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Choosing a Guitar Teacher


tomhess

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Posted

Hi, this post is too long to fit everything I want to say here in a single post so I have made it into 2 parts. (This is part 1)

 

Choosing a Teacher by Tom Hess

 

The electric guitar has advanced far beyond the time when someone could teach himself (or herself) to become a world class player. If your ambition is to become a competent player and a competent musician, you need a competent teacher. Even if your goals are more modest, you can reach those goals far more quickly, easily and efficiently with the guidance of the right teacher.

 

Much of the information needed to learn about guitar playing (and music in general) is available from many different sources. There are hundreds of books, instructional videos, CD-ROMs and, of course, the Internet. Even though a lot of information is readily available, there exists a lot of incorrect, incomplete and otherwise bad information (this is especially true for a lot of information found on the Internet!).

 

You will need the aid of an excellent teacher to teach you how to fully understand and apply the correct information. You can save yourself a lot of unnecessary frustration and disappointment by studying with a good teacher. Remember that textbooks, CD-ROMs, instructional videos and the Internet cannot answer your specific questions. They cannot offer you advice on your playing, song writing, ear training, etc. They cannot listen to your playing and point out any mistakes or flaws that may be present. Some textbooks are great and I have seen some pretty good CD-ROMs out there too, but you still need the aid of an excellent teacher to guide you through everything and to help you develop your abilities and musicianship correctly and efficiently.

 

Great teachers manage and schedule new materials and effectively explain their importance and meaning. A teacher should encourage you when you are doing well and correct you when you make mistakes. Good teachers will show you how to better organize your practice materials and show you how to effectively manage your practice time (this is crucial to your progress!). They help you build up your confidence level (even if you are not consciously aware that this is happening). A great teacher will help you become secure with your technical skills so that you can execute difficult techniques on your guitar comfortably. These teachers emphasize creativity (songwriting and improvising) and performing.

 

Great teachers want to make sure that you fully understand what you are learning and, most importantly, teach you how to apply it by giving you detailed explanations and encouraging you to ask questions when something is unclear. A good teacher sincerely cares about your musical growth and development. An experienced and competent teacher will take you far beyond what you could learn on your own. Unfortunately, guitar teachers are not licensed and there is no organization that oversees or regulates them. Anyone can claim to be a good teacher and there are lots of people who make this claim. The number of competent teachers, however, is limited.

 

This brings us to this crucial question: how can a student find, choose, and then accurately evaluate a guitar teacher? Here are some questions that you should ask any teachers you are considering studying with. I have also included my own comments for each question:

 

1) Can you please tell me about your teaching experience? May I see your resume or credentials? How long have you been teaching and approximately how many students have you taught during that time?

 

At least three to five years of teaching experience is preferred - certainly no less than one year of experience. Prefer a teacher who has taught a moderate to large number of students. It takes time for a teacher to truly learn how to teach well, and the main way that someone learns to teach is by teaching for a while.

 

The students of a new teacher are like experiments. These teachers are learning how to teach on the job by trial and error. They need time to learn how to teach, and will make some mistakes in the beginning of their careers. You don't want to be one of those first thirty to fifty students. Let a new teacher gain his or her experience by making mistakes with someone else.

 

2) Do you teach private lessons or group lessons?

 

You definitely want private lessons, unless you are a total beginner or are enrolled in a college music course. You will learn a lot more about playing guitar in a one-on-one private lesson or in a correspondence lesson program.

 

3) What styles of music do you teach best?

 

Make sure you ask this question before telling the prospective teacher what style of music you want to learn. A lot of teachers claim to teach all styles well. Beware of this. Do not be impressed by someone who tells you that he or she can teach every style of music well.

 

If you really want to be a great rock guitarist, take lessons from a rock teacher, not a blues or country player who claims to teach all styles well. Find yourself a good rock teacher. If you want to learn multiple styles of music that are not similar (like country, classical and heavy metal) take lessons from more than one teacher for each of those styles. Unless you are a total beginner, you are better off with an expert teacher in your style of music, not a jack-of-all-trades teacher.

 

4) What is the cost of lessons?

 

Excellent teachers are in demand and usually already have a lot of students. These teachers often are not cheap. I can tell you that the going rates for good teachers in the Midwestern United States (where I live) is between $16-$24 per 1/2 hour private lesson (rates may be different in your state or country). There are a handful of teachers offering correspondence lessons for students who do not live in the same state or country as the teacher. Usually these lessons are less expensive in the long run (read more about correspondence lessons later). In general, don't look for the teacher with the lowest rates; you usually get what you pay for. If you can't afford to pay the higher rates for a really good teacher, ask the teacher if you can take lessons on a bi-monthly basis instead of taking weekly lessons.

