Giving guitar lessons...?

Flynn

Hey,
Was just wondering does anyone here teach guitar.. I'm currently looking for a job (as i just moved) and as i'm not having any luck.. and lately lots of people have suggested i give guitar lessons..

I was just wondering what does it take to give lessons ability wise. I live in a small town so there are no major guitar teachers that will take you up to shredding, tapping etc. but there are some cowboys...
I just found out that someone i know (in her forties) has just started giving lessons in a school (evening class) and with all due respect she's pretty much a beginner herself. She knows probably the basic major and minor chords and although she can play them well that's it..
Another teacher i met has 15 students she takes in two seperate classes younger ones and the older ones at 20 euro a go.. The same thing applies, she wouldnt have very much theory and probably teaches them chords song more chords another song etc.. she wouldn't no a hammer-on from her elbow

I'm miles ahead of these teachers playing wise but i'm still worried about giving guitar lessons myself.. I spose if i stuck to absolute beginners it wouldn't matter? I want to take students through all stages of the acoustic guitar as i'm not specifically a lead player. This would include chords, chord progression, strumming patterns, easy songs, basic chord theory, major pentatonic scale etc., small bits of lead,

Anything after that such as reading music would be best left to professional music teachers...

Anybody else on here teach that could give some advice..?

Blackhorse Slim

If you don't know it already, I think something like the CAGED system provides a good basis/structure for teaching guitar beyond the basic chords. I haven't taught guitar professionally (just taught my son and a couple of mates) but I know a couple of guitar teachers and they swear by it. One of them is a blues player, the other is a disciple/worshipper of Satriani, so they couldn't be much more different. Just a thought.

It sounds like you know what you're doing on the playing side, just put some thought and effort into the teaching side and see how it goes. I've thought about teaching part-time myself, but I have a non-music career and I like to keep my free time for playing. Good luck if you go ahead with it.

Flynn

cheers for the reply..
Ya well i'm pretty organised and think i could set out a pretty good course and strict practice routine..

Anybody know how much to charge?
I was thinkin 15 an hour as i don't wanna rip anyone off...( but i discussed this with a girl i know who is giving lessons and she said it's way to low.. she takes a class of up to 7 or 8 at 20euro each...
Was she worried i'll undercut her maybe.. ?
Any suggestions.. 20e for 1 on 1.. 15 if it's a class of 3 r 4?

Altho i dont want to rip anybody off i also need to make money!

Closing Doors

I charge €30 an hour, one on one.

Thomas from Presence

I charge the same but with price breaks on terms. This is a high enough cost for someone who is just starting to teach and for that amount of bread you would have to teach on a high enough level, I went from teaching Metallica palm muting to DADGAD fingerstyle to Jimi Hendrix's rhythm style to American Pie the last day I was teaching!

Make sure you have a course programmed for all eventualities. If you do prepare then you will get results and results get you business faster than advertising.

Fingers Mcginty

I reckon you should go for it dude! Sounds like you're a conciencous fella. I think a lot of players develop bad technique (I was one of them . If i had started taking lessons from someone decent it would have been so easier.
Mistakes i made...didn 't alternate pick , Holding the pick wrong, bad bending technique, hammer ons/ pull offs, bad vibrato etc etc. You know i was half thinking of doing the same thing myself...let us know how you get on anyways

My name is Todd

I'm thinking of doing this too - I'm in the Dublin suburbs though. I'd say there's quite a few people doing the same thing but hopefully I'll get the locals in.

OP - let us all know if you've gone any furhter with this.
I'm thinking of starting after Christmas cos all the youngsters will have gotten new guitars....

Thomas from Presence

Believe me the amount of people doing it compared to the amount of people that can actually do it is miniscule!

Fingers Mcginty

Agreed :rolleyes:

padraig71

I charge €25 an hour for individual tuition, or €12.50 for a half hour. Beginners don't need a whole hour, they need to learn a couple of new things that they can go away and practise, and a half-hour lesson is quite sufficient.

I would advise the following:

1. In order to avoid time-wasters, arrange a trial lesson where you and the student can check each other out. Then, if you and they want to go ahead with regular lessons, charge for a certain number up front, with the proviso that if a student wants to cancel a lesson they must give you 24 hours' notice or forfeit the cost of that lesson. Otherwise you will find a lot of people simply will not keep their appointments.

2. Decide what you can, or are prepared to, teach, and be honest with your prospective students. If someone wants 7-string jazz-metal tapping or something and your expertise is in bluegrass flatpicking, say, discuss this openly at the trial lesson. This is not an issue for beginners, but for more advanced students it may well crop up. Basically, don't try to teach beyond your abilities: it won't do your reputation any good.

3. Find a good syllabus, it makes things much easier. I use the RGT grade books (Registry of Guitar Tutors), which I like. They make it easy to plan lessons and cover all the right bases, whether or not your students want to actually sit the exams. If you want to be advertised in their directory etc, you have to pay a subscription, but the books are easily available online or in music shops.

(I used to advertise DADGAD trad guitar lessons, but gave it up after I found that most people wanted to know how to back tunes rather than actually play them, and did not realise what they were asking in terms of theory.)

Good luck, try it and see how you get on. Be encouraging and conscientious and you will probably find you get some regular students.