I'd like to find a guitar teacher

Sporky

Lestratcaster said:

For some people they’ll like it for others not so much. I’m just saying it’s another option if travel isn’t possible.

Indeed, and I think it's good that the option exists.

I was really responding to your bit about struggling to sell the lessons, just offering a potential explanation.

lgi777

Make sure that your guitar teacher genuinely cares for your guitar playing. 

Watch out for 'gigging guitar teachers'. I mean guitar teachers who gig a lot and cannot attend to you weekly.

Ideal you want someone who specialise in guitar education.

I used to play a lot of guitar, now I teach a lot and there is a world of difference between being a great player and a great teacher.  (Your teacher should definitely know his or her stuff, but playing is different to teaching)

Do solid research. Read reviews. 

You will find the right person!

adampeter

viz said:

Tiadampeter said:

I've struggled for a while to find a tutor, there are a few near me I've tried but they were either jam sessions (that i was paying for!!)  or i just wasn't inspired by/like the guy.
I expect a tutor to ask what your ultimate goals are and set out lessons/practice regimes accordingly, sadly I've never found this.
Maybe i'm asking too much?
I too am put off by Skype etc, to my mind just a step up from videos, but i get why people would go down that route.
I'm in Ely Cambridgeshire if anyone has recommendations

Tim Gillett or Dave Carter spring to mind

Cant find either of them with a google search?

viz

Couple of things about skype:

1) the first 5 mins will feel a bit artificial and forced but soon the laptop screen melts away into the background and you are just communicating as normal. It helps if the teacher is well used to skype lessons so that only one of you is finding it odd. With Greg Howe for example, his partner runs a pre-setup session to make sure all's working properly. 

2) the time lag means that your teacher can't play a backing track from his/her studio and listen to you playing along to it. You'll both have to select it from Youtube or whatever and play one-at-a-time. With my lessons we actually spend 50% of the time talking about the music, then we'll play and try things out, in an alternating format. That works well. 

3) the first few times you may find there's not much continuity between sessions, because the teacher has forgotten where you got to. There's no notebook to write in, and the lack of physical presence probably makes it less easy to remember you.

4) the distance thing also possibly makes some teachers a bit formulaic. I had a skype lesson once with a certain famous UK guitarist who assumed a certain playing level and theoretical knowledge and didn't really address my individual needs. Greg Howe is totally the opposite - he is extremely personable and the lessons are 100% customised. 

5) With famous guitarists, the tendency is probably that they will assume you want to learn to play like them. Which is not necessarily what you want. They're not all like that. Greg Howe for example is really happy to push you in the direction you want to go - it's not about "trying to play like Greg Howe", not a bit. In fact in 3 years together we have not once listened to a single Greg Howe song together. (But he's always very busy, eg he's on tour at the moment).

That's it. I think it's a good method - the upside is availability - you can select your teacher from a global pool - but it is definitely not quite as good as having face-to-face sessions. The pro teachers will minimise that downside as much as possible. Try it. 

viz

adampeter said:

viz said:

Tiadampeter said:

I've struggled for a while to find a tutor, there are a few near me I've tried but they were either jam sessions (that i was paying for!!)  or i just wasn't inspired by/like the guy.
I expect a tutor to ask what your ultimate goals are and set out lessons/practice regimes accordingly, sadly I've never found this.
Maybe i'm asking too much?
I too am put off by Skype etc, to my mind just a step up from videos, but i get why people would go down that route.
I'm in Ely Cambridgeshire if anyone has recommendations

Tim Gillett or Dave Carter spring to mind

Cant find either of them with a google search?

Dave's a few down from the top in this list 

https://www.musicteachers.co.uk/district/ely.cambridgeshire.cb7/classical.guitar/teachers/

You're right, Tim doesn't seem to be advertising but he's very good and still teaches as far as I know; he's on facebook and via his band Sugarbeat. 

