Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

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Mossbank
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Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by Mossbank » Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:23 pm

After 15 years of being a journo/writer/editor I leave my big London job at the end of next week to move to New Zealand. A big change (my missus is from there and we've decided to give it a go).

So failing me not being able to get another job in publishing (don't know if I want to either) the only other thing I can do well is play the guitar. I've tought lots of mates and colleagues over the years and they always seem pleased with the experience and results.

But I have no 'official' qualifications. There's got to be plenty on here who teach for a living, for fun or just to top up their wages as a second career.

Any advice to someone about to give it a try? (Try not to put me off too much:-))

Thanks,
GO

Thinline_slim
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by Thinline_slim » Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:41 pm

I moved back home to a fairly small, rural farm town to be a part of my families business about 4 years ago and I started teaching guitar about 2.5 years ago after a local mom kept hounding me. During that time I've had some great successes and a couple of kids that were just not that interested and fizzled out. Here are a couple of things I've learned via trial and error:

-Make sure your time allotment is good for the age/ability of your student. I started off with hour lessons but I've found that only really works with kids who work really hard at the guitar and who are older. Younger/beginner students = half hour tops. I've found that kids younger than 10 are tough in an individual lesson so I'm planning on starting a class setting with about 4 kids ages 6-10. I'll see how that goes.
-Find a set of beginner and intermediate books that you'd be able to teach from to younger kids or beginner players that don't have a lot of music background. I feel that rudimentary note reading is important for the younger players just because if they do love playing they can get into theory easier. Older beginning students just might want to rock so throw the books out for them. I use Alfred publishing books both the beginner series and the Jerry Snyder series. They have a good beginner theory book as well as an all inclusive "adult" theory book. If you want specifics on these just pm me.
-If you have a solid background in theory, great. If you don't I'd work on it both on your own and try to find someone who can explain advanced concepts to you.
-Make sure everyone has fun (pretty obvious). I actually do a lesson plan for each student because they all want something different from playing guitar.

Good luck, I'm sire others with much more teaching experience will chime in. It's quite rewarding.
Jake
OrangePaul wrote:Ok gitar lead to you Jake :D
"One of the 400"

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Mossbank
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by Mossbank » Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:10 pm

Thanks Jake, and I'll look into those books.

Borderline Productions
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by Borderline Productions » Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:58 pm

Sounds like good advice. The best music teachers my kids had (one everything from piano, cello, bass, percussion, etc) all gave the kids a spiral notebook with their week's assignment. With it written down, they can't pretend they didn't know what the assignment was. Have the beginners learn something they can play and sound okay pretty quickly. If they want to learn to play a particular song, work on having them learn it. Get the parents involved and on-board.

Good luck!
Bob

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ESBlonde
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by ESBlonde » Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:44 pm

Back in the day I did some home teaching, I used to plan each lesson and have a page printed with the task which I would leave them to work on. As regards theory, it's a nice to have but as said above don't get hung up if the older players want to rock out. I also would ask periodically what each player was listening to and work out and score up parts of, or the whole song to the standard they ought to be able to achive. When they play the 4 chords to their favourite tune it can motivate them a lot. :wink: Then next week teach them the guitar intro or whatever. :)

Prepare set lessons but be ready to adapt them to the players immidiate needs and abilities.
Here we go; three, four...
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Orange_nobody
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by Orange_nobody » Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:34 am

Mossbank wrote:Any advice to someone about to give it a try? (Try not to put me off too much:-))
I consider that the Paul Gilbert videos are very instructive. I've seen many people watching these videos only with the purpose to learn how to teach.
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defrag
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by defrag » Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:41 pm

Know some music theory.
Create an outline of your curriculum, but tailor it to each student.
Present chord construction.
Review last session then introduce something new.
Be prepared with chord & scale charts, a whiteboard, etc.
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Mossbank
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by Mossbank » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:53 pm

Orange_nobody wrote:
Mossbank wrote:Any advice to someone about to give it a try? (Try not to put me off too much:-))
I consider that the Paul Gilbert videos are very instructive. I've seen many people watching these videos only with the purpose to learn how to teach.
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of PG and have sat there many a time in front of these.

Cheers guys!

Orange_nobody
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by Orange_nobody » Wed Nov 04, 2009 7:39 am

Good luck in New Zealand mate.
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Mossbank
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by Mossbank » Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:49 am

What about charging? Any guidelines on that?

One hour with a Guitar Institute tutor would set you back £35 per hour in London. That's a lot (though they're qualified up to the eyeballs).

Thinline_slim
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Re: Setting yourself up as a Guitar Teacher

Post by Thinline_slim » Wed Nov 04, 2009 2:18 pm

Just remember that being very qualified and being a good teacher are independent of each other. Some teachers are both but certainly not all.

As for charging you'd have to ask around to see what prices will hold up in New Zealand. I found out I was charging 50% ($15 vs $10) more for guitar lessons than most instrument lessons in town, but I was also one of 2 intermediate/advanced teachers and the other guy was a drummer/teacher first and foremost.

Just ask around and see what the market will hold and go with what you're comfortable.
Jake
OrangePaul wrote:Ok gitar lead to you Jake :D
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