed, and there is no organization that oversees or regulates them. Anyone can claim to be a good teacher, and there are plenty of people who do this claim. The number of competent teachers is limited.

This brings us to this crucial question: How can a student find choose, and then accurately evaluate a guitar teacher? Here are some questions you should ask any teachers you are considering studying with. I also have my own comments for each question:

1) Can you tell me about your teaching experience? May I see your resume or credentials? How long have you been teaching and approximately how many students have you learned during this time?

At least three to five years of teaching experience is preferred – certainly not less than one year of experience. Prefer a teacher who has taught a moderate to large numbers of students. It takes time for a teacher to really learn to teach well, and the main way that someone learns to teach is by teaching for a while.

Students at a new teacher are like experiments. These teachers is learning how to learn on the job by trial and error. They need time to learn to teach, and will make some mistakes early in their careers. You do not want to be one of the first thirty to fifty students. Let a new teacher get his or her experience by making mistakes with one another.

2) Do you teach private lessons or team teaching?

You definitely want private lessons, unless you're a complete beginner or are enrolled in a college music course. You will learn much more about playing guitar in a one-on-one private lesson or in a correspondence lesson program.

3) What style do you teach best?

Be sure to ask this question, before telling the next teacher what style of music you want to learn. Many teachers claim to teach all styles well. Beware of this. Do not be impressed by someone who tells you that he or she can teach all styles of music well.

If you really want to be a great rock guitarist, take lessons from a rock teacher, not a blues or country player who claims to teach all styles well. Find yourself a good rock teacher. To learn more styles of music, are not similar (like country, classical and heavy metal) take lessons from more than one teacher for each of these styles. Unless you're a total beginner, you are better served by a expert teacher in your style, not a jack-of-all-subjects teacher.

4) What is the cost of lessons?

Excellent teachers are in demand and usually already have a lot of students. These teachers often are not cheap. I can tell that things are going rates for good teachers in the Midwestern United States (where I live) is between $ 16 – $ 24 per 1 / 2 hour private lesson (rates may be different in your state or country). There are a handful of teachers offering correspondence lessons for students not living in the same state or country as a teacher. Usually these lessons are cheaper in the long run (read more about correspondence hours later). Generally, do not look for the teacher with the lowest prices you usually get what you pay for. If you can not afford to pay higher prices for a really good teacher, ask the teacher if you can take lessons on a bi-monthly basis instead of taking weekly lessons.

5) Can you tell me how you teach the lesson?

This is probably the most important questions you can ask a teacher. The answer to this question can help you determine if a teacher is competent, because it is actually a trick question. Anyone can tell you they have been teaching for 100 years, they had 10,000 students and the price is $ 1,000 per lesson, because they are the greatest teacher all the time. But an inexperienced teacher can not trick you with his or her answer to this question (unless he or she reads this article.)

If a prospective teacher who does not know you, your musical knowledge, your guitar technique, your musical tastes, and your musical goals tries to explain how he or she will teach you, this is not a competent teacher. Not even the best teacher on Earth could answer this question if the teacher does not know anything about you, your goals, your playing level, your knowledge of music theory, etc.

So what would an experienced and competent teacher say to you when you ask questions? Well, I can tell you what I do when a new prospective student asks me this. I explain to him or her that I can not formulate a lesson plan for all until I learn more about the students played, goals, musical tastes, knowledge of theory, etc.

To my correspondence students (whom I do not see face to face) I send a long list of questions about everything I need to know about their musical background. This helps me find the best way for us to start. I would also invite students to send me a tape or CD of his or her play with a number of his or her play on it, so I have a clearer picture of what areas be improved.

Of course, for my private students (as I can see face to face), I can only ask the questions I need answers to. And I can hear the student play in front of me. Only when all this can I (or another teacher) really knows how to teach that individual student. It seems obvious that you should not teach a 13-year-old-boy who has never played guitar before and want to learn to play alternative rock in the same way as you will learn a 27-year-man who played in 16 years and wants to be a virtuoso in the style of Steve Vai or Yngwie Malmsteen.

