How to Choose a Good Guitar Teacher
Choosing a guitar teacher can be intimidating. You know you will be messing up all over the place in that teacher’s presence. You know you will make mistakes and you will sound bad. You know you probably might not always have time to practice all the materials and homework. You will maybe even envision the nightmare of you sitting in a lesson, where you’re not understanding what that teacher is explaining, feeling worried or anxious when the teacher has to explain something a couple of times in a row. Well guess what: there is nothing to worry about… that’s what teachers are there for. This is what they are paid for and this is what they do for a living. A really great guitar teacher, is someone who is driven, but who is also capable of making you feel very at ease. Great teachers have developed great social skills, and great emotional intelligence. A really great teacher of course, is above all very patient. That’s really where it all starts: listen to and trust your gut feeling. After all: it doesn’t matter how unbelievably prepared a teacher is, or how unbelievably worldclass his curriculum is, if he’s not someone you enjoy working with or learning from. Sure, it is important that he has the experience, skills, knowledge, training and materials to help you become the best you can be or strive to be. However: none of that matters if you don’t enjoy being in that teacher’s presence.
And unfortunately, that CAN happen. Consider the example of the musician who years ago moved to a city known for it’s great music industry appeal (LA, NY, Nashville…), hoping to break into the music industry as a performer, but who years later, is “feeling stuck in a music teaching job”, unhappy and bitter because the performance dream didn’t quite happen. These teachers unfortunately are out there, and I hope you can avoid them at all cost because you deserve better than having to spend an hour a week sitting in the presence of an unhappy person. I can’t imagine a bitter person, having what it takes to motivate and inspire you (the student) to become the best you can be. Trust on your intuition to pick up on that energy when you talk to teachers you researched. Listen for their tone of voice, their level of enthusiasm when they talk about teaching, their vocabulary (lots of strong words, action words, etc.) their interest in you and your progress. All these will provide you clues about that teacher’s energy and his/her love and passion for the teaching profession. You don’t necessarily want the most knowledgeable or the most prepared teacher first and foremost. You want the most fun, the most caring, the most patient and the most understanding teacher with the best listening skills. All that really does come first. His skills, knowledge, experience and preparedness come secondary. Not that those attributes are not important, but his personality is above anything the most important aspect you want to focus on when searching for a guitar teacher to study with. You can easily find out about a teacher’s knowledge, experience and so on from that teacher’s website, from student testimonials or from calling him and asking him about specific things you would like to learn. You want to make sure, after you decided that you like that teacher as a person, that he possesses what it takes to get you to your musical goals in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort, and gets you the best bang for your buck. Find out more information at http://www.zotzinguitarlessons.com/