In order to set up a business teaching guitar you actually need three things. The first is an ability to play the guitar. The second is that you need is to be able to communicate with your customers and the third is a set of guitar teaching resources that will allow you to do the job with the minimum of stress and effort. We can't help you with the first two attributes outlined above but as far as the resources go then you have come to the right place. We have resources that are suitable for teaching kids to play guitar as well as a whole lot of backing tracks designed to get your customers through the beginning and intermediate stages of guitar playing
You may be interested in becoming a guitar teacher but how much thought have you given to what kind of guitar teacher you want to be? There are a whole range of situations that a teacher may find him or herself in. In order to explore this in further detail you could take a look at our material on the Three Types of Guitar Teaching Jobs that are commonly available to teachers. The material looks at the pros and cons of teaching from home, in a school and in a music store
You may also be wondering just how good do you need to be in order to teach guitar and we have a whole load of material up here that deals with this important area
It seems obvious but you need to be a "better" player than the people that you teach If we look a little deeper into that situation it becomes a little more complex and illuminating
If you advertise your services as a jazz guitar teacher then you'd better know your stuff inside out and back again The customers that roll up to your door will most likely not be beginners and will probably have a reasonable level of technical skill and most probably even a (shaky) grasp of music theory They are quite likely to be experienced pop rock or blues musicians setting out to "improve" their playing by studying a genre that is perceived (rightly or wrongly) to be more involved and theoretical than most other styles
No matter what level of technical skill you have on the guitar you will be unable to function to any kind of effective level unless you have the social skills to put people at their ease The "soft skills" that you will need to be able to display as a guitar teacher are vital An ability to get along with a wide range of people irrespective of age, gender,social class, musical taste, political outlook and education levels is something the importance of which can not be overstated
This does not mean that you have to get along with everybody or that you need to agree with every (sometimes) foolish opinion or statement that someone comes out with just because they are paying you Its ok to occasionally feel that you do not really enjoy teaching a particular individual and to take steps to engineer them out of your life and into the practice of another guitar teacher who may be able to get along with them
One of the luxuries of working from home as a self employed guitar teacher was for me to (very) occasionally "sack" a student who was annoying me I did not do it very often but there were occasions when a couple of them proved themselves over time to be fairly unpleasant individuals whose company I did not enjoy and I took the option to ensure that they gave up on having me teach them I do not regret it and I felt better when they had stopped coming
This is a luxury you tend not to have if you are teaching guitar in a school or in a music store With those kind of jobs someone else drums up your customers and you will more than likely have to put up with the odd "annoying" one
For a one off payment of $25.00 you can download all of the materials (handouts and backing tracks etc) that you need in order to start or improve a guitar teaching business. Our resources include lesson plans
If you follow the link above you will be taken to a page that provides a detailed examination of how to go about giving the first eight guitar lessons to a total beginner (by far the most common type of student you will encounter as a guitar teacher). You will also be able to download a whole load of Free guitar lesson plans from this page to help you to become organised and successful as a guitar teacher.
Another common group of students you will encounter are youngsters. Teaching children to play the guitar is different to teaching adults. Younger children are great fun to teach but as an educator you had better have a way of making the experience a fun one or they are just not going to do it. We have a range of materials especially designed with the younger guitarist in mind. There are a series of guitar themed handouts featuring a range of fun cartoon characters. Some of them are designed so that they can be printed off and kids can color them between lessons. Its a great way to get them to engage with the guitar even when they are not playing it.
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