ilovefuzz.com

So I've been playing guitar for about 14 years now and I'm 23 and ultra broke.
I spend a buncha time teaching my friends how to do all sorts of groovy things on guitar so I figured maybe I could make a job out of it!

But I literally have never taken or given a real lesson in my whole life and my understanding of theory is really pretty basic.
Are any of you guys out there teaching guitar? Do ya have any tips you could give me? I've been watching lousy youtube videos all day.

P.S. Don't recommend taking lessons on giving lessons.

http://www.justinguitar.com/

I don't know if you'd lump this in with the "lousy youtube videos" but I think it's pretty informative and easy to understand
without a whole lot of theory involved.

Not a teacher, but I've been taking lessons for a while and had multiple teachers.

I don't think your lack of theory is a problem. Just be upfront about what you do know and people can decide for themselves. Some teachers like to throw their theoretical knowledge around to prove that they know what they're doing or be condescending about the song you picked out to play. Not encouraging. Most people that take lessons just want to be able to play their favourite songs, nothing more. If you can teach songs to people you're good to go.

Most important thing, try not to get lost in your own playing while teaching. Nothing is more annoying than having to watch your teacher shred over and over instead of having them pay attention to your playing and improving it. Couple of people I know have sworn off lessons as a result of this.

People are weird. You can get students that practice a ton, students that don't practice, ones that pick things up fast, ones that need 45 minutes to remember 3 notes and there's the occasional student that actually does just want to see you shred. Basically, you'll need patience and the ability to suppress the urge to hit people for being idiots. Just remember they're paying you by the hour.

MEC wrote:http://www.justinguitar.com/

I don't know if you'd lump this in with the "lousy youtube videos" but I think it's pretty informative and easy to understand
without a whole lot of theory involved.

This dude's pretty awesome. Thanks for the rec! I'd seen a video or two of his before but I forgot all about him for some reason.

Haki wrote:Not a teacher, but I've been taking lessons for a while and had multiple teachers.

I don't think your lack of theory is a problem. Just be upfront about what you do know and people can decide for themselves. Some teachers like to throw their theoretical knowledge around to prove that they know what they're doing or be condescending about the song you picked out to play. Not encouraging. Most people that take lessons just want to be able to play their favourite songs, nothing more. If you can teach songs to people you're good to go.

Most important thing, try not to get lost in your own playing while teaching. Nothing is more annoying than having to watch your teacher shred over and over instead of having them pay attention to your playing and improving it. Couple of people I know have sworn off lessons as a result of this.

People are weird. You can get students that practice a ton, students that don't practice, ones that pick things up fast, ones that need 45 minutes to remember 3 notes and there's the occasional student that actually does just want to see you shred. Basically, you'll need patience and the ability to suppress the urge to hit people for being idiots. Just remember they're paying you by the hour.

Yeah, I haven't taken lessons in forever, but I think the bottom line is be up-front about what you can offer, and be flexible depending on each student's needs. I remember that my first teacher was this crazy old blues dude who claimed to have played in the San Francisco club scene in the '60's. I didn't learn a single lick of theory, but we spent hours jamming, and he ended up teaching me more about what it means to play with other people than anything else. It was actually a great start.

jrmy wrote: he ended up teaching me more about what it means to play with other people than anything else. It was actually a great start.

this is something i feel alot of people miss (atleast in the beginning stages) because they practice/play by themselves a majority of the time.
playing with other people is a different beast, and a very crucial skill to have if you are going to try to take your music/playing further (i.e. bands, etc.)
plus its waay more fun to jam with others (esp when your skills arent that great)

i know when i was first learning guitar, i played by myself exclusively for a few months, that when I first tried to jam with other people, i had no idea what was goin on and it was tough to really gel with others even tho my skills werent that terrible (they (their skills were really good however tho).

as for teaching, one of my friends recently got a few gigs as a guitar teacher, i think they are mostly younger kids, so the situation is a little different, but he knows very little theory. he just teaches them the basics on guitar, hangs out with them, shows them a song or two. i guess the kids are more interested in showing him their toy dinosaur collection . but they are happy, and the parents are happy so i think thats the most important thing (not skill level).

veteransdaypoppy wrote:

MEC wrote:http://www.justinguitar.com/
I don't know if you'd lump this in with the "lousy youtube videos" but I think it's pretty informative and easy to understand
without a whole lot of theory involved.

This dude's pretty awesome. Thanks for the rec! I'd seen a video or two of his before but I forgot all about him for some reason.

Yeah, you could basically just take a couple of his videos and turn it into a lesson tailored more specifically to the student you are teaching.