If you can play guitar reasonably well then why not use that skill to teach guitar and generate valuable extra income or even a full time job? Read on to find out how I and others have done exactly that.
The great myth held by many is that you need to be an advanced or expert player in order to teach guitar but this is simply not the case. You see, the vast majority of guitar students are beginners on acoustic guitar and they will almost certainly make up the ‘mass market’ of students coming to you for guitar lessons.
Assuming you have been playing for a few years and are confident on guitar that is often all you need to be able to teach guitar to others. The best thing is that you already have the required skill; you don’t need to learn anything new! You’re simply making use of a talent you already possess to create income for yourself.
The most important thing to teach guitar, even beyond your playing ability, is that you are able to communicate well and have an open, friendly personality.
It’s true that some people are fantastic guitar players but couldn’t actaully teach guitar to save their lives – one does not automatically imply the other. When you teach guitar you need to be able to see things from the student’s point of view and to remember from your own experience just how hard it was at first to play guitar.
Once you understand things from the student’s side you’ll immediately become sympathetic to their situation be able to teach guitar to them in a successful and dynamic way.
Those of us who teach guitar enjoy some great benefits. The first one would be that it provides a valuable source of income and that you can teach guitar practically anywhere. Even in remote places you’d be surprised how word can spread and the numbers of people who would be interested.
When you teach guitar you are your own boss and able to decide your own teaching hours based around your current lifestyle and other commitments.
Another point worth mentioning is that you have the power to control your income and raise or lower your lesson fees as you see fit should your income need a boost.
In future articles we’ll discuss what you must do in order to prepare properly to teach guitar and we’ll also certainly need to talk about advertising because when you teach guitar knowing how to advertise effectively will mean the difference between success and failure. |
