The Best Credentials To Look For In A Guitar Teacher
All guitar teachers are not the same. They do not have the same teaching skills, the same experience and the same ability to get you the kind of results you want in your guitar playing. Choose the right teacher and you become a better guitarist fast. Make a mistake and choose the wrong one… and you just might end up wasting tons of time and money only to get nowhere.
To make sure you find the right guitar teacher for you, understand that training experience and proven results are key.
Here’s why a music degree means nothing:
Many guitar teachers accept students without any teaching experience whatsoever. For you as the student, this is a very bad situation. Guitar teachers like this often teach in a trial-and-error manner, meaning: every student they teach becomes a guinea pig to help them learn how to teach better. This has a lot of potential to not only harm the student’s playing, but lead them to many years’ worth of bad habits that take a long time to undo.
Other guitar teachers are in the exact same boat, but use a music degree to attempt to set themselves apart from everyone else. In reality, a music degree does absolutely nothing for helping you understand how to teach guitar effectively. Simply knowing about music doesn’t mean you know how to teach it.
When choosing a guitar teacher, look to see that they have actual guitar teacher training. Experts agree, this is crucial for guitar teaching success:
Jacob Melling, owner of the American Academy Of Guitar Mastery, says: “All the best teachers have extensive guitar teacher training. These teachers always get the greatest results for their students. As long as your teacher has credentials from a program such as the Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle, you know you are not in danger of wasting your time or money as their student.”
Make sure you work with a proven guitar teacher:
Another important thing to look for is that the teacher has already given students results by helping them become great players. A lot of guitar teachers tell you they are great, they will help you reach your goals or that they have helped others reach theirs… BUT the best guitar teachers can PROVE that they’ve done it.
When looking for your next guitar teacher, check out their website. Look for testimonials and feedback from real guitar students. Are these students great players? What do they have to say about the teach you want to work with? If the teacher is a good one, you will find plenty of videos or rave reviews that demonstrate the success the teacher has given to his students. This proof helps you understand that you are making the right choice, because this gives you real evidence of results.
Once you have found a guitar teacher with these characteristics, congratulations! You have found one of the biggest tools for your guitar playing growth. The next action step for you is to contact the teacher with your specific musical goals. He will then help you define a specific strategy for reaching those goals and begin the process of developing an effective practice schedule that will keep you progressing. Simply do as your guitar teacher tells you and you will see amazing results and become the guitarist you always wanted to become!