What It Means To Train Your Guitar Students To Solve Their Guitar Playing Problems
By Tom Hess
Your guitar students improve much faster when they learn how to practice effectively and solve their guitar playing problems. Teaching your guitar students to solve problems is about:
- Training them how to think when they practice guitar.
- Walking them through the process of discovering solutions to their guitar playing challenges.
This video shows how to train your guitar students to practice guitar correctly:
Guitar teaching tip: teach less and train more. Telling your guitar students what to do is not enough. You must walk them through the process of practicing the way you tell them to practice. This ensures that:
- Your guitar students remember how to practice correctly. Hearing and intellectually understanding a concept is one thing. Going through the process of applying the concept is something else entirely.
- Your students learn how to think through their challenges under your guidance. This makes them self-reliant and builds confidence in their ability to reach their goals.
Question: “But Tom Hess, my guitar students are paying me to teach them – NOT to watch them practice! So, shouldn’t I be focused on how to better teach them guitar?”
Answer: No. Your guitar students are paying you to help them get results. (That means: help them become better guitar players.).
And if you want to learn how to teach guitar better - you better understand how to train your guitar students to practice the right way.
This is the single most valuable skill you can teach your guitar students.
Fact is, your students do NOT become better guitarists during the lessons they have with you. (No matter how much information you throw at them or how good that information is.)
Their progress is determined by what they do or don’t do at home in between your lessons. If your guitar students don’t practice correctly on their own, they'll make slow progress.
This drives many students to quit lessons and reflects very poorly on your guitar teaching.
On the flipside, when you train your guitar students to practice, they feel more motivated to practice at home.
That means they improve faster and will make you look good (like an expert at teaching guitar students) in the process.
Of course, being good at teaching your guitar students new content (information) *is* one part of what it takes to become a good guitar player. But this is the only part that an average guitar teacher focuses on as they think about how to teach guitar students.
That creates a golden opportunity for anyone who wants to teach guitar better.
A great guitar teacher combines teaching with training his guitar students to review, apply and master old materials. This accelerates your students progress, minimizes overwhelm and accelerates their progress.
This guitar teaching article explains the complete process for solving your guitar students’ problems.
Become a better guitar teacher by learning how to effectively teach beginner guitar.