Besides asking the questions above, here are some other things look for:

When students ask how to approach a certain technique or how to keep the right choices, or how to most effectively beat strings that are not supposed to be sounding, advice of some teachers is to do what feels natural to you. Sometimes what you might think, is the natural way to keep your left hand is perhaps not the right way at all. The teacher has to know those kinds of things. Teachers should teach, not let you do whatever you want to do. For most things, there is a right and wrong way and you will be better off learning it the right way from the beginning.

A teacher may have some talented students, but that does not mean that the teacher is good. This may seem like good criteria for evaluating a teacher, but the fact is that sometimes advanced students were already good players before taking lessons from the new teacher. The only time you can judge a teacher's teaching skills based on his or her students' playing skills, is when these advanced students have learned the same teacher when they were beginners.

Some teachers tell their students to learn from as many sources as possible and then leave it up to you to sort through it all and decide what works best for you. How did you decide that? How is a student to know what the best fingering is for a particular scale? Students typically will not know how to determine what the right way. This is one of the reasons you have a teacher. It is his or her job to teach you these things. That's why you give the teacher your money!

Do not assume that a person is a good teacher just because he or she can be an excellent player or has good credentials. I know plenty of competent players with advanced music degrees whom I do not believe are good teachers. I was fortunate to have some really great teachers, but I had some incompetent them also, along the road. When I realized that a teacher was not good, I was looking for a new teacher.

The following things are not required for someone to be a good teacher, but the is certainly to your advantage to have a teacher who in addition to teaching you about guitar and music, can help you in some of these other ways:

1) Guitar Pedagogy – This is learning how to teach guitar. If one of your goals is to become a guitar or a music teacher, so you would benefit greatly from a teacher who can show you how you learn a variety of techniques, music theory, ear training, songwriting, improvisation, etc. You will also need to learn how to treat a wide range different personality types. All students are different. Each student learns and comprehends information in different ways. It is important for any teacher to understand this. You must know how to explain the same information in several ways, so you can learn all your students well.

2) Recording advice – The better They become as a musician, the more likely it will be that you want to record your guitar playing. If you have little or no experience in this area, then someone who can help you is especially helpful.

3) music business – If you plan to record, release and sell your own CD, now or in future, a huge amount of music business information you need to learn if you want to make any money. Some teachers who have released their own CDs, and are promoting it themselves, may be the best source of help to sell your CD. You can also learn other things like how to set up gigs for your band and how you get the press to write about you.

Now that you have a better idea of what to look for in a teacher, the next question is how can you look after a good teacher? It depends on if you are looking for a teacher to teach you privately (face to face) or if you are looking for a teacher to teach you through correspondence. Both are good and there are advantages both ways.

If you are looking for a private teacher to teach you face to face, so check these places first: Contact the music department at universities and colleges near you. Although they can not help you directly, they can usually refer you to someone who can help. Next you can try your local music shops (where guitars are sold). Most music shops offer lessons. And most of the teachers found here are not of the highest quality, but some times there are great teachers you can find in these shops.

When you call one of these stores, ask to speak with the manager or owner. Find out by him or her who are the most qualified teachers for you (your style and skill level). When you get the teachers' names, make sure to talk with each of the teachers privately. Ask them, teachers at all the issues we've gone over above. If you are not satisfied with any of those teachers, keep looking.

If you are looking by correspondence lessons, your search will be slightly different (and these experiences are usually a little cheaper in the long run). You can see on the internet these types of teachers, and you can also contact the universities (in any part of the world). The best thing about correspondence lessons is that you can learn from any teacher in the world (that teaches through correspondence)! What I would look for in a correspondence teacher is one who has done this kind of teaching for a while, a person who always gives you the opportunity to ask questions for your learn by email or telephone (no extra charge!).

I personally do not think that courses (like CD-ROM courses) are a good idea because they do not provide private and individual instruction needed to teach in the most efficient manner. Even though correspondence lessons are not face to face, it must learn to be personalized your skill level, your musical knowledge, your style of music and your musical goals.

Stay away from a one-size-fits-all method or the cookie-cutter style courses. All are different, and is on another level, has different musical goals, and likes different music. So lessons (whether face to face or correspondence) should tailored specifically to your needs.

After teaching guitar and music for over 11 years now, I can tell you to use the above information can do a huge difference in finding an experienced high quality teacher. An incompetent teacher can seriously hamper your ability to fully develop your guitar and music skills. If you are not progressing well, but you use a lot of time practicing, find another teacher.

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