Question: I have been playing guitar for about seven years and have been asked by numerous fans of my band to teach them to play. I took there information down to get an idea of how many people were interested, and how much money i could make doing this. Just in the past couple days, i was shocked to find a lot of people contacted me from young kids to middle aged men. I have never taught guitar, and i am self taught. I am very interested in pursuing this. I have made a booklet containing chord charts (major and minor), fretboard chart, how the circle of fifths works, note tree, and easy beginner songs. I have not given my first lesson yet. I would like to know if you have any advice you could give to take with me going in for my first lesson. How to get started teaching guitar lessons? I greatly appreciate it and look forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much.

Tom Hess's Answer: Honestly, with zero teaching experience and zero experience studying with a good guitar teacher if you begin teaching now you would simply be ‘guessing’ every time a guitar student sits in front of you. This sort of trial-and-error guitar teaching method is not in the best interest of your students nor your new guitar teaching business. You might be a good guitar player, but teaching guitar is totally different.

I know you are looking for some quick advice on how I might be able to help you in a couple of paragraphs, but the reality is, you will need a lot more than general advice if you want to become the good guitar teacher that your paying students will expect from you.

So the best thing you can do for your students and for yourself is to get serious guitar teacher training so that you can really learn how to teach guitar effectively. You MUST establish and PROTECT your reputation as a guitar teacher. The trial and error guitar teaching method is almost certain to hurt your reputation as a guitar teacher. Trust me on this. I train, coach and mentor other guitar teachers from around the world every single day.

So my advice is three-fold:

1. Get guitar teacher training.
2. Learn how to teach beginner guitar (because this is totally different from teaching the more advanced levels)
3. (this is one is optional but definitely very helpful) Take guitar lessons from a great guitar teacher, this will help you see things from the student’s perspective.

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