The guitar teaching methods you use ultimately determine your effectiveness as a guitar teacher. Understanding a variety of guitar teaching methods, techniques and strategies will help you become a better guitar teacher.
Courses on Guitar Teaching Methods
Want to learn proven teaching methods without studying teaching? We've done the hard work for you and created detailed online training courses on the most effective guitar teaching methods available. Each course provides relevant information on the method and you can see the teaching method in action in case studies. At the end of each course you can print out a one page PDF cheat sheet containing all the important points to remember. Check out the training courses below and start applying the teaching methods in your guitar lessons.
Access Course: The Demonstration-Performance Method
This guitar teaching method is the most commonly used in one to one guitar lessons. We've broken the method down to a simple five step process you can easily apply in your lessons. The course discusses how to apply the method in any situation and achieve fantastic results. The case study walks you through the method and a quiz is given to test your knowledge.
Access Course: Developing Fine Motor Skills
This training course will teach you exactly how your students learn new skills on guitar. Once you understand the process everybody goes through when learning new skills, you can use that information to improve the quality of your lessons. You will be able to instantly see what development stage your student is in and how to properly guide them along the way. Multiple case studies are provided so you can practice the method before using it in real life.
Access Course: Questioning Fundamentals
Questioning techniques is the single most important area of teaching. Countless studies around the world have found that teachers who understand and apply the questioning techniques used in this course are more effective teachers and have more successful students. Find out exactly how to use different forms of questions to improve the quality of your lessons and speed up your student's development.
The Real Value of Guitar Method Books
The most traditional way to teach guitar is to purchase a guitar method book and start at page one. The teacher would work their way through the book and when they reach the end a new book would be purchased. The problem with this method is it's horribly ineffective. What do you do if the student doesn't like the exercises or songs in the book? What do you do if the student doesn't want to learn the material the book teaches? What if the style the student wants to learn isn't covered in the book?
Every student has different learning needs and you need to adapt your guitar teaching methods to fit those needs. While certain guitar method books work for certain students, they don't work for everybody. The whole point of the Demonstration-Performance Method is to tailor your teaching to the individual student's needs. Guitar method books don't allow you to be flexible with your teaching method when compared to guitar lesson plans. Guitar lesson plans allow you to choose exactly which materials to give the student in each lesson. They also give you the freedom to modify your guitar teaching methods any way you need to.
Check out our range of Guitar lesson plans, worksheets and resources here
Want to know the most effective guitar teaching method? It's quite simple, a combination of flexible lesson materials and a variety of proven guitar teaching techniques. Once you have the right resources and teaching techniques, your effectiveness as a guitar teacher shoots up.
Proven Guitar Teaching Techniques
In addition to learning guitar teaching methods, it's important to understand how proven teaching techniques can be used. A teaching technique is a specific tool or method which can be used for a certain task. Using proven guitar teaching methods will give you the overall structure to your lessons and using teaching techniques will help you achieve specific tasks in each lesson.
Here's a few guides on specific guitar teaching techniques you can use straight away in your lessons:
Access Guide: TTQ-01 Mnemonic Devices
Mnemonic Devices are used to help your students memorize new information. The techniques discussed in the guide will give you ways to help your students memorize chords, string and note names, techniques and anything else you need them to memorize. The great thing about mnemonic devices is once you understand how to use them you can use them for pretty much any topic.
Access Guide: TTQ-02 Repetition
Repetition is a powerful teaching technique when used correctly. Unfortunately, most teachers don't understand how to properly use it. This guide will show you how to use repetition in your lessons so your students retain the information. Spend some time learning the techniques and you'll ironically spend less time repeating topics with students.
Access Guide: TTQ-04 Keeping children interested during lessons
Teaching children can be very difficult and requires specific techniques to keep them focused and interested. This guide will show you how you can keep them focused during the entire lesson. Guitar teachers who don't use these techniques often find children looking around the room and lacking attention. Save yourself some headaches and learn how to keep the kids focused.
Need More Advice?
Knowing how to play the guitar doesn't automatically make you a good guitar teacher. To become an effective teacher you need to spend some time learning how to teach guitar. Live and Teach Guitar Members can receive all the advice and support they need from experienced guitar teachers. We've helped out countless teachers (new and experienced) and can help you too.