Guitar Lessons

[Kyler Patrick]

Hey guys, so I recently lost my job. I really need an income and I decided I should do something that I love. I only love guitar, so how bout I give guitar lessons! I have thirteen years experience as a musician, but only a couple years teaching and that's just at my church once a week. So what are some things I need to know going into this? Maybe some good lessons I could start with, how to work with the student, what to remember if the student has trouble etc. etc. I want to get started as soon as possible and all suggestions are helpful here. Thanks!

[Rabs]

Buy (or borrow) some books that you can recommend to your students at a few different levels... Then go through those books and make sure you know it all... And teach from the books, you only need to stay one lesson ahead of them ;)

 

don't really know what else to say apart from that. I think its just one of those things you have to just do it and see what happens.. Good luck though man, ive been unemployed for over two years now so I know what its like, and good on you for choosing to do something you love.. Its the best if you can make it work.. (better than being someone elses slave for pittance and no thanks or loyalty (or respect) for what you do for them).

[Karloff]

i agree with what Rabs said. Get some basic books, like Mel Bay, and like what Rabs said, go thru them on your own first, and stay one step ahead. and be flexible with the students. and maybe mix it up a bit too. while youre teaching them the basics, start slowly teaching them "patterns/boxes" the pentatonics... so they can start improvising/jamming...

and also, like Rabs, until a year ago, i was laid off for 2 years. good for you , for moving in this direction. wish you all the luck.

[pauloon]

Can't offer much advice really,...but I taught my son to play...(he's semi pro)..and I am in the process of teaching my grandkids to play,...I think it's important that they grab onto an easy tune or melody pretty quicky rather than,,''practice this chromatic scale for 10 hours),

 

Even 5 and 6 year olds dig ''smoke on the water'' one string job,low e.......:) .

[milod]

Laugh at this if you will, but I'd say first to decide what kind of guitar playing you wanna teach.

 

If you're teaching for long-term pickers, you need to get into a bit of theory, a bit of sight reading, and then decide how to teach this or that technique. Gonna teach rock/jazz on the fingerboard with or without emphasis on chords, or... how to do Bach or... how to play rhythm rock or Grass?

 

Each of the above can be done in myriad of ways.

 

I've also decided that today's children - folks 16-30 who are young enough to be my grandkids - tend to want what and how they think they should be learning, as opposed to taking seriously what you're doing with whatever sort of curriculum you are doing. Stuff I taught in the '60s and early '70s that put a half dozen into the pro or weekend warrior class... just doesn't work as a general rule from what I've seen now simply due to young folks' heads. "No, I wanna play like Alicia Horace Medusa, and I don't wanna learn those chords 'cuz she doesn't use 'em and you're wasting my time with that circle or liters or whatever those old whisky bottles were, fifths?"

 

<sigh>

 

Decide what and how you're gonna teach toward what. Have at least a year's curriculum concept.

 

It's kinda like "karate" belt colors. A white belt should learn X, then... It worked for generations of piano pickers, but realize that guitar isn't one instrument like a keyboard, it's at least three instruments, a melody like a sax, a rhythm pounding away or a fingerpicked combination of the above.

 

m

[Karloff]

Laugh at this if you will, but I'd say first to decide what kind of guitar playing you wanna teach.

 

If you're teaching for long-term pickers, you need to get into a bit of theory, a bit of sight reading, and then decide how to teach this or that technique. Gonna teach rock/jazz on the fingerboard with or without emphasis on chords, or... how to do Bach or... how to play rhythm rock or Grass?

 

Each of the above can be done in myriad of ways.

 

I've also decided that today's children - folks 16-30 who are young enough to be my grandkids - tend to want what and how they think they should be learning, as opposed to taking seriously what you're doing with whatever sort of curriculum you are doing. Stuff I taught in the '60s and early '70s that put a half dozen into the pro or weekend warrior class... just doesn't work as a general rule from what I've seen now simply due to young folks' heads. "No, I wanna play like Alicia Horace Medusa, and I don't wanna learn those chords 'cuz she doesn't use 'em and you're wasting my time with that circle or liters or whatever those old whisky bottles were, fifths?"

