It’s been a long time since the electric guitar moved on from being something you could effectively teach yourself. Whether you want to be the next John Petrucci or Joe satriani in terms of technical skill or you’re more interested in being able to write and construct songs, you’ll need a good teacher!
But what is a good teacher? Good teaching can mean different things to different people, some like to be pushed, some encouraged and everyone likes a sense of humor. Like those school and college days where we’ve had teachers we liked, respected and looked up to, but equally we have had a few we were glad to see the back of ! Here are a few questions you can ask when looking for a new teacher, to try and insure yourself against bad experiences.
These are the golden three!
1. What style(s) do you prefer to teach? This is important. More or less every teaching advert you see will try and advertise ‘all genres’. And far be it from me to tell you that most of these guys are not versatile, very few are. But all guitar players, including teachers, have a favorite style. Something they are more comfortable with. If you want to learn to be a cracking jazz guitar player you are not going to want to learn an old bluesman. You’re going to want to get not only good teaching, but relevant tips and hints.
2. Could you tell me a bit about your experience? Not only is experience a great thing for any teacher to have, it is also going to give you a bit of an idea about what areas of the music business outside of teaching that the person has experience in. At some point during your playing, if you take it even a little bit seriously you’re going to want to either record something or perhaps do some live playing. Or both! It would be great to know in advance if your teacher can help you out with either of these or even further continuing with your own career in music!
3. Could you explain to me your teaching method? This is an interesting one, mostly to see if the teacher can actually give you an answer,most stumble to answer this on the spot . You know that you’ll have a good experience however if the guy can tell you how he goes about teaching. Someone who thinks their lessons through is going to be able to get better results than someone who wings it, never mind how good they are. You don’t teach a 8 year old girl and a 22 year old man the same manner, even if they both want to get to the same place – as the next Slash!
Remember to ask these and some of your own questions. Pick carefully and correctly and you’ll end up with a fantastic teacher, a great mentor and hopefully a good friend.
Good luck !
source:freemusicarticles.com
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