Guitar Teachers (UK)

As far as I can see there is no compulsory requirement to registered or affiliated in any way. There are pros and cons to that I guess.

In my experience finding a good teacher can be very hit and miss. Try your local music stores, they usually keep a list of teacher and can sometimes make a recommendation. It may also be worth getting in touch with local educational establishments. Schools and colleges sometimes use the services of local guitar teachers. Yellow pages is another source of info. Try these:

http://www.registryofguitartutors.com/index.html
http://www.musicteachers.co.uk/links/index.php?category=46

It can be difficult to find a good teacher. Try and set up a trial lesson before you commit to see if he/she is what you want and reciprically see if they are happy to teach you.

Prices in my experience vary. I'm paying £20 an hour every week, yet my son is paying £16 for half an hour once a fortnight. Cost isn't necessarily an indication of quality either. We currently have very good teachers but I have been bitten in the past. If you can find one from recommendations that's probably the best but if not it could be a case of suck it and see.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

I was lucky in that I already knew the guy who I had lessons from, but I'd still say just talk to a few, and try a few lessons with the one you get on with best - both in terms of personality and musical taste.

It's also to remember that you're not bound to a teacher. Once you've had one for a while, there might be another guitar teacher out there who is better at teaching you more advanced stuff once you've learnt the basics, or vice versa.

It's quite a personal thing chosing a teacher, so just have a relaxed lesson away from everyone else and maybe play him a few CDs to say "that's what I want to do/sound like, can you help me?"

For basics, it doesn't matter about music taste really, as long as they're a good guitarist. For more advanced stuff they have to use the techniques well and like hearing the styles that you want to play.

You might wanna pop down to your local newsagent and pick up a copy of "Loot" if it covers your area. It has weekly second hand ads in, but the Music section recently became pretty extensive and advertises (obviously local) guitar teachers looking for students.

Thanks very much for the advice guys, I'll let you know how I get on :)

As a UK guitar teacher myself of over 25 years experience (schools and privately), I hope I can offer some tips on what to look for in a guitar teacher.

As previous members have said, no formal qualifications are required to teach guitar in the UK on a self employed basis and they've given some good advice on how to find a good one.
Having got one, here are a few more pointers to help you decide if you have a good one.

A good teacher should determine exactly what style or styles the student wants to learn. No teacher can know every style and a good one will make it clear from the start which styles they teach and to what level.

The teacher should control the flow of information and use well chosen teaching material. The lesson should be presented logically and in strictly limited quantities. A bad teacher will ramble on at great length, dropping in technical terms all over the place and won't even notice the frozen smile and glazed eyes of the poor confused student, left behind wondering if a subdominant is as kinky as it sounds. A good teacher is constantly checking for signs that the student is following comfortably, and would never leave the student behind like that.

A good teacher might on occasion, work out some music for students by ear (a very expensive way to do when paying hourly rates) but better still will teach them how to do it by themselves for any song.

A good teacher will provide continuity from lesson to lesson and will build on the previous lesson, keeping the student aware of their progress at all times.

Although as a teacher myself, I aspire to the above points and try to practise what I preach, they are really observations based on the teaching methods of two brilliant but very different teachers I had myself years ago. One was a highly qualified professor at the London College of Music and the other had no qualifications of any sort, but a formidable reputation as one of Britain's best acoustic guitarists of the early 60s, acknowledged by many guitarists, including Jimmy Page, John Renbourn and Paul Simon.
One taught me the value of being logical and methodical - the other kept me aware that music is an art more than a science. Both were equally inspiring, which is the hallmark of a great teacher.
Good luck in your search.

A good teacher might on occasion, work out some music for students by ear (a very expensive way to do when paying hourly rates) but better still will teach them how to do it by themselves for any song.

This is a very popular set of lessons - I usually use "Chocolate" by Snow Patrol to get people started, and then throw "Time Of Your Life" at them.

What I found was that the second I entered one of my students for a Grade Exam I suddenly found myself on a central register with a teacher code and everything.

I guess I'm not bad by comparison, having Classical Guitar Grade 5, but one of my students paid £15 for half hour lessons before calling me after three lessons. I turned up, sat down and went through what he'd been taught in those lessons. "I can play Green Onions" he said. "Great", I replied, "go for it. We need something to warm up with". So he proceeded to play 12 bars which he'd learnt by rote. "Keep going", I said, ready to roll out some blues improvisations to get the fingers moving. "I don't know the rest of it" he said.

It's moments like that which make you want to beat your head against a wall, and proves the point that some teachers are in it for the cash without the slightest intention of actually doing any input. No disrespect to my student's previous teacher, but I think I'd want more for £45 than to be able to repeat a four-note pattern across two different strings and two different positions without understanding what was going on; especially when that 12 bars lasts about 30 seconds.

As you'll realise, this is the price you pay for guitar teachers not being required to register or have any formal teaching training or ability, and it's very difficult to sort the good from the bad without having parted with some cash. I would always ask a teacher how they intended to teach me, as I ask students at their first lesson how I'm going to teach them.

Try here - the Registry of Guitar Tutors

http://www.rgt.org.uk

Best,

A :-)

As a UK guitar teacher myself <Snip>

Thanks very much for that, some valuable insight there :)

Thanks to you too Alan, I'll give that link a go now :)

The biggest problem I've had in using the RGT site is that the tutors listed in my area are maxed out with students! Which I guess proves to some degree that they must be good at what they do.

I'm still looking for a tutor myself, when I first started looking I thought it would be easy, but here I am a month later and still no joy. I like the idea about checking out the local music stores, think I'll do that this weekend!

I'm still looking for a tutor myself, when I first started looking I thought it would be easy, but here I am a month later and still no joy. I

Joe - You might also consider one-to-one online lessons. I know it's not as good as a teacher there with you correcting your hand positions, etc. But it could do for now until you find one, and of course it's cheaper.
I'm thinking of expanding into that field myself in the near future. Due to a shoulder injury, the idea of teaching from the computer seems more appealing at the moment than driving all over town doing private lessons, which is what I do now. I already teach music theory online by email and that works really well but teaching guitar online is a very different proposition and I'll need to research it more.

Another option for you is local evening classes run by council adult education centres. If you don't want to attend a class, most evening class teachers will consider teaching you privately at your home or theirs.

Of course, if you're in my area (Lanarkshire Scotland), and looking for acoustic guitar lessons, contact me through my website http://www.fretsource.com
I'll be happy to help. (shameless plug)

Adult Education Services aren't always what they're cracked up to be. I've been speaking to two in the south of England as we're thinking of moving late this year, but only one has got back to me so far - and that was a specific college rather than the AES themselves. I can see it's going to be a hard slog once we do move.

And then, the courses I have found in the other AES are for Beginners or Folk Guitar - two courses in a whole county. I'm not knocking either of them, but there doesn't seem to be anywhere to go once you're out of the realms of being a beginner, or if you fancy classes in Post-Futuristic-Neo-Classical-Eurovision Goth Metal.

I could write classes myself, but you see my point...

Best,

A :-)

...in the south of England as we're thinking of moving late this year... Ooooohhh, wherabouts? :)