REALITY: Most guitar instructors have never taken the time to develop
their teaching skills. Unfortunately, this means you must become their
student ‘experiment’ as they learn through trial and error. Before you
take another lesson, here are the seven things that your guitar teacher
has never told you (that you need to know!):
1. “The truth is, I was never trained in any way to effectively teach guitar.”
It is true that many guitar teachers previously learned how to play
guitar through lessons (or even by going to school to learn), however
99/100 guitar teachers have no actual training when it comes to
‘teaching’ guitar. Most guitar teachers began teaching by using an
improvisational, trial by error approach that they still use to this
day. Fortunately for you, these people are not the same people who clean
your teeth, fix your car or handle your bank account. It astounds me
how so many guitar students never think to ask their teachers whether or
not they received any kind of training for what they do. This point
alone explains why so many students who take lessons from mediocre
guitar teachers never become great guitarists.
2. “I’m teaching you guitar with a generic approach that I use
for everyone. It might work… it might not work. I don’t really know for
sure.” One of the most common ways that guitar teachers hide
their lack of knowledge and experience is to use a generalized approach
for everyone they teach. Almost every time I start training a guitar
teacher, they ask me: “Tom, do you know any kind of methods I can use in
my guitar teaching so I don’t have to worry about what I should teach
my students every week?” The truth is, with the exception of total
‘beginners’, your guitar teacher MUST use a specific teaching strategy
for each of his students (including you) in order to help them
effectively improve and reach their goals.
3. “With me, you are limited to playing at a beginner or intermediate level. By keeping you at this level, I can make more money.”
There are few guitar teachers who can teach students beyond an
intermediate level. In fact, many of them are afraid that you will get
‘too advanced’ and stop taking lessons because they can no longer offer
valuable insight. Unfortunately, this means that a lot of teachers
purposely hold back their guitar students, thinking that this is the
only way to stay in business.
4. “I don’t know how to teach anything besides 1 on 1 lessons.”Contrary
to what many teachers will tell you, learning guitar using a private
one on one format is NOT the greatest system to learn with. The teachers
who try to get you to believe this myth have no experience training A
LOT of people to reach high levels of guitar playing. If they did, they
would understand that you can get much better results by using a variety
of other highly effective guitar learning formats.
5. “Whenever you come in for your guitar lesson, I simply make it up as I go along. I really have no plan whatsoever.”
The vast majority of guitar teachers have zero training on how to teach
guitar. On top of that, many of them have not even planned out what
they are going to teach you from lesson to lesson. When was the last
time you took a guitar lesson and felt like your guitar teacher had
already prepared a specific plan to help you reach your musical goals?
Chances are, you have never felt this way.
6. “Want to become an advanced guitar player? Well you can forget about it if you learn from me.”
Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because a guitar teacher has a
lot of students, he has helped them become highly skilled players. In
reality, most teachers don’t know how to teach guitar on an advanced
level or get big results for their students. Fact is, you will never be
able to become an advanced guitarist as long as you are taking lessons
from someone who doesn’t know how to turn his students into great guitar
players.
7. “You want to become a creative guitar player? Sorry, I
cannot teach you that… you’re either naturally creative or you’re not
creative at all.” Just about every guitar teacher out there
(falsely) assumes that creativity cannot be taught. These teachers
believe that being able to play creatively on guitar is a gift that you
were born with. If you take lessons from a teacher like this, you will
never become a creative guitar player because your guitar teacher simply
doesn’t know how to help you develop this skill. These teachers will
only show you WHAT to play but never how to use it in actual music. Fact
is, creativity is a skill that can be developed just like any other
skill on guitar.
Now that you have learned what happens ‘behind the scenes’ with (mediocre) guitar teachers, find out finding the best guitar teacher.
Finally, let me give you three big reasons why you should listen to what I have to say:
1. I teach thousands of correspondence guitar lessons to guitar players around the world every year.
2. I have loads of proof of helping my online guitar students become advanced guitarists.
3. I have created a specialized guitar teaching training program that has helped many guitar teachers become highly successful in their guitar teaching businesses (as seen in this Elite Guitar Teachers Inner Circle review).
About The Author:
Tom Hess is a highly successful guitar teacher, recording artist and
the guitar player for the band Rhapsody Of Fire. He helps guitarists
around the world with his personalized guitar lessons. Visit his electric guitar player lessons website and get free guitar advice, guitar practice help, and additional advice on how to become a better musician.