Updates: Best practices, psychology and Keith Richards

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We're spreading our reach to a new guide series and starting to cover best practices from expert teachers so you can quickly develop your abilities. Here's our latest resources:

PRO-09 Keith Richards

This 'in the style of' lesson will introduce your students to Keith's rhythm style. A couple of the examples use Open-G tuning so it's a great way to introduce alternate tunings to your student at the same time.

SCA-11 Modes Reference

This is a simple reference sheet containing the seven modes of the major scale. Your student will be able to easily compare the modes and learn the intervals in each one. This will work best when used in combination with the individual modes lesson plans (SCA-04 - 10)

New Psychology Series (TPS Series)

This series takes the findings from a wide range of psychology studies to improve the quality of your teaching. When you learn to understand how students think, you can create a better learning environment.

TPS-01 Understanding Needs

You need to understand your student's needs before you expect to give a quality lesson. This guide will break down the way all humans' needs work and what you should watch out for in your lessons. Teachers who don't bother reading up on this topic end up experiencing issues that could have been easily avoided.

TPS-02 Body Language

This guide will teach you how to read your student's body language so your lesson can remain relevant and interesting. Plenty of examples are given so you can easily gauge the student's interest levels and adjust course if you need to.

TPS-03 Structuring Your Lesson

While you have a lot of flexibility in how you give a lesson, all lessons should follow the basic structure given in this guide. The reason is because it has been tested and results in a better learning environment for your student. Whether you're a new teacher or have been teaching for decades, it's essential you read this guide and follow the advice given.

TBE-02 Eliminating Points of Failure

A Point of Failure is something that can drive your student to giving up guitar. Sometimes it only takes one Point of Failure for the student to completely give up and leave your lessons. By learning to identify these Points of Failure in your teaching style and eliminating them, you will retain more students and keep your students motivated.

SCA-11 Modes Reference Sheet

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About this resource

Along with the individual lesson plans on the modes (SCA-04-10) this sheet is a great way to compare the modes on one sheet. The formula for each mode is written out so you can show the student the different interval changes from mode to mode. This will make it easier to explain the difference between the modes and how they sound. Using this reference sheet in combination with the individual lesson plans on the modes will get the best results.

Only Live and Teach Guitar Members have access to this resource and all other resources on the site.

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If you're not a member yet, find out how our professional materials, resources and support can help you succeed as a guitar teacher here.

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Related lessons

SCA-04 - 10

TPS-03 Structuring Your Lessons

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About this guide

In this guide you will learn how to structure your lessons in such an effective way that your students will stay motivated during the lesson and retain more information after the lesson is over. This structure is very flexible and provides you with a 'blueprint' you can use for all your lessons.

For new guitar teachers this guide will give you a great starting point to make sure your lessons are effective straight away. You won't need to go through the long trial and error process most teachers go through to figure out how to structure your lessons effectively. By the end of this guide you will know exactly how to structure your lessons.

For experienced guitar teachers this guide will help you refine your lessons and give you ways to improve the structure of your lessons. You will already be loosely following this structure but may not fully understand why the structure is effective. This guide will explain why along with provide suggestions on ways you can improve your lessons.

Why Structure Matters

Consistency is important in a learning environment. From a student's point of view it helps if each lesson is structured in a similar way so they know what to expect. Having consistent lessons improves the learning process for your student and makes your job easier. You still need to be flexible in your approach and this structure will still provide you with flexibility as you need it.

A student who arrives at each lesson not sure of what is going to happen or why they are learning the material will have trouble developing. On the other hand a student who arrives at each lesson knowing roughly how the lesson will be structured will be able to focus 100% on the actual content instead of being confused. A well thought out structure can make a big difference to the learning experience.

Only Live and Teach Guitar Members have access to this resource and all other resources on the site.

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If you're not a member yet, find out how our professional materials, resources and support can help you succeed as a guitar teacher here.

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TBE-02 Eliminating Points of Failure

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About this guide

Points of failure is a topic that most teachers have never heard of. This is a problem as one of the main reasons why students leave teachers (even good ones) is due to points of failure. In this guide you will learn what points of failure are as well as how to identify points of failure you currently have in your lessons. You will then learn how to eliminate these points of failure and improve the quality of your lessons.

This guide is essential for all new guitar teachers as well as experienced teachers with decades of experience. By the end of the guide you will successfully identify and eliminate many points of failure in your lessons and retain more students.

Only Live and Teach Guitar Members have access to this resource and all other resources on the site.

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If you're not a member yet, find out how our professional materials, resources and support can help you succeed as a guitar teacher here.

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New Training Course: SWOT Analysis

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A new training course has been created to help new and experienced guitar teachers analyze their guitar business. This course has been written specifically for guitar teachers so there's no business jargon to worry about and everything relates directly to your teaching business.

Performing a SWOT analysis is actually easier than it sounds and the course provides you with a simple step by step process.

