Anyone here give lessons?

[rjjr]

...and how did you learn how to teach?

My buddy who owns a music store is losing the guy who gives lessons. He asked me if I was interested in taking his place. The current teacher is not leaving until next fall so I would have time to learn some technique. He apparently thinks I am capable and it is pretty good cash. I am basically self taught and don't know if I could. If anyone could give me some pointers I would greatly appreciate it.

Ron

[Ninjato]

I have been teaching martial arts (Tai Chi Chuan) professionally for 15 years and I teach guitar very informally. Teaching (anything) makes one really develop their craft more than just doing a hobby as a personal endeavor. Students have a unique way of putting teachers on the spot. Anyways.....

Things always to remember:
1. Patience patience patience - This is something you will really need to develop if you are an impatient person. People learn at different paces, so a teacher has to be a trainer, motivator, and coach. A trainer puts one thru technical aspects of the study, a motivator to keep the "drive" going and a coach to guide the student properly.

2. Always remember what it was like to be a beginner. We tend to forget what comes easy to us. If you do forget, try to play the guitar backwards (if you are right handed, play w/ your left)...that is how a beginner feels.

3. A teacher doesn't really "teach". A teacher just facilitates the learning process. How can you facilitate your explanation to a beginner?

4. Set attainable goals for the student. Listen to what they are looking for and give the student the best approach you can come up with.

5. Something Mapletrees said...be sure you are not a human TABLATURE dispenser.

6. If you cannot read music or not clear on basic music theory, then start learning it NOW.

[jeffrey]

I taught guitar for about seven years to a total of around 350 students over that time period.

Ninjato hit the majority of it on the mark already, but I'd like to mention one thing.

If you can give a student something to enjoy and something beneficial at the same time, you'll do fine.

Let me explain...

For instance, one of my students loved Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page was his idol, but Zach (my student) was 11 years old and had small hands (normal for his age, but small compared to a grown-up sized guitar). Regardless, he went at it whole hog and practiced very hard. He was a good player for his age for sure.

I taught lots of my students basic theory (most just how to get around the fingerboard so they'd say "A" instead of "5th fret, 6th string") unless they wanted more. So in working with Zach on say, a picking exercise. I find some part of a Zeppelin song where we could incorporate the exercise.

So instead of just doing some mundane exercise, he's learning a Page lick he likes and gets to show off to his friends and family, all the while getting something beneficial out of it (not that learning songs ISN'T beneficial).

The moral is: if you can give them something fun to play AND incoroporate your lesson plan at the same time, you'll do fine.

[815C]

I've been teaching for 1 year. I have 12 students. Each lesson I give them some fingerboard/theory knowledge as well as some cool lick or song.

[rjjr]

Thanks for the tips. I think I will take some lessons myself.

Ron

[Kevin Michael]

I keep around 40 students. I have taught at the gradeschool levels as well as college and university. Now, I prefer only private classes. One on one. Mostly advanced students, some of whom are teachers themselves. I consider U of M and Berklee School of Music my alma maters. Taking some classes from Berklee for the Winter semester. It is there, where I first learned, "To teach someone something once, you had to have learned it twice, yourself."


Peace. Kevin

[min7b5]

I found one of my own posts on this topic from a while ago. The question wasn't exactly the same but I hope helps in some way:


I’ve been teaching for over ten years now. I’m currently doing it part time ( 20 students ) but I did it full-time( 40 students -ish ) for a long time. I’ll give you a few random tips, but I’m also happy to get an e-mail if you have more questions. First off, because you live in a city, it can be done. I now live in the burbs, but when I lived in San Francisco it was very easy to do this full-time. For years there, along with gigs, I made a very good living, bought a house, etc... Worry less about how you play ( per say ), than about how you communicate. Go to your library and get several simple books about how to teach, communicate, and how people learn information. You must provide a professional atmosphere! Have a clean space, dress nice, don’t use profanity, etc. It’s never going to be a profession for you if it doesn’t seem like one to your students. Also, you want kids. Kids always show up and they always pay, unlike adult students. You are not going to get, or keep, young students if the parents think you are a “dude”, or live/teach in frat house feeling space. Don’t go to peoples homes. In time you’ll have have filing cabinets packed with lessons, your recording rig, an amp, your music stand, computer... without your stuff it’s hard to give as good as a lesson, and people don’t learn well in their own houses. I did this for a little while years ago, it was a huge drag. Offer a free lesson to see if it’s match, 99% are going to sign up after the lesson anyway, it gets them in the door. Don’t charge by the lesson, you never be able to make a living. I charge for 4 lessons at a time, which is roughly by the month, but I don’t acutely charge “by the month”. Find out what other teachers in your area charge. Don’t charge too much. I did that for a while. After a while I got a record deal, press, started playing around more, etc.. and thought, hey, I’m going to ( almost ) double my rates. Guys that charge a lot, even if they have a “name” seem to always have like a dozen students, and have to always advertise because they only stay a few months. I know there are exceptions, but trust me on this, find the midrange and get more, and longer term students.
Start collecting and creating information. The first few years I spent hundreds on copies. Again, go to the library and find tunes, articles,licks, etc.. for people and start a filling cabinet. I’m at the point now where if you waned to study classical, bluegrass, blues, jazz.... I probably have between 75 and 400 lessons/tunes for each style that I can just whip out. You’ll also want to get software, for the computer you’ll need in your lesson space, to slow tunes down. I happen to like something called “TRANSCRIBE”. While I like to think I can tab out a Blink 182 song in one pass, there is always some stupid little note or lick to get hung up on, and then there is the student that is going to want you to transcribe an Al Di Meola line... this software will save you a ton of time. I keep a cassette deck and mic in my space to record lessons. I’d say the 80% of my students have me tape at least part of every lesson. It makes a huge difference.
OK, getting students. This is obviously the thing. It’s going to take time. Take a bunch of money and place big ads in the local weekly, and whatever other paper makes sense. This is slow going, but it’ll get things going. Fliers in coffee shops and so on was huge for me when I lived in a big city. Take some of your start up dough and get a graphic artist to make your flier, and maybe your ads. It can just be a student, but It’s critical that you stuff your stuff look professional. Have them make you a card too, and give them to people and tell if they know anyone...Music stores/ repair guys that don’t have lessons can be powerful alliances. Tell them you’ll give out their card if they pass out yours. There are also a number of online options to check out too. Pretend you are looking for a good teacher, and see what works. Ultimately it’s going to be about word of mouth. I relocated two years ago. The first year was tough but now I’m running a waiting list again because word of mouth has started to kick in. Once you do a good job with a few kids, it will not be long before other parents will be calling. Hope that was somewhat helpful.

[jeffrey]

Excellent advice Eric.

And I know I've said this before, but I really like the stuff you do man; excellent stuff. You are a hell of a player.