Lestratcaster

Sporky said:

Lestratcaster said:

For some people they’ll like it for others not so much. I’m just saying it’s another option if travel isn’t possible.

Indeed, and I think it's good that the option exists.

I was really responding to your bit about struggling to sell the lessons, just offering a potential explanation.

Maybe its the fear of the unknown. They're not used to using it or haven't used it before. I know some would enjoy it as the thought of having to travel on say, public transport would kill their morale coming to lessons. Also if there's traffic or the car breaks down then there's a lost hour. Skype probably isn't the best for video calling, Google Hangouts is better I reckon. But before we get to the conclusion of "you're too far away" then I offer the online lessons.

thing

"I used to play a lot of guitar, now I teach a lot and there is a world of difference between being a great player and a great teacher.  (Your teacher should definitely know his or her stuff, but playing is different to teaching)"

Wot he said. Teaching is a skill all of it's own.

DLM

@thing Dave! Yay! Welcome back! The place[1] has not been the same without you!

[1] We're obviously in different "place" now, so I mean "group" or "community", but don't like those words for this meaning. I feel like I'd have to pronounce it "communiteh", like Cartman.

jellyroll

I'm a perpetual beginner, aged 51. I've had 3 or 4 teachers over the years. Some random thoughts:

• I'm in central London (Camden) where you'd think there would be plenty of teachers. But many are aspiring youngsters with attitude looking to earn a bit of extra cash  with no track record and no proper teaching facility who'll drop you at the first whiff of a gig. Sort of "annoying-guitar-shop-assistant-turned-teacher."

• The main teacher I had was a nice bloke but I grew frustrated with my lack of progress after seeing him weekly for 18 months. I also got quite "stressed" about doing homework - with only a week between lessons and much of my free time taken up with work and family stuff I really couldn't find more than a few hours each week. So then by the next lesson I hadn't made much progress (which embarrassed and frustrated me). Then the lesson became either a repeat of the previous lesson or we moved onto something else and the first song got abandoned. 

• I've always struggled with the "what are your objectives?" question. Frankly, I want to play like SRV or Julian Lage or Kenny Burrell or Darrell Scott or James Taylor. Not realistic? Well, you're the teacher - you tell me what IS realistic. If playing like one of my heroes isn't going to happen, should I try to imitate them or should I find somebody less good and try to imitate them? Or is imitation a dead end? And if I'm not imitating, then I need to be creating. How do I create when I can't even play a 12 bar blues (see next point)? 

• Sometimes, I think that rather than needing a "guitar" teacher, I need a "music" teacher. I know enough chords and theory and pentatonic bits that I ought to be able to play *something*. Yet I have a repertoire of precisely nothing. I don't know how to play an unaccompanied 12 bar blues - I mean, I know the theory but I just don't have the mindset to produce something musical from that knowledge.

• Sometimes, I think that rather than a "guitar teacher" or a "music teacher", I need a "mentor" or a "coach" Somebody who helps me set objectives, long term and shorter term without meeting me on a weekly basis to test me on my homework. But that person needs to understand me (or at least "guitar me") better than I currently understand myself. 

• I've so far shied away from Skype lessons. Some of the post on this thread have made me think perhaps it's quite a practical route to take once you have gotten to know a teacher face to face (like any other business relationship - once you've met face to face, phone or video contact flows more easily). I still wouldn't do it without having established a face to face relationship over some time. 

Sorry for the stream of consciousness......

Lestratcaster

I can relate as a teacher to a lot of these points Jellyroll, have had my fair share of learners like yourself who aren’t exactly beginners but haven’t got to where they want to be due to circumstances and I find they lack knowledge in a lot of areas of their playing. 

