What's a "good" guitar teacher?

My lessons have ended for the year and don't come back until september because I do it through my school (£14 for half an hour!!!!)

I found out about a little place that does group lessons for £2 an hour, which is a very good deal and i know a few people who like it. I might also get lessons where my brother goes (he's been playing about 4 months and I've been playing a year and he is soooo much better than me, though he may just be a better musician) which cost £11 for half an hour.

So 1h30mins for 13 quid. Bargain :twisted:

EDIT: Henrik, I just can't stay angry at it :)

a good teacher will give you the gift of learning how to learn.

I pulled that quote out because I thought it was spot on.

My teacher's failure to teach me how to learn to play is why I quit. I kept asking how should I practice? what should I work on? what drills should I do? And kept getting "just strum along to these songs that you like, maybe work on this riff or two". And I would do that, and I would not get any better. Week in, week out.

I just wasn't getting any better.

And I was frustrated because I still didn't know how to get better! I was just as clueless as I was when I started.

So I quit, and haven't been back, and still suck.

I took lessons last summer when i was just beggining and and i learned and improved a lot from my teacher. I am taking some more from him this summer and he has suggested after awhile that i take lessons from a different guy. He says he's a much better player and plays more rock and metal stuff(what i'm into), while my teacher plays more country/acoustic, and i could learn a lot more from him. So, having my teacher suggest that makes him number 1 in my books, he doesn't want to waste my time, and really wants me to progress. I guess I got lucky in finding a good teacher(and hopefully that other guy will be good too).

Hi,

Teachers come in a huge range of flavours. :shock: Some are trained musicians and some are just reasonable players who found a niche passing on their knowledge. But I've come across few (well actually none yet personally) who are both fully trained as teachers and as musicians. So you get a big variety of approaches and styles, and it can be hard to find somebody who is gifted enough in all departments to know exactly what you want and need, week after week.

There was a teacher at the local shop who reckoned that he could show you everything you needed to know in around 10 lessons, and after that the students could go it alone and add the rest for themselves. Now I think he was probably wrong - because although he could run through pretty much all the essential basics in that time there was no way that most of his students could take it all on board fast enough, or more importantly get their fingers up to speed to be able to DO everything that they could be told in such a short time.

But I think he did have a point. Unless you're studying under a skilled teacher to learn specific professional styles or standards then once you've been launched in the right direction you can learn a lot for yourself.

A good teacher shuld be able to provide technical help but also less tangible things like structure, guidance and motivation. If they've run out of steam in those areas, the maybe try elsewhere or take the repsonsibility on yourself until you find somebody more suitable.

Cheers,

Chris

I think if you are looking for a structured guitar teacher, I would look at their credentials. Have they been classically trained? Or, did they go to college for music?

My guitar teacher, for example, has a degree in guitar performance, and I've found he's incredibly structured (almost too structured, but it wouldn't be the case if I had time to practice more..like 2 hours a day or so. Right now I only have time for about 30-40 minutes a night).

I think that teachers who have been taught in a very structured way will in turn teach in a structured way.

I've definitely had teachers who just teach me songs, (or just tab out my songs, which is completely worthless to me), and I just told them I didn't want to take lessons from them and went somewhere else.

Believe me, I was much happier for it.

If you saying "he makes me learn songs which i dont want to do..." ever heard of speech? just say " i want to learn styles and theory.. " though the reason you learn songs is cos once u learn them you should research into it, try to understand it and what is going on in theory terms etc...

No point learning theory if you have no good collection of songs to use which will demonstrate how the theory works. Plus your guitarist knows what hes doing but to expect something weekly is rare, once ever like month or two usually they would push you more, cos thats about how much time you need.

But the best teacher of all in my opinion is youtube videos of your inspirations, watch them and copy them cos videos for me is the best option.