How to Select a Guitar Teacher for You

Personal instruction is the best way to advance beyond the basics and leverage the expertise of someone who plays and teaches guitar for a living.  We hope the 90-Day Guitar Guide helps you build a strong foundation, but it is not meant to be a permanent replacement for a personal guitar teacher. 

Once you built up your finger calluses, know how to strum the ’10 Chords for Beginners“, understand the notes and scales, and have played your first songs … it’s time to leave the nest!  Here’s a guide to help you narrow the choices.

In-home vs. Studio: Safety should always be considered with any personal service and needs to be adjusted for age and gender considerations.  Going into someone else’s house should be done with caution and only after checking references of people you trust.  Having a teacher come to your home can seem safer because it’s your environment, but it’s also introducing an outsider to become familiar with your home, your possessions, your pets, etc.  A studio where several teachers are present and many students attend is likely to be a professional setting.  Many music stores rent out practice space to teachers at the back of the store and tend to be a good learning environment.

Gender/Age: You may be more comfortable with a man or woman, younger versus older.  First, guitar teachers are dominated by men so holding out for a female teacher may limit your choices dramatically.  As for age, try to keep an open mind on age as you should be more focused on style … young musicians tend to be wise beyond their years, and experienced musicians tend to be forever young at heart.

Professional Teacher: You should highly consider instructors that are dedicated to music as a profession.  Many musicians that play at nightclubs and events on the weekends will teach during the week.  Finding someone that has been teaching for at least three years is a good indication they are committed to this, should have references they can provide, and have honed in on their teaching style.  It’s not very productive being taught by a young, enthusiastic, amateur guitarist that has no idea how to structure a lesson.

Style: Just like picking out your guitar, knowing the type of music you want to play will help you hone in on the perfect teacher for you.  If you’re a rocker, and your prospective teacher only owns an acoustic, then you should rock-on over to another teacher.  Some teachers believe in teaching music theory and scale work, while other like having you play songs each week that gradually increase your skills.  Some like telling jokes and stories, while others just get down to business.  Find out if they have a set, structured method of teaching or if they are flexible and will respond to your personal requests.

Time: 30 minutes a week, every week is an adequate amount of time to introduce enough new material to keep you busy until the next lesson.

Costs: This will range widely with the experience of the teacher and your geographic location.  $20 - $35 per 30 minute session is an approximate range you should be prepared for.  Expect extra to be charged if the teacher is coming to your house to cover their travel time.  Most instructors require to be paid in advance for the upcoming month.

Individual vs. Group: Group lessons can be effective if all the participants are at the same level, desiring to play the same style, within the same age range and there is a maximum of 5 people in the group.  Peer pressure can motivate you to keep playing throughout the week and being prepared for your lessons.  However, one bad apple in the group can spoil all the fun, so if you’re put in with a complainer, class clown, or attention hog you may want to abandon the group sooner rather than later.  Individual lessons have the benefit of all the attention being focused on your needs.  There’s nobody to hide behind and your bad habits will be identified and correctly quickly.  You’re also assured of playing the style and individual music selections that you want.

Recitals: Recitals probably remind you of elementary school choir, but ask your prospective teachers if they hold informal recitals.  It’s fairly common that twice a year a teacher to have a Sunday afternoon gig set up in a local coffee shop where all his/her students have a chance to play a song or two.  While that may sound frightening, it’s amazing how much you’ll improve going through that exercise and focusing on having a song completely ready for a specific point in time.  To alleviate some anxiety, as if the teacher will play along with you the first time you perform … it’s a great way to cover up some mistakes (you will have some, you’re just a beginner) and not all the pressure is just on you.  It’s a highly recommended experience.

Be Prepared: Each week when you go to your lesson, you should have a list of the elements you had difficulty playing over the past week as well as requests of two or three songs you’d like to learn (so you have a good chance that one of them is at the appropriate level for you).  Bringing in a CD or MP3 of the songs will allow the teacher to transcribe the song in the same key as your listening to it so you can play along.  Being prepared helps you get the most out of YOUR time.

Using a Broker: Yes, there are even brokers that help screen music teachers.  They are relatively new and may not have complete coverage of the entire U.S., but firms such as www.TakeLessons.com/Guitar have a large group of pre-screened guitar teachers to search through by zip code and lists out their music bio and teaching style.

Local Music Store: The store manager will certainly know the better guitar teachers in their area.  Whether it’s teachers that rent room from the store or who sends students to the store to buy their accessories, the store manager will have a feel of which teachers have happy students.

Jerry McCann: www.JerryMcCann.com Of course, if you live in the San Diego area, we encourage you to contact our very own Jerry McCann.  He has helped make this a free resource to all beginning guitar players based on his 20+ years of teaching and is truly the best there is!  (we know, we’re biased … but it’s true!) 

If you’d like to join us in the 90-Day Guitar Guide, please start by taking the quick Guitar Quiz.  The Guitar Quiz allows us to customize recommendations to meet your specific goals.

The entire 90-Day Guitar Guide is free. Get started and take the Guitar Quiz today!