4 Key Mistakes Guitar Teachers Make That Take Away From Your Results As A Student
It’s difficult to know for sure how effective guitar teachers are at getting results for you when you are a student. Since you are the student, you are often at the mercy of whatever your teacher tells you is the best approach for improving. This is only natural, because they have much more experience than you when it comes to guitar playing. When you work with a great teacher, this means you learn many new and interesting ways to improve and grow as a musician. However, not all guitar teachers are great teachers.
In some cases, guitar teachers make one or more key mistakes that actually harm your playing. This can hold you back from becoming better and sometimes even instill poor playing habits in you. It’s important to know about these mistakes so you can understand when it is time to find a new teacher. Here are a few of the biggest mistakes guitar teachers make that keep you from getting bigger and better results:
Not Showing You How To Integrate Skills Together
Contrary to popular belief, learning every guitar skill in total isolation is not the best way to learn guitar. However, many teachers still teach like this. The reason why this isn’t effective is that playing guitar (in musical situations) requires using many skills at once. If you only work on each skill in isolation, you will not understand how to use them together in music when you need to. This results in awkward, unbalanced playing that makes you feel like a noob even if you already have great skills.
Only Teaching Private (1 to 1) Lessons
It’s not true that learning one on one is the best, most effective way to take lessons. Experts agree, learning guitar in groups is much more effective:
Jake Melling, owner of the American Academy Of Guitar Mastery says, “Learning guitar in groups gives you the opportunity to become a better player in many ways that learning one on one never could. You learn how to play music with other people in a band setting, how to overcome nervousness and how to channel competition into growth. It’s invaluable to learn in class settings like this.”
Not Showing You How To Practice
Guitar teachers like to show their students many things to practice every session. There is nothing wrong with learning new things, however if you don’t fully understand how to practice them, chances are you won’t make much progress. A great teacher shows his guitar students how to practice during their lesson and makes sure they practice whatever they learned right there. This way they can correct any mistakes and know you’ll practice the right way at home. This gets you better results.
Not Improving Their Own Teaching Skills Through Training
It’s common for guitar teachers to rely on credentials such as having a music degree for demonstrating their worth as musical educators. However, the best teachers don’t do this. They actively improve their guitar teaching by receiving guitar teacher training in order to consistently develop their skills and help you get better results. These are the guitar teachers you should really look for and hope to find.
Although they are rare, these types of teachers are passionate about what they do and don’t rest until they have helped you reach your highest musical goals… whether that means simply improving your current skills, becoming a great guitar player or even becoming a professional musician.
In some cases, guitar teachers make one or more key mistakes that actually harm your playing. This can hold you back from becoming better and sometimes even instill poor playing habits in you. It’s important to know about these mistakes so you can understand when it is time to find a new teacher. Here are a few of the biggest mistakes guitar teachers make that keep you from getting bigger and better results:
Not Showing You How To Integrate Skills Together
Contrary to popular belief, learning every guitar skill in total isolation is not the best way to learn guitar. However, many teachers still teach like this. The reason why this isn’t effective is that playing guitar (in musical situations) requires using many skills at once. If you only work on each skill in isolation, you will not understand how to use them together in music when you need to. This results in awkward, unbalanced playing that makes you feel like a noob even if you already have great skills.
Only Teaching Private (1 to 1) Lessons
It’s not true that learning one on one is the best, most effective way to take lessons. Experts agree, learning guitar in groups is much more effective:
Jake Melling, owner of the American Academy Of Guitar Mastery says, “Learning guitar in groups gives you the opportunity to become a better player in many ways that learning one on one never could. You learn how to play music with other people in a band setting, how to overcome nervousness and how to channel competition into growth. It’s invaluable to learn in class settings like this.”
Not Showing You How To Practice
Guitar teachers like to show their students many things to practice every session. There is nothing wrong with learning new things, however if you don’t fully understand how to practice them, chances are you won’t make much progress. A great teacher shows his guitar students how to practice during their lesson and makes sure they practice whatever they learned right there. This way they can correct any mistakes and know you’ll practice the right way at home. This gets you better results.
Not Improving Their Own Teaching Skills Through Training
It’s common for guitar teachers to rely on credentials such as having a music degree for demonstrating their worth as musical educators. However, the best teachers don’t do this. They actively improve their guitar teaching by receiving guitar teacher training in order to consistently develop their skills and help you get better results. These are the guitar teachers you should really look for and hope to find.
Although they are rare, these types of teachers are passionate about what they do and don’t rest until they have helped you reach your highest musical goals… whether that means simply improving your current skills, becoming a great guitar player or even becoming a professional musician.