How to find a good instructor?

First off, thanks for this great site!

I've completed the guitar fundamentals courses and am looking forward to moving on! This site is an exception resource!

I do have a question though. How do you find a good guitar teacher? While I love this website, I do find that more often than not I have questions or things that I need to work through, and I feel supplementing this site with 1 on 1 instruction would be beneficial.

I guess I've been spoiled by all the instruction on this site. I'm finding it pretty difficult to find something similar.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

In looking for a good instructor I would definately have some good questions for them. How long have they been teaching; how many students do they currently have; How long have their students been with them; What is their background in music; Just some basic questions. If they get upset because you are asking, then they are probably not who you want to take lessons with. Ask if they include Music Theory as part of their curriculum. Ask for references. Usually the references is going to tell you a lot about the instructor. And of course your local music store is your starting point when looking for an instructor. Either they will have an instructor there or they can point you in the right direction and also tell you possibly instructors to stay away from. Good luck.

If there is a college in your area check and see if they offer an Applied Music class. I'm going to the local community college ( Iowa Western Community College) to get my Associates Degree in Coaching. One of the classes I'll be taking during the Spring 2010 semester is Applied Guitar. The class will be every Wednesday from 1:30 - 2:00 starting January 11th running through May 15th.

Don

Awesome, thanks for the responses!

Originally Posted by: sarcazmo[u]First off, thanks for this great site!

I've completed the guitar class fundamentals courses and am looking forward to moving on! This site is an exception resource!

I do have a question though. How do you find a good guitar teacher? While I love this website, I do find that more often than not I have questions or things that I need to work through, and I feel supplementing this site with 1 on 1 instruction would be beneficial.

I guess I've been spoiled by all the instruction on this site. I'm finding it pretty difficult to find something similar.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, and keep up the great work![/u]

I agree that this site is really helpful and full of resources but there are some stuff that can be best learned from an instructor. I guess you need to look for a teacher that is best in the genre that you like to learn your guitar with. If it is acoustic, hard metal, jazz or whatnot.

Hey guys!

Being an instructor, there are some things that you should know about how to find a good one. A lot of the times students don't really know what questions to ask, and the ones they think they SHOULD ask aren't really the best ones to be asking. The questions mentioned above are okay, but there are some deeper, more important questions you really should be asking.

There are two resources that I have on my website that will help you to find the RIGHT teacher for you.

The first is an article I wrote called Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing a Guitar Teacher (this is also a video): https://www.guitarlessonsinsandiego.com/ChoosingGuitarTeacher.html

The other is gives you some really deep insight on the actual teaching method that is most effective, and how to figure out which methods your teacher is going to use for you: https://www.guitarlessonsinsandiego.com/uploads/GUIDE-Choosing-Teacher1.pdf

After you study those resources, you will be able to find a PERFECT instructor for you. I'm not saying this stuff because I want you to become my student - i don't teach online guitar lessons. I'm saying this because I know what happens when you find a bad teacher:

You dont' have fun learning guitar
You spend MORE money than you should
You waste a lot of time
You learn bad habits and get frustrated easily

This is a big reason for why most guitar players don't want a teacher. They've heard horror stories from other people who've had terrible instructors.

I also know what happens when you get a really good teacher:

You have a TON of fun learning
You SAVE money in the long-run
You shave YEARS off your learning curve
You feel GREAT in the process

I'm very lucky to have found a great teacher. I want to share with you the information you need to find a great teacher for yourself too. :)

This site is a lot of fun for me, although I haven't advanced all that far yet. :) It's a great resource, and I find myself coming here to get answers to a lot of my questions.

I'm currently taking one-on-one lessons but am looking for another instructor...guess I'm in that frustrated state right now. As a music major in high school (many moons ago!), I remember some of the theory and more comes back as I learn, but my current instructor only knows how to read tabs (he never learned to read music), and I'm just the opposite...having all sorts of problems trying to read tabs. Maybe it's because of the extra line.

I know that there are 'easy' ways to do chords while you're learning, but my instructor absolutely doesn't want me to use them. At 55, I don't want to become a professional and play publicly on a stage, I just want to be able to play along with favorite songs and have fun.

Originally Posted by: Matteo MillerHey guys!
I also know what happens when you get a really good teacher:

You have a TON of fun learning
You SAVE money in the long-run
You shave YEARS off your learning curve
You feel GREAT in the process

One word. Agreed.

I am new to the site too althout I've played guiter off and on over the years. Being a Tenor in two acapella quartets, I choose to focus on Accoustic Style: something I can play and sing with and maybe even team up with another guitarist and generate a little harmony. (a'la Simon and Garfunkel or Crosby Stills Nash and Young and others).

There is so much talent in the instructor pool I've decided to narrow my choice to Lisa for starting and working on some of Chris's stuff. Having played some in the past it would be easy to skip the earlier lessons thinking that I'm ahead of that. Fortunately I elected to start from the very beginning. I figure that it will give me a foundation I sorely need to strengthen. I also need to develop muscle memory in my right hand with the Fingerpicking. This doesn't mean I don't explore the other instructors and maybe to throug a lesson periodically but my focus is as above.

Anyway that is how I am doing it.

TB

TB, sounds like you are on the right track... when I joined the site, I didn't play much acoustic but I liked the way Lisa presented herself... very sincere and not the big "sales pitch" that you see with other on-line instructors. I've gone through most of her fingerpicking lessons, they're great! She's an excellent teacher. One of the nice things with this site is that you can browse lessons from different instructors, and see right then and there what they have to offer. You're not relying on one source or person for all your instruction. The teachers here are great, and do a terrific job. They'll also answer any questions you have to as you work your way through. I have to say Christopher is just amazing with how tirelessly he'll answer the same questions.. "how do I play an Fmaj chord!? My fingers won't reach..." we probably see that one about once or twice a month! The thing I love about the fingerpicking lessons that Lisa does is what you hit upon... you can be training your left hand to learn chords, while the right hand is learning a new picking pattern... makes practice feel like its two for one. One suggestion I'd have is even though you may be just working on the basics, and acoustic fingerpicking, keep an eye on some of the questions that pop up in the other forums... there's often some excellent questions and answers asked & given... like recently in the Music Theory forum. Welcome to the site, good luck and have fun!