How To Find a Good Guitar Teacher: Advice for Absolute Beginners by Shawn Persinger
Excerpt from The 50 Greatest Guitar Books
When
seeking a qualified instructor to help you with the basics, make sure you ask a
few key questions during a polite but pointed interview. Here are some
questions you should ask and some ballpark responses a conscientious teacher
should have.
- How long have you been playing? “10-plus years.” There are exceptions of course, but 10 years is
a good place to start.
- How long have you been teaching? “Five-plus years.” I know from personal experience it took me at
least five years to become a halfway-decent instructor.
- Do you have a set method or does your approach
depend on the individual student?
“The approach depends on the student.” A teacher with a set method assumes everyone
learns the same way. This is not true.
- How long will it take me to play a song? A tricky one. I can teach almost anyone to
“play” a four-chord song in a single one-hour lesson. But to make it sound
like a real song with changes at tempo, clean execution of chords, and
perhaps some melodies thrown in, can take up to two, even three, months. And that
is with the student committing to 20 minutes a day, four days a week of
practice time.
- What styles do you teach? The instructor should teach the style you want
to learn. If you want to study rock, blues, metal or folk guitar, do not go to a jazz teacher! But if you want to learn
jazz, avoid your local metalhead unless you know for sure he/she can play
“I Got Rhythm,” “Autumn Leaves,” and “All Blues.”
- Do you give handouts? “Yes.”
- Do you use tablature or standard notation? “I teach and use both, depending on the
student’s needs.”
- Do you teach songs, theory, or technique? “All three.”
Don’t
be afraid to ask these questions of any teacher – from the private instructor
with a good reputation working out of his own studio to the guitarist teaching
at the local music store. A good teacher won’t be insulted by these questions
and will appreciate the fact that you have thought your lessons needs through.
One
final bit of advice for beginners: Start your guitar journey by learning songs
you like, and the chords they contain. Scales, theory, etudes, and so on all
have long-term value but they can come later, in the context of your favorite
tunes. Learning a song will inspire you to practice more than any exercise
will. So pick a few songs, then start learning the chords and strum patterns.
Songs are the foundation of a good guitar education.
For more tips, lessons, and recommendations of the greatest guitar books ever written please visit: www.GreatestGuitarBooks.com