 

5) Can you tell me how you teach the lessons?

 

This is probably the most important question you can ask a teacher. The answer to this question can help you determine if a teacher is competent, because this is actually a trick question. Anyone can tell you they have been teaching for 100 years, they have had 10,000 students and the cost is $1,000 per lesson because they are the greatest teacher of all time. But an inexperienced teacher cannot trick you with his or her answer to this question (unless he or she is reading this article.)

 

If a prospective teacher who does not know you, your musical knowledge, your guitar technique, your musical tastes, and your musical goals tries to explain how he or she will teach you, this is not a competent teacher. Not even the best teacher on Earth could answer this question if that teacher knows nothing about you, your goals, your playing level, your knowledge of music theory, etc.

 

So what would an experienced and competent teacher say to you when you ask the question? Well, I can tell you what I do when a new prospective student asks me this. I explain to him or her that I can't formulate a lesson plan for anyone until I learn a lot more about that student's playing, goals, musical tastes, knowledge of theory, etc.

 

To my correspondence students (whom I don't see face to face), I send a long list of questions about everything I need to know about their music background. This helps me determine the best way for us to begin. I also encourage the student to send me a tape or CD of his or her playing with a variety of his or her playing on it so I have a clearer picture of what areas need improvement.

 

Obviously, for my private students (whom I do see face to face), I can simply ask the questions that I need answers to. And I can hear the student play in front of me. Only after all of this can I (or any other teacher) truly know how to teach that individual student. It seems obvious that you shouldn't teach a 13-year-old-boy who has never played guitar before and wants to learn to play alternative rock the same way that you would teach a 27-year-old-man who has been playing for 16 years and wants to become a virtuoso in the style of Steve Vai or Yngwie Malmsteen.

 

In addition to asking the questions above, here are some other things to watch out for:

 

When students ask how to approach a certain technique or how to hold the pick correctly or how to most effectively mute strings that are not supposed to be sounding, the advice of some teachers is to do whatever feels natural to you. Sometimes what you may think is the natural way to hold your left hand may not be the correct way at all. It is the teacher's job to know those types of things. The teacher should be teaching, not letting you do whatever you feel like doing. For most things, there is a right and wrong way and you will be better off learning it the right way from the beginning.

 

A teacher may have some talented students, but this does not mean the teacher is good. This might seem like good criteria for evaluating a teacher, but the fact is that sometimes advanced students were already good players before taking lessons from the new teacher. The only time you can judge a teacher's teaching skills, based on his or her students' playing skills, is when those advanced students have been taking lessons from the same teacher since they were beginners.

 

End of Part 1, please see part 2 for the rest of this post

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Posted

ok, here is the rest of my post.

Some teachers tell their students to learn from as many sources as possible and then leave it up to you to sort through it all and decide what works best for you. How are you supposed to decide that? How is a student to know what the best fingering is for a particular scale? Students typically won't know how to determine what the right way is. This is one of the reasons you have a teacher. It is his or her job to teach you these things. This is why you are giving the teacher your money!

Do not assume that someone is a good teacher just because he or she may be an excellent player or has good credentials. I know plenty of competent players with advanced music degrees whom I don't believe are good teachers. I was fortunate to have some truly great teachers, but I had some incompetent ones too, along the way. Whenever I realized that a teacher wasn't good, I looked for a new teacher.

The following things are not required for someone to be a good teacher, but it certainly is to your advantage to have a teacher who, in addition to teaching you about guitar and music, can help you in some of these other ways:

1) Guitar Pedagogy - This is learning how to teach guitar. If one of your goals is to be a guitar or music teacher, then you would benefit greatly from a teacher who can show you how to teach a variety of techniques, music theory, ear training, songwriting, improvisation, etc. You will also need to learn about how to deal with a wide variety of personality types. Every student is different. Each student learns and comprehends information in different ways. It is important for any teacher to understand this. You need to know how to explain the same information in several different ways so you can teach all of your students well.

2) Recording advice - The better you become as a musician, the more likely it will be that you will want to record your guitar playing. If you have little or no experience in this area, then having someone who can help you is especially helpful.

3) Music business - If you plan to record, release and sell your own CD, now or in the future, there is a huge amount of music business information that you will need to learn if you want to make any money. Some teachers who have released their own CDs, and are promoting it themselves, can be the best source of help for selling your CD. You can also learn other things like how to set up gigs for your band and how to get the press to write about you.

Now that you have a better idea about what to look for in a teacher, the next question is, where do you look for a good teacher? This depends on if you are looking for a teacher to teach you privately (face to face) or if you are looking for a teacher to teach you through correspondence. Both are good and there are advantages to both ways.

