Gutar teachers

[mikeandronda]

Hey, I have played guitar for over 19 yrs and have taught part time for 12 of them until about a year ago when I went full time...... I would love to hear some of your teaching techniques and ways you teach your students. Over the last year I have developed a program that I teach technique and theory.

I have found it to be very successful so far. With in 1-2 months I have most of my students playing chords and some scales and even some arrpeggios. I try to keep everything relitive for the first couple of months so most of the lessons are interchangable with what Keys I teach them in....in other words when I teach the basic scales I teach them in the Key of A....same with arppeggios. I teach a few rythems in the key of A and after they get good at these things they are able to jam a often even write their own stuff.

Another thing I do is create CDs of there lessons for them.....If we are working on a song I record drums,(drum machine)Rythem guitar, lead and sometimes bass. Then the second song on CD would be drums,rythem and Bass, then the next one would only be drums or maybe bass too. This way they can practice the part they want to with what ever part playing in the back ground. I charge an extra 5 bucks for the CDs ( in truth not really worth my time but they love it and happy students are students who stick around)

I am getting close to makeing a real living at this So I am looking at expanding into maybe putting up a web site with lessons and my students could also maybe have their lessons posted. ( they would get password to access)

I would love to hear any comments or ideas any of you may have.

 

[ermghoti]

I am a sucky teacher. The basics came pretty easily for me, so when a n00b hits a stumbling block, I don't have much to tell them except "practice, ya lazy bastid." I mean, I can show somebody how to postion their hands and fingers for a barre chord, but some people just seem to have a block of some sort, and just can't do anything. I spent two months with a guy trying to get him to play the standard 12-bar, triplet feel, blues progression (you know, the one that is about 50% of all rock music), and he never could do it, not straight eighths, either. I think it took me about an hour to get a hang of it when I learned. So I don't try to teach guitar anymore.

 

[Clive Hugh]

I am a sucky teacher. The basics came pretty easily for me, so when a n00b hits a stumbling block, I don't have much to tell them except "practice, ya lazy bastid." I mean, I can show somebody how to postion their hands and fingers for a barre chord, but some people just seem to have a block of some sort, and just can't do anything. I spent two months with a guy trying to get him to play the standard 12-bar, triplet feel, blues progression (you know, the one that is about 50% of all rock music), and he never could do it, not straight eighths, either. I think it took me about an hour to get a hang of it when I learned. So I don't try to teach guitar anymore.

Yeah, been there too, the other thing I found when teaching kids was boys always had excuses why they hadn't practised, it was football, swimming,etc. where the girls just practised. Sometimes a parent would say "he practises every night, I can hear him playing" so I would aimlessly strum an open guitar and say "does it sound like this?" and they would nearly always answer yes. The little buggers would be sitting on their bed reading a comic and making noises with the spare hand. I gave it away.

 

[TMatt142]

teaching

wow, sounds like I need a few lessons from ya too!!!! I taught for a few years back in highschool but I knew I wasn't a good teacher because I learned by ear and can't really read music. On top of that, my first few teachers usually jammed for 20 min and then taught me something worth forgetting the last ten. I had only two teachers who really impacted me but none ever went into theory with me so I have tried to learn it on my own. I will say one thing about the 10 students I had......The two girls I had were WAY better than the boys I taught. My 6 yr old boy (though young) was my best boy student, and the rest of the teenage boys I taught never wanted to delve into the "music" side of things. They just wanted to learn "Ride the lightning" or "For whom the Bell tolls" So I had to constantly dangle the proverbial "metallica carrot" in front of them trying to get them to learn the fret board......

 

[Dani Pace]

It sure would be nice if someone could invent a patience pill. Many of the people (mostly teenage boys) I have worked with seem to expect to take a couple of lessons and instantly be able to play like a pro. If it worked like that we would all be rock stars (or would have been, I'm a little old for the stardom trip.) Then there are the ones who just want to "impress the chicks," because they can play or are in a band, most of them only want to learn a few power chords and get a bigger (louder) amp. And look out for the MTV crowd, they can't sit still long enough to learn anything. The ratio of dissapointment is far greater than most of us might think. Once in a while you get lucky and along comes someone with a genuine interest and desire to learn, when this happens nurture and guide them with both what they want to learn and what they need (or will need) to know. So far I haven't found a formula that works for everybody, each student has their learning speed and individual expectations. The ones who hang in through the basic chords and simple scales are usualy the ones who stick with it long enough to become musicians. A main point is do not overwhelm a student by giving them too much too fast, give then just enough to make them think and want to learn more. Loose their interest and you loose a student.

 

[n8tron]

I just started teaching guitar and have a mid-twenties female who just started playing as a student. She is doing fantastic however in a way she is to bright for her own good. She'll ask questions about the theory I'm teaching her that I shouldn't be explaining at this stage because I'm afraid it will just confuse her, which I think it has. Other than that its been a great experience.

Also, do you find it good to jump around a lot? Like chords one day, then scales, then learn a song, then fingerpicking, then back to chords, then arpeggios... etc. or do you stick to one topic for awhile? I generally jump around a bit to try and keep interest, but I'm wondering if it would be better to stick longer on a single subject.

 

[mikeandronda]

I do jump around but with the reason that I like to keep things relevent. Like I will teach chords first, maybe a simple scale pattern (pentatonic or blues) then maybe work on some barr chords/power chords.....I will then put it all together and help them or me write a simple song pattern. This is usally about 2-3 weeks worth of lessons and at the end of these lessons I make a CD......I start the process over with a bit more diffecult lessons......sometimes I will throw them a couple measures of a song so they feel like they are a guitarist......not just someone taking lessons.......I make sure I encourage them and praise them for there accomplishments. You guys are 100% right it takes tons of patience. You could be the greatest guitarist in the world and not understand why you are.....there are so many little tiny details that make you a good guitarist, that need to be explained....often times over and over.