 

<sigh>

 

Decide what and how you're gonna teach toward what. Have at least a year's curriculum concept.

 

It's kinda like "karate" belt colors. A white belt should learn X, then... It worked for generations of piano pickers, but realize that guitar isn't one instrument like a keyboard, it's at least three instruments, a melody like a sax, a rhythm pounding away or a fingerpicked combination of the above.

 

m

 

you're absolutely right Milod. and thats what i meant when i said be flexible, but you said it a hundred times better lol.

decide what the student wants and needs, at worst, at least try to give them a basic foundation of theory, see what direction they want to move to.

[brc]

I taught guitar for all ages in the 60s and 70s. I also was a guitar teacher for the city of Las Vegas, and one thing I found out is most of the people just starting off have no idea on the degree of dedication it takes to be a good player. A lot of people want to play "now" and they do not understand they have to learn the basics before they can even begin to play.

Just dont get frustrated with the young people and their attitudes, and their not wanting to practice.

It will be a learning experience for you also.

Figure out what you want to teach,how you want to teach, lay out a program and try to understand a lot of them will have the attitude that they want to play guitar, not practice guitar

[milod]

First, I think BRC hit a very important point: "...lay out a program and try to understand a lot of them will have the attitude that they want to play guitar, not practice guitar." Also, remember that we all learn differently, even under the same essential curriculum, and especially when it's both mind and body. Some will learn by watching, some by voice, some by their own sense of feel...

 

I can't find the Mundell Lowe b/w television piece where he talked about the fact that guitar is so many instruments that, in the '50s at least, there was no standard guitar "method" because there's no "standard" way to look at the instrument as one might find on a keyboard or a trumpet.

 

So here's this southern farm kid who's literally old enough to be my Dad who has almost literally done it all. He and trumpet player Ruby Braff shared a Braff record my Dad got me in the late '50s with a batch of standards.

 

It wasn't the trumpet that I was playing at the time, nor the guitar per se, but rather the incredible tastefulness of the playing that hit that young teenager in the head and shaped his concept of music. Tastefulness first. Rock, jazz, cowboy, old time, country, classical, blues...

 

Taste first, appropriate technique for a given style of music but - only if tasteful. It can be tasteful and loud and heavy rhythm and it can be tasteful if the lyric is prime.

 

I think this short description of his own path - age 90 and more than 70 years in the biz - kinda sez stuff we all might learn from if we listen carefully. Whether pickin' with anybody almost any style, to crafting a movie or television score... whence came this guy?

 

Think of what he sez he learned. Note that we're not talking "8,000 jazz chords" or "60s folk-rock for movie Billy Jack," or "giganta-tonic scales," but rather music concepts and always learning.

 

If you learn from the interview, click on the youtube "steal" and check how he and Roy Buchanan had "Misty" on Lowe's show and how Buchanan said he wished he could play like Lowe... Then listen to rocker/blueser Buchanan play "jazz" as well as any jazzer with great taste as well as his own technique and...

 

Lowe and behold... the desire to learn music, IMHO, is like water and flows where it will, and it's our choice of doors to knock on to enter where we may; our interests will flow as will constant learning - mentioned in this interview.

 

 

Here he's going as fast as most shredders at some points - and at age 90 - but it's so smooth you don't even notice. I'll wager he'd never claim to be "it" for technique - but my interpretation is that if you aim for class, a lotta technique will come naturally where aiming for technique, it takes a lotta taming to develop taste.

 

If you're interested, there's a lot faster stuff too on Youtube. But my lesson from Lowe isn't technique, it's attitude, learning and adjusting to different material, proper backup of vocals... taste.

 

m

[rocketman]

Oh geez, Milo beat me to what I was going to say. Great advice as usual. I taught piano and guitar for a while. First, I want to see what kind of passion they have. Is it the parents pushing them or do they really like the instrument? It's ok for the parents to push. I didn't like piano and I'm glad that my parents forced me to do it. But I would teach things differently. If they have a passion for it then I can start them with theory. If not then I teach them some basic chords so they can play along with a tune. Hopefully, they'll get them excited.