daveinspain Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 I want Matt for my teacher.... Do you do house calls Matty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest FarnsBarns Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 I want Matt as for my teacher.... Do you do house calls Matty? +1, and I'm only down the road! I heard Matt's stuff online and he's very good. Shame I'm not generally interested in playing classical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowdiddley Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 This is one of my favourite recent threads - so thank you I have thought long and hard about this and think how I teach now, owes as much to the good teachers I had, as much as the bad ones I had too. The good teachers had me leaving the lesson excited and also in deep thought about what I had to work on, but they always made me feel it was attainable with hard work and enthusiasm. The bad teachers all had a few things in common (and I would be interested if anyone can relate to this); they all seemed to lack any noticeable enthusiasm for their subject, they spoke about pupils to me (and presumably to others too) on who was in their eyes talented or oppositely lacking, they name dropped often and were very critical of lots of big name players saying they could do better etc etc, they were generally pessimistic to any ideas ie "can I try this piece if i work hard?" would be met with "that is quite a big piece, I am not sure if you will get to that level, lets stay where we are for now" These kind of people can damage your confidence temporarily but what helped me shake them out my subconscious is realising with age, that their out look was/is their problem. In fact the negatives they put onto pupils was nothing but a self projection of their own lacking. Now as well as doing my very best to encourage and help pupils become better players thanks to the negative guys in the above paragraph I do the exact opposite of them. I also have a strict rule NEVER EVER to mention any one else to them as a basis for comparison. I try and make them feel that the lesson is all about them and their musical world. Matt I can completely relate Matt, my first and second teachers were of the negative mind set. After those two its a wonder I ever picked a guitar up again! By the way I bet Matt is one hell of a teacher. Too good of a guy not to be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 For what it's worth, I think students lucky enough to have Matt as their teacher will likely be able to exert their talent and skills he's taught them in any style of music - as he can. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 For what it's worth, I think students lucky enough to have Matt as their teacher will likely be able to exert their talent and skills he's taught them in any style of music - as he can. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 You are a nice bunch of people x... I actually heard earlier today from my colleague, who also teaches guitar at the same school as me; that the teacher I mentioned in the thread, had made some comments recently about a very well known older guitarist. He had said he had seen him play live - and his playing was awful - he could do a much better job etc etc - I wont continue because I think you get the gist ... It is obvious jealousy, because the guy he was slagging off plays all over the show and has worked with HUGE names, in the world of pop and classical music. In fact he is the antithesis of him in every way (ie he seizes the day ! LOL) The 'bitter teacher' just teaches locally, lives alone and critiques these kind of players to his pupils and whoever will listen. I think when you work especially with kids (under 18), that as an adult you should keep you opinions on what is to your taste (and what is not) to yourself! I can completely relate Matt, my first and second teachers were of the negative mind set. After those two its a wonder I ever picked a guitar up again! I relate to that! I was told I wouldn't get into music college, that I was just good at selling myself and that I was disappointing when it came down to it, he even said he hated sunburst when I got my classical guitar (I was 14 for Christ's sake!) Revenge (if that is the correct word) on these kinds of fools is to live a happy life, play well and to encourage as many people as you can, to enjoy music and that they can reach their own goals! In every genre of music there will always be 'the dark' side. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 +1, and I'm only down the road! I heard Matt's stuff online and he's very good. Shame I'm not generally interested in playing classical. P.S I do teach electric guitar too - I specialise in metal, rock and blues - I just only perform classical professionally, so my sites' focus on this area! Cheers Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 There are dozens of ways to "teach guitar." I think Matt and some others pretty well hit it, though, in that encouragement and teacher's enthusiasm are prime. I also think a teacher should be up-front from the beginning as to what he/she teaches, and what the goal of the first year should be. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McDuff Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 My first and only guitar class was in 6th grade at my school. The teacher didn't play the guitar she played the piano. She also didn't speak English very well so I ended up thinking there was an F string on the guitar for about three months that I just couldn't find. Me and thirty some other kids all sat there banging the crap out of these guitars trying to figure out how to play simple songs from a beginners book while she went outside and smoked. I didn't pick up a guitar again for three more years. Haven't gone back to a class since (I know I should my family just can't afford it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Owl Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 One thing I've found is that many times they want you to pay upfront for multiple lessons. Typically these are the bigger establishments and they say it's a policy. If they don't want your business and you're not interested in paying for four sessions up front because you don't know the teacher, tell them you'll go elsewhere. They're usually pretty flexibile when they know you'll walk out the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djroge1 Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 I had a parent ask me why I wasn't teaching her son to read music. I tried to explain to her that I begin with simple technique first - being able to press the strings down and strum first because it didn't matter if they can read the music if they couldn't actually make any decent sound. She didn't get it and they left the store and never came back. So it is what it is. It really didn't matter to me because I had plenty of students and that slot filled quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djroge1 Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 One thing I've found is that many times they want you to pay upfront for multiple lessons. Typically these are the bigger establishments and they say it's a policy. If they don't want your business and you're not interested in paying for four sessions up front because you don't know the teacher, tell them you'll go elsewhere. They're usually pretty flexibile when they know you'll walk out the door. I would let them walk if they weren't willing to pay up front. The reason I ask people to pay up front is because a lot of people will just not show up so I end up wasting my time waiting for students. As a teacher I'm not just paid to teach but I'm paid to actually be there when I say I'll be there. If they let me know ahead of time they are not able to be there that's fine as I would credit them another week. How would you feel if the teacher just didn't show up after you made the effort to go to the music store? You might be disappointed the first time, perhaps angry the 2nd and look for another teacher the 3rd time. I don't currently teach and I hear with the economy teaching is a pretty tough business so they may be willing to work with you if you don't want to pay up front. But if things ever return then it will mostly be up front money. I almost always had people waiting for an open spot for lessons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Too right Danny. I bill a term (ten weeks) in advance in school and every six weeks privately. Maybe because of London being a relatively small place with probably 50 odd million people living there, there are more people who want to learn than there are teachers! In the town I am in, which is not big, there are six teachers. Of the ones I have met they all say the same thing; that they have a constant supply of pupils! The private school I teach there are four of us teaching guitar and there are two of us at the music and drama college I work at. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Owl Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 I'd prefer to do at least one session before I commit is all i'm saying here, and that people who feel like they HAVE to pay upfront for multiple lessons don't necessarily have to. Do you guys offer a trial period? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 I think guitar teachers are very similar to a number of lesson-type teachers whose curriculum is paid for by individuals rather than through some "institution." A professional teacher of this type has to make his/her living and pay overhead all or in part by revenue from students. Ensuring cash flow is at times the difference between a professional and an amateur; it also is often the difference between classes being available or a teacher who has to go elsewhere in order to make a living. Another factor, again with guitar or anything else... I think I'd not care to teach regularly unless I had roughly a 1-year commitment. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Hi Owly Only privately. They have a consultation lesson and at the end they are given a terms and conditions contract which they sign and bring the next lesson if they wish to commit. I do offer 'pay as you go' lessons too, but I tell people right from the word go, that the times I can offer will vary every week/month under this arrangement. This arrangement is more casual than being on a contract, where you have a slot that is specifiically yours, but there is still the handshake arrangement of 24 hours notice to cancel a lesson. As it is a business, rules and contracts need to be used. Having said all that there is also being human and exercising common sense and discretion. If the next pupil phones in sick, then you can go on extra time with the guy you are with. There are of course lots of unpaid things ie lesson preparation, supporting a pupil of they have a gig, being at an exam centre to help them tune up and give them confidence. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heymisterk Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Great thread. My first teacher wasn't bad, but was a real character. My first teacher had a prosthetic leg. This was very interesting when we were in our lesson, as he had to manually extend his leg so he could comfortably play in the sitting position. He smoked ALL the time during the lesson, to the extent that he had a "Smoking Section" sign on his wall. He taught from his home, which was... ...a mess: that's how I would describe his house. There was paint peeling off the outside AND the inside. He was a hard-core Republican, but very pro-union. He used to come in late to the lesson from working on this '70s Dodge Dart. (This was his primary means of transportation, not a collector car.) He had seen me drive my parents' Honda Accord to my lesson. One time my dad and I saw him with that Dart broken down on the side of the freeway and we gave him a ride. He looked and me, looked at my dad, and said, "If you buy a car from Italy, you will have a car from all the Axis powers." That story still gets told 25 years later. He sold my parents my first guitar as a Sweet 16 birthday present: 1982 Kramer Pacer. I still have it. He played a 1966 Fender Mustang which I thought was about the coolest thing ever. His two favorite singers were Mark Farner from Grand Funk and David Lee Roth from Van Halen. He refused to teach me "Cocaine" because of the...well, figure it out... He hated John Lennon: "I wasn't too sad when he died." Loved McCartney though, and he taught me how Paul would take a pretty standard chord progression and turn it on its head. Good times... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookieman15061 Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I first took lessons at 13 for 6 months. The teacher was young and hip to teach me anything I asked as long as I was learning proper technique and progressing. I stopped when football season began but when it was over and I wanted to begin lessons again I found out he was moving to another state. Found another one who was highly regarded and a local legend you might say but he was all business. Real old school. Taught straight from a lesson book and we didn't move on until I mastered that drill perfectly. Very old school and bored me to tears. I lasted a couple months but barely practiced my lesson. It was the one time in my life when guitar playing wasn't fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Owl Posted March 24, 2011 Author Share Posted March 24, 2011 Matt, that's good that you offer that. While great teachers can provide great lessons and have a reasonable expectation of commitment, all too often we see bad ones that are only out to take people's money. I just wanted to be the "buyers beware" post I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidl Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I only have experience with one instructor. The one I've been with for a few months now. Talk about enthusiastic. This guy comes to my house for my lessons too. We have definite goals but don't dwell on them. He encourages me to stretch what I thought were my limits and also work on the theory along the way. My classes are fairly loosely structured which is my preference as I would get bored just doing scales and excercises. My classes are supposed to be one hour but that has only happenned once. Usually 1 1/2 or so. If his next student cancels we have been together for up to 3 hours. No extra charge. This is usually jamming time. He doesn't try to teach me how to do solos or to use anyone's style. I'm more encouraged to work my own which is pretty much how I like to operate anyway. All this to say that my experience so far has been very positive. There are many great teachers out there and my hat goes off to them. It can be a very challenging vocation. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 Mine is a good (for me) story paralleling a bad story. When my dad agreed to get me a guitar, it was on the condition that I would take lessons and learn how to play it. We had a local music shop and there were 2 teachers. The one guy, everyone went to. He had this reputation for being able to get anybody playing in a short amount of time. He played in a local metal band, and everyone thought he was the coolest. Basically, kids would bring in dubs (on tape cassette) of songs that they wanted to learn, and he'd teach them. Kids would take lessons for a month, and would quit after they learned to play a couple popular tunes on the radio. Then there was the other dude. He was kind of a weird guy, was probably a hippie at some point in time. He built a clone of a Marshall Plexi head because he couldn't afford one. He taught out of a book, stressed practice, scales, listening to music. Anyway, the cool tape dub guy was constantly booked, so I got stuck going to the nerdy dude. Boy am I glad I did, although at first I wasn't stoked about it. I only took lessons for a month (it was pretty expensive and my parents couldn't afford it). In that short amount of time though, I got a foundation for what would eventually become my own playing style. -All while the other teacher's lesson room was turning out dozens of radio/Mtv clones. +1 My guitar teacher plays classical almost exclusively and a ton of jazz. I was never into that and put off taking his guitar class until my junior year instead of my freshman year because I was all cocky and thought I was all about rock, and they can't carry over or whatever. I learned so much in that one year in a class with people that barely even could hold a guitar correctly, to people that have had lessons for years. He brought a large group (25 people) up to about the same speed and everyone could play fairly proficiently. I took some private lessons from him over that summer and he stressed some jazz chords and phrasing. It helped me so much as a player, especially for leads. When he explained that a solo is like a mini song, and should be looked at as such, it blew my mind. haven't looked back ever since. Since he was my only guitar teacher, no bad guitar teacher stories, but I had a terrible band teacher in 4th grade. I think he might have been a lesson ahead of myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 My classes are supposed to be one hour but that has only happenned once. Usually 1 1/2 or so. If his next student cancels we have been together for up to 3 hours. No extra charge. This is usually jamming time. He doesn't try to teach me how to do solos or to use anyone's style. Dave Dave this guy is salt of the earth stick with him! He sounds a legend! Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djroge1 Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 When I was 13 or 14 I had my first paid guitar lessons. The guy really only taught me songs but I think at the time I didn't know how to ask what I wanted to learn. He taught me Dog eat Dog by ted nugent and that's all I remember. The next guy I took lessons from only taught songs if I asked him. what I learned from this guy was how to play with feeling and soul. The third and final guy I took lessons from taught me songs if I brought them to him - The Clap by Steve Howe and Fantasia Suite by Al DiMeola for example. He also taught me basic theory and how to apply it to guitar. A lot of what he taught me I still use and i teach it to others. Things like chord progressions in a major scale - Maj, min, min Maj etc... He also taught me the modal names of the scales. Good stuff. I need to see if this guy is on face book and connect with him and thank him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidl Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I tend to agree Matt. Give credit where credit is due. I have missed about a month straight of classes or almost any guitar time because of work or family responsibilities and he has kept my spot open. Back to it tonight. He sounds like he is looking forward to it as much as I am. I wish I had discovered lessons and this teacher a long time ago. My confidence level has gone through the roof and it shows. I've even been asked if I could give some lessons. I know in my own mind that I am nowhere close to having that level of knowledge or ability. It sure is good for the ego though. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I actually did luck out once, long, long ago, to have two lessons. It was either consecutive days or a day between. Christopher Parkening was in town at a local college - I was in a bigger town then - and offered "master classes" to local classical guitarists. It turned out there was only one idiot nutty enough back in the '70s even to claim they were sorta a classical guitarist, and it was a self-taught guitar pickin' newspaper guy who at the time "wasted" some weekend evenings in saloons playing country music. Apparently he figured my right hand was at least "okay," but my left hand showed "too much bluegrass" in playing a little bit o' Bach. For what it's worth, I can't recall any specifics other than that and a "visual" of the room and Mr. Parkening. I'm certain he wouldn't remember a thing about it. One major impact it did have on me was an increasing awareness to this day about what my left hand does, and how I shape it whether I'm doing various sorts of chords or whatever. Thank you, Sir... I've a hunch in the long run a couple of hours made a perceptible difference in my playing over many more years. The best I could claim from fewer than two hands worth of students in the 60s and 70s is that several ended up playing for money and one had a cupla major label albums some 30 years ago... If I only encouraged their ability rather than enhanced it, I guess I'll be happy with that and hope that they are. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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