How to Become a Guitar Teacher

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Thinking about becoming a guitar teacher? Want to make money teaching guitar for a living?

If you’ve got the right guitar chops to do it, one of the best things you can do is to share your skills with others. Teaching guitar can be a rewarding experience, both financially and emotionally. It can also be a great way to make money doing something you love. Teaching guitar can even help you to improve your own guitar skills.

Unfortunately, whether you’re looking to be a part-time teacher for a bit of extra cash or you want to make a full-time living, it can be hard to figure out how to get started.

Luckily, we’re here to help. Below we’ll list the 5 steps you need to go through if you want to become a guitar teacher.

1. Choose Whether You’ll Be a Freelancer

When becoming a guitar teacher, one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make is if you want to be a freelancer or if you would like to work for someone.

Local music stores and music schools often need teachers, but their requirements can be lofty. If you have an advanced and well-rounded knowledge of the guitar, it may be a great idea to get in touch with stores and music schools in your area. Check to see if they need any new teachers.

If you’re not an advanced player but would still like to teach beginners, you may have better luck freelancing. Being a freelance guitar teacher can be more flexible for you, but you’ll have to find students yourself which can be difficult.

2. Find a Space

If you’re working for a music store or school chances are that space will be provided for you to teach. However, if you are teaching on your own you’ll need to make sure you have a good place to give the lessons.

Chances are that there is a rehearsal space that you can rent at a music store or elsewhere. You may also want to give lessons in your home. You need to make sure that the place is quiet and comfortable for you and your student to play guitar and that you won’t be bothering any neighbors or vice versa.

Additionally, you may also want to consider if you want to offer Skype lessons or lessons in your students’ homes.

3. Get Your Teaching Tools Together

In addition to a good practice space, you’ll also need to have a few other tools for teaching lessons.

You’ll want to develop a lesson plan and have some music teaching materials that you can refer to and find suitable tabs, chord charts, and lessons for your students. You may also want to choose a guitar method book that you’ll use with your students.

It’s important to have materials that you’re able to be flexible with and use for different students depending on their level and individual needs. It’s a great idea to get an iPad or tablet along with a music stand to use with your students. You should also have a way to print out any materials that you need.

Chances are that you’ll be adding to your collection of tools and materials as time goes on but it’s great to have a full collection that you can refer to early on.

4. Evaluate Your Teaching Skills

You should also ensure you have the skills you need to give guitar lessons. Just because you play guitar well, doesn’t mean that you’ll be a great teacher too.

It’s important to think carefully about teaching skills. Have some self-awareness to decide if it’s right for you. You may want to read some books on teaching or working with children before you try giving guitar lessons. This can help you to go into it with the right mindset and have an idea of how to deal with students and help them understand difficult concepts.

If possible, you may want to try giving a niece, a nephew, or a friend a free lesson first to see if teaching is right for you and to get an idea of what it may feel like once you start teaching a stranger.

5. Create a Marketing Plan

Once you’ve made the decision to start giving guitar lessons, then it’s time to start finding students. There are many ways to market your services and many places to advertise, so you’ll have to decide what’s best for you.

You may want to post in some local Facebook groups, post some flyers around your city, or even post classified ads in a local newspaper or on Craigslist. It’s also a great idea to launch a website and social media pages for your guitar teaching business so that people can learn more about you and discover you online.

Additionally, one of the best ways to get a student is to simply ask around. Word-of-mouth is sometimes one of the most effective ways to find students. Chances are that a friend, a relative, or someone you know would love to take lessons.

Starting on the Path to Becoming a Guitar Teacher

By following the steps above you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful guitar teacher. While some cities are better than others for being a musician, becoming a guitar teacher is something you can do just about anywhere.

It will take some time to find your first students but once you do your success will likely snowball as more people hear about your services and eventually start to seek you out. Make sure you use the tips above if you’re ready to get started with teaching guitar.