One aspect that I found key to being taught by teacher was how they teach.
We have so far concentrated on one to one teaching, but you may be in class a environment. In a class environment you are on your own to some degree and can easily get left behind, especially if you get some pupils who are more advanced than others, I have found that good a teacher will stick with the program and not skip areas to move with the more accomplished pupils. But watch out bad ones will focus on the pupils who pick it up quickest and ignore those struggling. This can make the lesser accomplished player become very despondent.
I am not saying you should stay away from classes, they can be great fun when all of you are playing together, the feeling of achievement with like minded people cannot be beaten. Just beware of some of the pitfalls.
With any teaching environment, key to you learning is understanding how the teacher teaches. This is probably one of the most important questions you can ask a teacher. This is a bit of trick question. An experienced teacher or poor teacher will answer that they teach for an hour, charge you so much , start with the basics and work up.
Some questions should be answered with question, and this is one of them.
The teacher cannot possibly know your level or aptitude until they have seen you play or what your musical tastes are or your goals.
Some will be able to answer you if you have already offered them information about yourself and it is certainly something they should have done.
You may be a beginner who hasn’t even bought a guitar, or a beginner who has 3 guitars tried them all and still can’t get a tune out of them. The teacher should formulate a lesson plan by learning the pupils music background, have heard them playing, and what the pupils goals are. They may only want to be able to play a couple of their favourite tunes or they may want to be the next Jimi Hendrix.
More tips next post.
