Hi all,
A common question I’ve heard is “When can I start teaching guitar?” to which I reply with my usual humour and genius, low-intellect wit – “when you have a student, of course”… which is sort of true…
I’ve collected a few of the things some would-be guitar teachers have asked me in the form of common misconceptions:
Q) As long as you know more than the person you’re teaching, you can be a teacher, right?
A) Ummm… sort of, I mean surely that’s the minimum?!?
What if they ask you something you don’t know? How do you answer that? Students have a canny way of doing that – especially the young ones!
Q) Surely all you’ve got to do is teach a few riffs and licks?- easy!
A) Sure! If you want your lessons to be interesting for about 1 day.
People like to know why they’re doing something – I don’t mean in the philosophical “why does life exist” sense, but more like: “If you play that chord with these fingers, then it means it’s easier to do this next”, or “We’re learning this scale because it fits into this song for the melody/solo and you can use it in different keys like this… ”
It helps information stick.
Q) Can I can just make it up as I go along? – they won’t know…
A) It’s true that people don’t necessarily know when you’re making stuff up as you go along, I know because in the early years I used to do it when I’d run out of ideas.
What happens though, is that people start to sense a lack of progression if there’s no real structure and will get disillusioned very quickly – you must remain in control and show that to your student, it will encourage them to know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
The best thing to do is to have ONE goal to achieve at a time and build your lesson(s) around that.
It may be ‘Learn alternate picking’ so you build one, two or three lessons around that concept using riffs, exercises or songs. Keep it interesting and achievable though and explain what you’re doing as you do it.
Q) Do I have to be able to read music?
A) Nowadays, it’s not completely necessary, but it will limit you in the future – especially because although you may understand how to ‘hear’ rhythm, if you can’t read or write it down then how can you portray that concept to someone who has never even thought about it in their lifetime before who can’t ‘hear’ it?
There are other ways, and as long as you’re honest with your student about your own limitations and price yourself accordingly then you can’t get ‘found out’ – but do yourself a favour and do some study!
A WORD of advice though: don’t price yourself too cheap, because you are creating an unfair market for the pros who rely on the income for a living – and that doesn’t go down too well in your local music community. Inevitably, your student will want to progress onto someone more experienced after a while so it’s best to build a good relationship with your (future) colleagues.
Q) It must be brilliant earning £25 an hour for playing the guitar! When can I start?
A) Well, the answer is immediately! But before you decide to photocopy your arse and send it to your boss with your resignation written on the bottom (pun intended), take into account your costs – Tax, expenses, do you rent a studio?, accountancy, advertising, no holiday or sickness pay, uncertain and definitely unsociable working hours, how many students do you need to pay your house bills… etc
It ain’t easy and it takes a loooong time too, but if you really have something to offer and you’re patient, fair and you keep your head about you, you’ll reap the rewards of such a cool job.
Good luck! Maybe I’ll see you in my studio one of these days – I look forward to working with you 
JW
www.johnwilmshurst.com
