How to choose a guitar teacher?

Think about what you want to find in a teacher. We have found that students sometimes place too much importance on the teacher’s preferred musical styles. For beginners, we do not recommend looking for a teacher on the basis of what styles you want to learn. Even if you are very keenly interested in one particular style, any teacher who is proficient at guitar can help you learn what you will need to play that style. If you are a complete beginner, you should not expect to put much attention into specific guitar styles at least for the first 6 to 12 months of playing. This is because you will need to learn many fundamentals of the guitar first. And even after that time, musicianship is more important than style.

The first thing to consider when choosing a teacher is their qualifications and experience. While there are many people who are very good at playing the guitar, only a few are good at teaching. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to make a living in the arts. The result of this is that there are many people who are teaching music who do not want to teach. Many people think that teaching music is simply a way to “pay the bills”. If you end up under the care of such a teacher, you may not notice at first. However, you may eventually notice that there is a lack of genuine interest in teaching you how to play the guitar. Unfortunately, this situation is all too common.

Good teachers show enthusiasm for the progress of their students, give their students specific feedback, assign exercises to improve areas needing development, and attempt to create continuity from one lesson to the next. Good teachers strive to help their students reach new levels of playing ability. Finally, a good teacher is one who is proud to teach. If you make a teacher who cannot tell you anything about their teaching methods, this is a sign that they have not put any thought into it.

The next thing to think about is the personalities. All other things aside, it is generally best to work with a teacher with whom you get along well, and who you feel inspires you to reach a new level of guitar playing ability.

As the creator of Hub Guitar, Grey has compiled hundreds of guitar lessons, written several books, and filmed hundreds of video lessons. He teaches private lessons in his Boston studio, as well as via video chat through TakeLessons.