No two guitar teachers are the same. No two guitar teaching jobs are the same. The big variables are who you teach, how you teach and where you teach. We have a page that looks at the
Three Main Types of Guitar Teaching Jobs
that anyone considering a career working as a guitar instructor will find of interest and may help you to decide your next move with regard to a career in guitar teaching.
Let me state at the outset that I am not in the business of unleashing hordes of unskilled and unqualified guitar teachers onto an unsuspecting public. I sell Guitar Teacher's Printed Handouts and Backing Tracks (I give away the Guitar Lesson Plans away free) that are designed to make sure that anyone setting out to teach guitar is as good as they can be right from the very start
It is important to pay attention to this because the reality is that if you set yourself up as a private guitar teacher and you are not "good" enough (and playing ability is by no means the most important element of successful teaching) then you will not be a teacher for very long. You will either get better (and of course I would say that my resources will make you better) or you will get out of the business
If you set out to teach guitar in schools and colleges then you will most probably quite understandably need the certificates and qualifications that will allow you to operate in those environments but if you teach private students in their own homes (or yours) then the "bits of paper" are not such a priority I have the required qualifications but the truth is that private students have never requested to see them.
The logic behind that is pretty simple and obvious. If they do not feel that they are getting value for their money then they will simply stop giving it to me and I will have to get a "proper job" and it is the same for any other guitar teacher out there
That depends quite simply on what you teach and who you teach it to
Again, looking at it from a simplistic (always a good idea) point of view there are three types of guitar player who may seek out lessons from a guitar teacher. Beginners, Intermediate Players and Advanced ones
Again, reducing it to a simple level it is true to say that there are more beginners than intermediate players and (way!) more intermediate level players that there are advanced practitioners of the instrument
For a more "in depth" analysis, including a look at the broader principles involved in choosing to earn (at least some of) your living as a guitar teacher follow the first of the links below
I have another page on this site where I have a more detailed examination of the types of guitar teaching job that there are out there that you can get to by following the second of the links supplied below
Are you good enough to teach beginners to play the guitar?
The vast majority of people who come along for lessons and help me to avoid a day job (thanks folks!) are beginner/intermediate players and children. By far the largest part of the work that I do involves teaching kids guitar or giving a series of lessons for older learners who are at beginner and intermediate stages of guitar playing. This is not what I expected
Are you good enough (and do you have the resources) to teach intermediate and advanced students to play the guitar?
The reality of the teaching guitar ended up being totally different to the way that I imagined it and that if I had chosen the type of work that I did more carefully I could probably have waved goodbye to the day job years earlier. You can find out more by going to the page that looks at how good do you need to be in order to teach guitar? or to some material that looks at the various kinds of guitar teaching job that there are out there
In addition to the resources and lesson plans aimed at teaching guitar players near the beginning of their "journey" (I hate that phrase!) this site also contains material and theoretical guidance targeted towards guitar teachers who set out to teach more advanced players
The page behind the first of the links below looks at the (often thorny!) subject of when (and what type of) music theory is best introduced to guitar students and the second one looks at a way for more advanced pupils (those who you have helped to develop a sound understanding of basis theory?) to "get into jazz guitar"
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