What would you do if you didn’t know how to teach this guitar student?

[The-Enforcer]

For guitar teachers here, I have a question.

 

I'm pretty new to teaching so I would appreciate some advice on the problem I'm having.

 

I have this student who has been coming in for lessons for about 6 weeks now. He is an adult, sort of intermediate level and likes 80s hair metal bands. The problem is that he has a lot of problems in his technique all over the place. When he tries to play, his right hand technique is horrible (sloppy picking) and his left hand fingers are flying all over the place when he plays a note.

 

He only tells me he wants to learn to play more songs and doesn't care about working on technique or becoming the next EVH. The problem is that unless we address his technique issues he isn’t going to play any of those songs very well. However if I start spending lots of lesson time on these problems I sense that he will get bored quickly.

 

Any advice on how to deal with this type of student?

[KindredDuo]

I've been a cello teacher for 25 years, but the question is pretty universal. I'm sure you've explained the need for good technique to him. Maybe show him some videos of his favorite players to see how thier technique helps thier playing. Unfortunately, some great players don't have textbook form and can get away with it. Then you explain the difference between guitar gods and us mortals.

 

Maybe take 10 minutes a lesson to work on technique and spend the rest on "fun".

 

Some people will never get it. They just aren't built to do what needs to be done. You can improve and make aware, but never get the progress you want. Keep trying and he may get it. He's coming to you to be taught, not coddled (although learning to ride that edge is a good thing). You can push until you sense he's shutting down and then move on.

 

Hope that helps, maybe it's too obvious.

[Validator]

Well, there are 2 things I would do here:

 

1. try to show the student how a particular part in the song isn’t sounding so good. Then ask him if he wants to make it sound better. Assuming he says yes, show him what needs to be done to solve the problem that’s stopping him from playing that song well. This way you get him to agree to solving the problem for a specific reason that is relevant to what he wants out of guitar playing.

 

2. don’t let your student dictate how to teach him. Most students really don’t know what they should be learning but many think they do, so you have to show them otherwise You need to get them to trust you enough so that they believe what you say.

[The-Enforcer]

Thanks, that was very helpful! I'll try both of your suggestions. Sometimes I get a little carried away and try to assume that every student is super serious like I was. I am seeing now that not everyone is.

[Validator]

 

Thanks, that was very helpful! I'll try both of your suggestions. Sometimes I get a little carried away and try to assume that every student is super serious like I was. I am seeing now that not everyone is.

 

 

You may also find this site helpful for teaching if you are new to it: http://tomhess.net/HowToTeachGuitar.aspx This is what I studied to get better in my earlier days of teaching and now I'm in the guitar teachers’ program on that site. It’s been helping me a ton and I have better success working with students now than ever.

[tim_7string]

It's several days later, but I'll chime in as well. I agree with both KindredDuo and Validator. I especially agree with Validator's comment about not letting the student tell you how you will teach him. You are not his slave. He is coming to you to learn. If he doesn't want to learn correctly, then he will have problems.

 

I usually have the student play me a bit of what they know during our first lesson. I will make critiques on their chord knowledge as well as their technique then offer suggestions on how to improve it. I do it in a friendly, helpful manner, not a "god, you suck" kind of manner, heh. Most of the time, it's appreciated and they will try their best to integrate the techniques I use. Other times, they rebel and say something like, "I like playing it like this." In those cases, the lessons start to fade away after a while.

[YeahDoIt]

Use a metronome, play real slow and accurate. Then gradually speed up.

[BlueStrat]

I quit teaching because of this. I had guys who wanted to learn how to do something without developing the foundation to do it. "Just show me how to play X!" Okay, I'd show them, and then they couldn't do it, not in a hundred years, because they hadn't developed the foundational skills to do it. Some of them were so delusional they couldn't tell they sucked and thought they were playing it just like the record. Yikes. Hard to teach people who can't hear their own suckage.

[Napoli Stiletto]

when I would know your guitar student,

 

I would tell him to get another guitar teacher who knows what must be teached

 

When he is willing to learn precice rhythms, then the solution is:

 

"Rhythm Solfeggio"

 

This is read rhythm from a selfeggio book and playing chord in that rhythm. Later an easy progression. Later a rhythm guitar lick. And scales up and down ----> All in the rhythm written there.