If you are looking for a private teacher to teach you face to face, check out these places first: Contact the music department at universities and colleges near you. Even if they can't help you directly, they can usually refer you to someone who can help. Next, you can try your local music shops (where guitars are sold). Most music shops offer lessons. And most of the teachers found here are not of the highest quality, but sometimes there are great teachers you can find at these shops.

When you call one of these shops, ask to speak to the manager or owner. Find out from him or her exactly who are the most qualified teachers for you (your style of music and skill level). After you get the teachers' names, make arrangements to speak to each of the teachers privately. Ask those teachers all of the questions we've gone over above. If you are not satisfied with any of those teachers, keep looking.

If you are looking for correspondence lessons, your search will be a little different (and these lessons are usually a little cheaper in the long run). You can look on the Internet for these types of teachers and you can also contact universities (in any part of the world). The best thing about correspondence lessons is that you can take lessons from any teacher in the world (that teaches via correspondence)! What I would look for in a correspondence teacher is someone who has been doing this type of teaching for a while, someone who always allows you to ask questions about your lesson via e-mail or telephone (for no additional charge!).

I personally don't think that courses (like CD-ROM courses) are a good idea because they don't provide the private and individual instruction needed to learn in the most efficient way. Even though correspondence lessons are not face to face, the lessons should be personalized for you, your skill level, your musical knowledge, your style of music and your musical goals.

Stay away from a one-size-fits-all method or the cookie-cutter style courses. Everyone is different and is at a different level, has different musical goals, and likes different music. So the lessons (whether face to face or correspondence) should be tailored specifically to your needs.

After teaching guitar and music for over 11 years now, I can tell you that using the information above can make a huge difference in finding an experienced high quality teacher. An incompetent teacher can severely hinder your ability to fully develop your guitar and music skills. If you are not progressing well, but you are spending a lot of time practicing, find another teacher.

I invite you to sign up for my free newsletter. It is filled with valuable music / guitar learning resources!

My web site: http://tomhess.net
My email: hess@mc.net

Copyright 2005 and 2002 by Tom Hess. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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Posted

hi, you know I'm 39 & i've had a teacher before & just started after cracking books for the last 4 years ,until i havea massive head ache..but anyway..my first so called teacher had me bring my guitar every week..4 yrs ago..he would give me blues runs & blues scales to practice ,right off the top..he rarely had me playing on the guitar..they act like there's no time for this...so i pretty much told the first fella the same thing i've told this teacher..i would like to learn SRV songs..Jimi Hendrix songs..floyd, stones,ZZ top. geoge thorogood, stray cats, van halen,ac/dc stuff...which i already know about 4 & 1 srv & 1 van halen & about 3 jimi hendrix songs..but the first teacher as you said had me practicing majorly..blues stuff & all i got out of him was his made up blues runs..the last lesson he gave me .was an an actual blues scale..i quit after 1 1/2 -2 months of that..never once did he work with me on any of the songs or style a was trying to get to!...now i just started w/ this new teacher 2 lessons now...first lesson he kind of felt things out ,we spent most the 1/2 hour talking ,he had me right down songs i wanted to learn..well after the lesson he had written down 2 finger exercises & all four finger 1's in different patterns..well i had explained to him i can do the minor penetonic scales up & down the neck & the blues penetonic up & down the neck & most of the major scale up & down the neck...but i've come to a spot where i need help ,with the modes & with tab reading & timing & the songs & easier ways around playing them..the books just seem to make things a lot harder!..well the 1st day he wrote at the top of the scale book i was using..c to c for the major scale, he told me there's the major scale just play c - c...well then he wrote out up the neck on each sting the note names ,which i knew..he told me to write them 1 time day & play them 3 times a day ,never said down & back up ,2nd lesson i had to ask him on this !..1st lesson..he had me write out the artist i wanted to learn songs of,well he just jotted down the begining on bad to the bone & had me by a slide ,for where it came to the slide part....well , the 1st lesson i asked him about where he taught before,he told me he taught for another local store ,i know of for 10 years. well i asked him if he was taught profesionally & he said he was self taught...red flag to me !..so a week later , he brings in a guitar off the rack in the music store,as the 1st lesson..i never really get to play it,he never works with me guitar to guitar..he just writes down exercises & little parts of songs i'd like to learn & i'm out the door...so i asked himwhat songs he covers in the cover band he's in..i was 18 in 1984 & told me oh he was playing all the songs i wanted to learn in the 80's...but ..he jotted down the stat to TnT - AC/DC ,but i've got the live version & the recorded version in my cd collection & i can't get the tab he wrote me out to match up w/ the song at all..& i can play hells bells, back n black, RnROLL ain't noise pollution..& she's got the jack...so i know how to pick apart the tab...i can play skynard gimmie 3 steps..another band i said i needed help on he said he'd take care of me on all the songs i stated..sweet home alabama i have the rythm down ,but the intro has gave me a head ache,,,well i'm doing more 4 finger exercises he gave me..& it seems like he doesn't know the rest of any of the starting of the soungs he tabs out for me,when he does the guitar work infront of me it sounds like the song..but the 2cn lesson i asked him about his line up of songs & he's playing w/ his band peter gabrial & some funk & ..nothing close to what he said he could help me play....now he came in the room told me to warm up & walked out & went & talked to some one in the store.....came in 10 minutes into my lesson & at 4:00 pm he said oh, times up..i didn't want to call him on it ..but when i got home it dawned on me ...i think i'm getting another run around!the guys trying to walk in at 3:40 & tell me my times up at 4:00pm..he jots down tab to 2 songs now i'd like to learn..about 4-8 bars of bad to the bone ,,up to the slide part..1st lesson as i said..then 2nd lesson he asked me quick what other song begining do i want to start on?..i ask him to help me finish off the bad -bone ...he said it just repeats that open strings bar'd 5 fret D-G-B string open again bar those notes again 3rd fret & open again..then slide at the 12th fret..4 times..then he said 2nd lesson oh there's a little ending peice ..he did it on the guitar & then showed me some more exercises he wanted me to do..he never wrote down the ending peice he told me about...but yet put down lifes been good to me..steve miller band..but just a bit & tried to leave the room..early ,but i held him up..& had him write out TnT..but it doesn't fit..it's pretty shady stuff..he's got me doing finger stuff ,he said i don't even need to use the guitar ..if i'm out somewhere...1243 1243 ..he says to do it at the same time w/ my right hand & my left...i asked why my right? picking hand he said for cordination w/ my fretting hand for using fingers ....instead of my pick...it feels like he's just working my hands & he's not even seeing if the tab he write out for me ...if i'm getting it down or anything...i'm confused,,,your post really talked to me & thanks ...sorry this is so long...but i sold a princeton sf'd amp 1971 to pay for some good lessons...& i'm getting mad..do youu think he's doing the right things?...kevin..wow sorry again this is so long!!!..i think i'm getting pissed w/ this guy he might have 5 yrs of age on me ..he's not even playing any really hard stuff w/ his band as covers..i'm mixed up..he says he knows the stuff i'm after ...but he's not showing me this & he's not helping me at all with the music parts..just jotting stuff down..

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Posted

Hi,
Your frustrations and concerns with your present teacher are both valid and not uncommon. It amazes me when someone was self taught thinks he can teach! I mean if one truly believes in the self taught method (which I definitely do NOT), then one should not attempt to teach others. Plain old common sense to me. It is exactly the same as someone who never went to elementary school who now tries to teach high school students! What can that person really know about teaching? The same applies here. My advice is to reconsider the teacher you have now. Go through the steps I outlined in my original posts and if you can't find someone in your area that is a GREAT teacher. Give me an email, we can discuss the possibilites of working together. Details about my lessons are available at my website: http://www.tomhess.net

A note to others, I am here to help, not to spam anyone or lure people to study with me, I make the invitation because I am confident I can help this person with his problem (whichhe has asked for my help)

thanks
Tom Hess

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Posted
Originally posted by tomhess

It amazes me when someone was self taught thinks he can teach! I mean if one truly believes in the self taught method (which I definitely do NOT), then one should not attempt to teach others. Plain old common sense to me.



While I agree with a lot of what you have written here (and on your site), I have to humbly disagree with this statement, at least based on my experience.
There's a difference between knowledge and teaching ability. I've met people who have a lot of knowledge, and are terrible teachers. So knowledge, whether formal or informal, is necessary but not sufficient to be a teacher. (As a side-note, I believe the word teacher is used very lightly these days. Many people occupy teaching positions, yet I would not consider them teachers, but that's another story :) ).

I think that a teacher should not only transmit knowledge and address the students' questions, but will also awaken the innate curiosity the student already has. That's an interesting skill!!!!

Historically, a lot of knowledge has been passed on through an oral tradition. Specifically regarding guitar, it's common for people to get together, trade licks, show each other different tunings, techniques, tips, explain some theory, etc. There's some informal teaching going on, some people are very good teachers, and very generous in sharing their knowledge. Many are self-taught...

On a more personal note, I am self-taught for the most part. Once I started making a living as a musician I decided it would be nice to study music :D It was interesting that my guitar teacher, who was a great teacher and great guitarist, kept telling me "oh, you already know that" almost every time he was going to teach me something :D Of course there's an almost endless source of things to teach and learn when it comes to guitar and music...

And finally, I've been a teacher :) From what I've been told, I'm a pretty good teacher. I think my earliest formal teaching experience was 15 years ago when I was in my early twenties, and I taught what would be the equivalent to Grammar School, Middle School and High School to adults ages 20 to >50.

Regarding music, I began teaching guitar mostly to friends and family, and some things that made me a good teacher were:
-knowing my limitations
-teaching students who knew less (or different things) than I did
-pointing students in the "right" direction
-having a long-term view of things
-being serious about studying
-"weeding-out" some students
-STUDYING a lot myself
etc.

I can see your point and probably many self-taught people will not make the best teachers, but I would not make a generalization.

I also play the harmonica and most of the great players I've met are self-taught. I took a couple of lessons from one person who is self-taught and he's been one of the best teachers I've ever met. :)

Having said all this, I do believe it's very important to find a good teacher. :)

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Posted

I believe my generalization to be accurate, of course there exceptions to almost every rule. You are correct that knowledge and teaching are different things - I was not implying otherwise. My point is that if one never had a teacher, one wouldn't know (without going through an extensive trial and error period at the possible expense of the early students) all the various (and most effective) teaching techniques and technologies. That is why public school teachers must have a teaching degree and student teach for a year before they are allowed to teach in the school system in illinois (my state) and probably most or all states have a similar requirement.

I've had teachers when I was younger that were self taught themselves and their effectiveness in general did not even come close to the ones that had formal training. Of course there can be exceptions to this (perhaps you are one of them - I don't know). Anyway, I hope that whatever you choose to do, it will prove to be helpful in reaching your goals.

respectfully,
Tom Hess

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Posted

Obviously the most interesting part of your article is question #5, but it is also the one I'm dubious about.

Definitely it's a must for a teacher to adapt to different student's needs, tastes, desires, skills, etc. But in some points it seems you're saying that the great teacher is the one who doesn't answer the question at all, meaning that his teaching methods (not just the contents) as well will vary with the student. I don't agree this is the best. I think that each person has a way to teach something (whatever he's teaching of course), and that's also part of his musicianship. He should definitely be able to adapt somewhat, but he will be able to answer that question at least regarding some key points in his teaching approach. If he had nothing for fixed, he'd sound similar to the teacher who says he can teach any style.

Another thing which strikes me odd is the support for correspondence lessons. I cannot say much because I've never taken any of these, but the feeling I have is that lessons without the teacher being actually there with the students cannot be remotely on par. How can a correspondence teacher know his student without watching him and listening to him? Don't say that recording can supply that! :) Correspondence can provide advice sure, but I could not easily call it a lesson, because a lesson in a practical thing (teaching history or math could be different) is an interactive process necessarily...

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Posted

nice post tom, cheers.

i would consider myself an intermediate guitarist been playing 3 or 4 years pretty much all self taught and recently decided to get lessons to help me improve/take guitar more seriously/be motivated :)

i found a teacher recomended by a music store who seemed to be my sort of style (rock to metal), and had one lesson with him before running away scared. the main thing that bothered me was that we got basically nothing done in the half hour lesson, (like 1 min of improvising and the rest was talking) but the more i think about it the more i think thats normal, or even a good thing cause he was tryin to get a good idea of where im at instead of giving me a one size fits all lessons.

but other things that bothered me were a poor explination of modes (if i didnt already understand he would of confused the hell out of me, and i think the way he put somethings were actually wrong :eek: .... and he missed pronounced phrigian...but i spose thats gettin a bit too picky) and also seemed like a kind of lack of direction and not really gettin my moneys worth. and he wanted me to pay for 3 lessons in advance.

anyway im wondering if u guys think that a guitar teacher is as important or more/less important from someone wanting to go from intermediate to advanced as it is someone goin from begginer to intermediate? and how long do u think it should take with a teacher before u can feel like u are starting to make progress?

cheers and sorry for the long post,
mick.

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Posted

your teacher should be every single cd you own, every single book you own, every single person you jam with and every single person you pay $18 for 30min lesson from.

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Posted

I think the step from intermediate to advanced is far more important that you have a great teacher because in this transition things become more critical. I also think there are less qualified teachers in this range compared to those teaching beginners. Some may disagree with me on this and thats fine, but its a trend I've seen for many years. How long does it take before you feel like you are making progress with a teacher cannot be answered the same way for all people, teachers and goals.

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