Mokracy

There are many, many choices when you’re looking for guitar instruction. Most players know that books and CDs are pretty ineffective. Primarily this is because these materials are designed to satisfy publishers, rather than students.

Publishers are interested in selling the next book in the series. Students are interested in learning to play guitar.

That being said, you’re left with looking for instruction in person from a guitar teacher. Even in this vein, there are many options. Below is some food for thought when you’re making this important decision.

1) Choose a Teacher, not just a Guitarist.

The most common mistake both teachers and students make is assuming that a good guitarist must be a good teacher. This is simply untrue. Some of the best guitarists in the world make awful teachers, and some of the best teachers aren’t the greatest players. This is an extremely important concept to understand.

Therefore, as a general rule, if a prospective teacher flaunts his or her talents and accomplishments as a player, but not as an instructor, you should look elsewhere. Teachers who have succeeded in teaching make teaching the primary focus of their advertisements.

On the other hand, if you just want to spend your cash and 30 minutes a week seeing how well your teacher plays, go for the guy talking about how many bands he’s been, shows he’s played and albums he’s recorded. But ask yourself, “If this guy’s primary interest has been performance, why has he resorted to teaching?”

2) Look for a System.

By far, the most common instructional “method” used by sub-par instructors is the “I-have-been-playing-this-way-all-my-life-so-let-me-show-you-how-I-do-it” method. The problem with this approach is that it limits you to playing in the style of the instructor. Worse, many teachers have a list of songs that they are comfortable with, and therefore those are the songs you’ll be learning, like it or not.

A solid instructor follows a solid system. The attributes of a good system are that it is structured, logical, comprehensive, and progressive.

Structured systems build on levels of accomplishment in order to keep you as the student aware of where you stand within that system. You should be able to easily look back and see where you were versus where you are now.

Logical systems have a reason for everything. There should be specific reasons for learning each scale, chord, riff, technique, and song... none of the criteria should be taken for granted, and your teacher should be able to explain why you are learning what you are learning.

Comprehensive systems include material for beginners through advanced players and span most genres of playing styles. If a system can only take you so far, it isn’t comprehensive, and eventually you will run out of things to learn. Good systems are built to adapt and grow with the student.

Progressive systems contain information that is built upon and connected to other criteria within the system. A piece of instruction material shouldn’t simply exist on its own; it should be relevant to something you have learned or something you will be learning in the future.

3) Find a Teacher who is Responsible and Reliable

This one should be a no-brainer, but if you’re constantly lingering outside the classroom waiting for a teacher to show up, you should run and run fast. Teachers who can’t be counted on to show up on time and prepared to teach you aren’t interested in you developing as a student. Period.

It should make you wonder what his or her true motivation is.

Specifically, watch out for pay-per-lesson policies. This is often an indication that a teacher is more than prepared to cancel your lesson because, hey, it only costs him 20 bucks for a whole day off, right?

Search for teachers who charge by the month, session or year. These teachers are showing you a vested interest in being accountable for your lesson and schedule. Make sure that, if a teacher is going to miss a lesson, you’ve already paid for it and are entitled to either have a qualified substitute teacher or some kind of make-up lesson.

4) Learn Guitar, First and Foremost

The alter-ego to the aforementioned “I-have-been-playing-this-way-all-my-life-so-let-me-show-you-how-I-do-it” teacher is the guy with the music degree who attempts to teach you a college course in 30 minutes once per week while you’re holding this guitar that you can’t play.

Especially for beginner guitarists, your teacher should have one primary goal for you from the get-go: Learn to play songs on the guitar as quickly as possible.

If you’re sitting down with your teacher and learning standard notation and how to read music, but your goal is to learn to play the guitar, bluntly you’re not making an efficient use of your time and money.

Standard notation is, by and far, the BEST way to communicate musical ideas, but it is a POOR substitute for just learning how to play the guitar. If you can recite your circle of fifths and you know the difference between a quarter-rest and a fermata, but you can’t play “Smoke on the Water” then you likely have a problem as a guitarist.

Your teacher should really be aware of all these things and capable of explaining them to you if you really want to know, but again the primary focus should be to play your guitar the way you want to.

5) Look for More than Just Lessons

Becoming a guitarist is more involved than the standard “take your lesson, work on the material, show up a week later, rinse, repeat” method, which is, unfortunately, the most common.

Actively search for teachers who offer performance opportunities like student recitals, recording sessions, guitar jams with other students, direct connections to the music industry, and especially a website containing access to useful information for students (not just samples of the teacher’s music and/or accomplishments.)

In summary, there is no shortage of guitar players out there looking to make a buck by meeting with you once a week. The question is, will you get what YOU want out of this time and money you’ve spent?

Following these five tips in your search will dramatically improve the chances that you’re going to have a good experience as a guitar student, and also continually learn and grow as a guitar player.

Good luck!

by Paul Felice