People seem to think learning is only in the lessons but a large proportion of it is between them, however you still need someone to make sure that a) you’ve practiced and b) you’re actually practicing it properly. It’s an overlooked area as I get many that say “just give me stuff to work on...” but how do I know you’ve practiced it properly? I need to see you’ve ,
mastered it first. Maybe this is more relevant to ones who’ve only just started playing, and not ones further down the road.

i think with ones who’ve started with lessons right from the beginning they progress quicker in a shorter amount of time as they’ve developed well and had the right info for, Day 1 and good habits. When you’re far down the road some can be stubborn gits when shown something new!

Kinioo

Well, my t 2p after few 'meetings' with potential 'teachers'...

What I noticed, its not hard to find a knowledgeable 'guitar player/teacher' BUT its very hard to find somebody who can, in fact, teach really. Somebody who has got knowledge and CAN 'sell it to you'.

C.

Kinioo

thing said:

"I used to play a lot of guitar, now I teach a lot and there is a world of difference between being a great player and a great teacher.  (Your teacher should definitely know his or her stuff, but playing is different to teaching)"

Wot he said. Teaching is a skill all of it's own.

Yep. Agree.

ChrisRG

@axisus I'm in a very similar position and have been thinking about lessons for a while.  There's almost too much choice on YT etc and I end up just noodling along to a backing track.  I've often thought that maybe having a teacher would force me to be more organised and focused as well as providing structured learning.

Great resource @Kebabkid thanks.  Time to check out teachers in the Dartford area.

thing

Kinioo said:

Well, my t 2p after few 'meetings' with potential 'teachers'...

What I noticed, its not hard to find a knowledgeable 'guitar player/teacher' BUT its very hard to find somebody who can, in fact, teach really. Somebody who has got knowledge and CAN 'sell it to you'.

C.

As a guitar teacher it always surprises me that potential students (well, mostly their parents) will want to know what music qualifications I have but not what teaching qualifications. In fact most school jobs that I do have consisted solely of the school contacting me and asking if I had any free time to do some teaching at their school. As long as you have a DBS they are happy. I do have teaching quals so I don't feel as though I'm defrauding anyone but no one has ever asked

Lestratcaster

thing said:

Kinioo said:

Well, my t 2p after few 'meetings' with potential 'teachers'...

What I noticed, its not hard to find a knowledgeable 'guitar player/teacher' BUT its very hard to find somebody who can, in fact, teach really. Somebody who has got knowledge and CAN 'sell it to you'.

C.

As a guitar teacher it always surprises me that potential students (well, mostly their parents) will want to know what music qualifications I have but not what teaching qualifications. In fact most school jobs that I do have consisted solely of the school contacting me and asking if I had any free time to do some teaching at their school. As long as you have a DBS they are happy. I do have teaching quals so I don't feel as though I'm defrauding anyone but no one has ever asked

No one's ever asked me that either, well not private students anyway, a few schools I've applied for and Music Academy's want a PGCE. Not many ask for a DBS either, only one parent has only ever asked to see one (they took a photo of it) but the rest aren't bothered even if I do say I can produce a clean DBS certificate.

thing

DLM said:

@thing Dave! Yay! Welcome back! The place[1] has not been the same without you!

[1] We're obviously in different "place" now, so I mean "group" or "community", but don't like those words for this meaning. I feel like I'd have to pronounce it "communiteh", like Cartman.

Yo bud. Doesn't seem much different to Intermusic TBH!

Vibetronic

thing said:

DLM said:

@thing Dave! Yay! Welcome back! The place[1] has not been the same without you!

[1] We're obviously in different "place" now, so I mean "group" or "community", but don't like those words for this meaning. I feel like I'd have to pronounce it "communiteh", like Cartman.

Yo bud. Doesn't seem much different to Intermusic TBH!

Good to see you again Dave! 

thing

@Vibetronic ;Hi matey, still secret squirell?

Vibetronic

thing said:

@Vibetronic ;Hi matey, still secret squirell?

thankfully no. I'd had enough, so left about a year ago and now teach the guitar. 

DLM

:lightbulb: