Members bnellor Posted June 9, 2004 Members Posted June 9, 2004 I'm strongly considering giving guitar lessons. What are some things you feel that a teacher needs to have a strong grasp of before pursuing this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
Members stk Posted June 9, 2004 Members Posted June 9, 2004 Over the past 20 years I've been butchering the guitar, I've had a few lessons here and there, and will throw in my $.02, as a student.First thing I would want is a teacher with legitimate qualifications. If not a teacher with a successful teaching practice already established, with references, then at least a new teacher with a professional background.I guess what I'm saying is the rawest newbie expects everyone to be better than he or she is, so merely the virture of being a good guitar player isn't enough. And the divide gets more narrow from there.For example, I have a friend who's much better than me, and plays area bars in a blues band, but couldn't explain the intervals of a major triad. He thought he might start teaching, and when I pointed out his weakness in theory, he said, "Well only beginning students." Nope. Other than qualifications, I dunno...Professionalism? I had one teacher that wasted 10 minutes of every session painfully filling in chord diagrams with a pencil. Why not have preloaded in the computer? What else? Keeping the student's goal in mind. I'd say that's huge, and maybe unrealistic, but....it's really frustrating to get the impression, a couple hundred dollars into lessons, that the teacher still is extempor...extempa-- {censored} it -- making up stuff on the spot every lesson, or getting sidetracked, without the "big picture".
Members bassmantele Posted June 10, 2004 Members Posted June 10, 2004 Originally posted by bnellor I'm strongly considering giving guitar lessons. What are some things you feel that a teacher needs to have a strong grasp of before pursuing this?Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. You might want to start by telling us what you have a strong grasp of.
Members bnellor Posted June 10, 2004 Author Members Posted June 10, 2004 Thanks for the input stk, and good point bassmantele. So here's where I'm at. I've been playing semi-professionally for the last 11 years. Doing the weekend warrior thing playing covers and originals. I have a good handle on rock n roll style playing. I can play some blues but I have limited experience with jazz and country music. I can read music (thanks to piano lessons in my youth) and can read TAB of course. I have a good understanding of the pentatonic scale and continue build up my abilities with the major scale and minor scales (natural, harmonic, melodic). I have begun to understand the modes and I'm continuing my work on those. I'm also working on arpeggios as of late. I want to feel fully confident in my own abilities before I start giving lessons, so I've been working on things that i consider my weaknesses as noted above. Are there other areas I'm overlooking? Thanks again for any input you guys have.
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