By the end of the course you will be able to:

  • Have in your hand a detailed strategy on how to improve your teaching business
  • Understand what to do to protect yourself against threats and issues
  • Have a simple method you can repeat anytime you want to improve your business

Every guitar teacher will benefit from this analysis so check out the course:

Access the SWOT Analysis Course here

After you complete the course you can contact us for further support and we'll help you achieve your business goals. We're working hard on providing you with all the tools and resources you need to succeed and this course will definitely give you an advantage.

TPS-02 Reading Body Language

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About this guide

An overlooked area some guitar teachers neglect is body language. Understanding how to read a student's body language can tell you a lot about what the student is thinking and feeling. An effective teacher can take body language cues and use them to improve the quality of the lesson.

By the end of this guide you will be able to accurately identify body language cues and use them to improve your lessons.

Why Body Language is Important to Understand

Your student may be bored or doesn't like what you're teaching but won't say anything because they're too polite. In this scenario if you don't pick up on the fact the student isn't happy then it can lead to problems. Although a student may not say something if they're bored/tired/uninterested/etc their body language won't lie. Our bodies give signals to our true thoughts and many of the signals we can't control.

Once you learn how to identify these signals, you can figure out if the student is bored or unhappy in anyway and adjust your lesson. Quite often a student won't tell you if they don't want to learn this topic or they don't see the point in the exercises. Their body language will tell you. As soon as you pick up on these signals you can correct course. Then you can start looking for signals that the student is happy and engaged in the material. These little signals can have a dramatic impact on the quality of your lessons.

Only Live and Teach Guitar Members have access to this resource and all other resources on the site.

If you're a member, please login to access this resource

If you're not a member yet, find out how our professional materials, resources and support can help you succeed as a guitar teacher here.

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TPS-01 Understanding Needs

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About this guide

This guide will give you everything you need to be able to accurately assess your student's needs at any point in time. This is an important skill because it allows you to structure your lessons so that the student's needs are always being considered. Many teachers (even experienced teachers) run into problems simply because they don't understand how human needs work and how to structure your lessons to meet the student's needs.

Understanding needs will help you motivate your students and keep them happy.

Instead of studying a psychology textbook, this lesson will give you all the important points you need to remember and gives examples you can use as a guitar teacher. You need to understand how our needs work to become a great guitar teacher. This guide will help you understand your student's needs.

Only Live and Teach Guitar Members have access to this resource and all other resources on the site.

If you're a member, please login to access this resource

If you're not a member yet, find out how our professional materials, resources and support can help you succeed as a guitar teacher here.

Please login or register to gain full access now

PRO-09 Keith Richards

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About this Lesson Plan

This guitar lesson plan will introduce your student to Keith Richards' rhythm style. A few riffs are looked at along with a dual guitar riff you can use to jam along with your student. The riffs use hybrid picking and Open G Tuning so ensure that your student is familiar with the technique and tuning before attempting this lesson.

Only Live and Teach Guitar Members have access to this resource and all other resources on the site.

If you're a member, please login to access this resource

If you're not a member yet, find out how our professional materials, resources and support can help you succeed as a guitar teacher here.

Please login or register to gain full access now

Related lessons

TUN-04 Open G Tuning

New feature for members: Online Marketing Report

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Members can now request a detailed Online Marketing Report which analyzes how easy it is for new students to find you online and contact you. Your report will break down your online presence into easy to understand sections so you can see exactly where you're at and how you compare to your competitors.

We provide recommendations on effective ways you can increase your online presence and we'll help you out the entire way.

Benefits for new guitar teachers:

  • Avoid trial and error and start on the right path
  • Attract students from the very start
  • Use effective marketing strategies that have been tested with other guitar teachers

Benefits for established guitar teachers:

  • Ensure competitors don't overtake you
  • Improve your visibility to locals
  • Expand your student base
  • Get a snapshot of your current marketing effectiveness

The report is completely free for Live and Teach Guitar Members and there are absolutely no strings attached. We're doing this to provide you with quality advice to improve your situation.

To request your own report, simply fill out this form. We'll email you with your report once we complete it.

Latest lesson plans: Randy Rhoads and Paul Gilbert

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We're building up our range of 'in the style of' guitar lesson plans and have two new plans on Randy Rhoads and Paul Gilbert. Even if your student hasn't hear either guitarist's music before it's worth checking out as they contain challenging licks incorporating multiple techniques. The Paul Gilbert licks will definitely challenge even the more advanced students.

PRO-07 Randy Rhoads

Teach your student how Randy changed the face of lead guitar playing. Teach your student how he used legato, tapping and phrasing in a few interesting licks. The lesson also has a quick look at his rhythm approach.

PRO-08 Paul Gilbert

This is a great lesson for intermediate to advanced students as Paul's playing is highly technical. Show your student different ways they can approach complicated licks and how to break them down in the learning process. The included Teacher's Guide will show you one possible way you could teach an entire lesson using this lesson plan.

More lesson plans on other guitarists coming in the next couple of days.