Advanced Students

As a student has passed his or her beginner stages, 
they then have more insight and direction as to what 
they wish to learn and there overall goal. If a student 
chooses to learn classical or jazz guitar, it's best to 
teach them major and minor diatonic scales, including 
the 7 modes, and their related chords and harmonies as 
well as dissonant and odd scales like whole tone, 
diminished, and harmonic minor and other. 
See free scales lesson for a basic understanding.

Many students come to a lesson and tell you exactly what 
they feel they may need help with, wether it be simply a 
few guitar licks, or a fingertapping technique, or possibly
needing to brush up on a few things and review some of the 
basics that they may have learned from previous lessons.
 
So what you teach to advanced students will be depending on 
how far they are wanting or willing to pursue the art of 
playing guitar. Realizing this will also tell you as teacher, 
just what you have to offer to a student, depending on your 
current knowledge and playing ability.

Good Advice For Advanced Students
who want to begin learning and playing lead guitar.
 
A good place to start is by teaching them pentatonic (major 
& minor) scales and runs as well as blues scales, and giving 
them insight on how to use these scales to "improvise" and 
create their own solos.

Blues guitar allows a student to "develop a feel" and a 
"sense" of timing that can be applied to various playing 
styles from country, to also jazz, as well as heavy metal, 
classic rock, southern rock, alternative and more. This 
opens new doors and the possibilities begin to seem pretty 
much endless.

Sheet Music vs. Tablature vs. DVD & Video

All of these are tools used by most all guitarist in general
from beginners, to advanced, to guitar instructors and
music teachers alike. Teachers from the "old school"
insisted that learning to read sheet music was the only way
that one could learn to play. That was proven untrue a million
times over, as many (in fact most) professional musicians that
you may see from in concert to televison music awards, either 
cant read a lick of sheet music, or are limited in their 
abilities to do so. Yet, With many this is not the case.
Many others remain fluid sheet music sight readers.
 
However, if you do have the ability to read sheet music and can 
teach your students how to read sheet music, it's a good 
idea for you to offer them that choice. 

Nowdays, tablature is most commonly used as it saves students 
much time and frustration of having to first learn how to play 
music on paper, as opposed to actually playing it on the guitar. 

By using tablature, depending on a students ability to learn, you 
can easily have them going home after their first lesson being able
to play something simple and easy. Some songs work better than 
others to help inspire and demonstrate to the student just actually 
how quick they can learn to play. 

For example, the christmas traditional "Silent Night" is a good 
choice for a beginner to learn, despite what time of year it may be.
 
It also exercies the tool of teaching them how to count frets
and know their way around the fretboard. This could be
considered a good reccomendation when teaching using
sheet music, but an exceptionally good reccomendation when 
teaching using tablature. It's also a good idea for you
to offer your students the opportunity to purchase 
blank sheet music or guitar tablature manuscript paper
so that they can keep track of their lesson material.
 
By showing them not just how to read music, whether it
be sheet music or tablature, but by also teaching them
how to "write their own" will also give them the ability
to learn to read their method of choice better as well,
in thus, also allow them to learn much quicker and most
often become a much better player. 
 
DVD and video lessons are a great aid when teaching guitar
classes as everyone gets to watch and learn. It's also
a great tool not just for class lessons, but also one on one 
private instruction, as many times a student will either have 
not fully understood during their lesson and may be to shy
to admit so, or they may have understood the basic idea, and 
simply need to review a few times in order to get the full picture
and have the entire thought process follow through so they can
not just fully learn, but also memorize what they have learned.
 
That's the advantage of DVD & video guitar lessons. It allows a
student to keep rewinding and learning without having to
continue to come back to you and pay for the same lessons
over and over again. This will not only help your students,
but also save you both frustration and make everyone much
more satisfied.
  
Taking Request

This is optional. Not all guitar instructors allow their
student's to make special request to learn specific songs.

The ability to play certain songs is often missjudged. 
Many times the harder to play songs sound easy to learn, and 
vise versa, many times an easy song can sound hard to learn or 
play. A good guitar teacher has the ability to judge their
students ability, and know which songs they can easily
learn at their current playing level.
 
Depending on your ability as a guitar teacher to transcribe
songs or learn them quickly by ear will allow you to offer 
this option to your students. 

Many guitar teachers as well as writers of articles for guitar 
magazines and similiar publications rely on tablture software 
programs like the is the Sibelius G7 Guitar Tab Notation Software 
shown below.





Sibelius G7 Guitar Tab Notation Software


Sibelius Software Ltd, the developer of the world's leading music notation 
software today announces the launch of its ground-breaking new guitar program, 
G7. Developed to provide an exciting new way for guitarists and songwriters 
to produce and convert guitar tablature, G7 delivers unparalleled ease-of-use 
and product features never available before in tab software, and is designed 
for use with PC or Mac platforms (including Mac OS X). G7 is the ultimate 
software for creating and playing guitar tab.

See all Sheet Music & Tablature Software

Many instructors will take the time to give a listen
to a specially requested song, and if they are able... teach 
the the student the basic outline of the song (basic chords 
and guitar riffs) requested by the student, and 
help guide them in the right direction by teaching them 
which scales or combination of scales may be used to
play a lead guitar solo, followed by making reference to
specific sheet music, tablature, video or DVD. It is up to
your students to responsibly bring recordings of the songs
they wish to learn to each lesson. This is not up to you
as a guitar instructor.

Scheduling & Payment Options

This is a wide open decision on your behalf as what 
to charge and when you can teach students depending if you
are teaching inbetween your day job, or are looking to
teach as a full time teacher for your full time income.

Like most teachers, you will discover that there are only
certain times that your students can make appointments.

Yet however, if you let them take control, you will
have no appointments. Allways charge up front asking for
full payment in advance, (scheduling monthly is the best
policy for most teachers and students) and offer a "No
Refund" policy. You dont need or want students who allways
cancel and leave you hanging, anymore than your students 
want a teacher who does the same. This will assure you 
both of satisfactory in the teaching program that you offer.

To get the general idea of how some teaching programs are
offered and get a free listing online for your teaching services 
offered, see:
 
musicstaff.com

Also see:
 
http://www.LessonPortal.com

It may be also be a good idea to call your local music
shops and ask what they currently charge for guitar lessons, 
so that you know a basic price range on what you should charge 
your students for their lessons.
  
Being Honest And Upfront

In order to be successful despite what level of a teaching 
program that you offer, honesty is the best policy. If your 
a beginner level player who wants to begin teaching guitar,
be honest with your students from the beginning, and let them
know that you can only help them get so far. Dont waste their
time making promises that you cant keep, or providing incorrect
or false information to make yourself sound like a professor
who has all the right answers. This can quickly earn you bad
name from the start, and end your teaching program before it 
even begins. Which takes you back to the point of "referrence".

By letting your students or guitar class know of your abilities
as a guitar teacher, and offering them a point of referrence
such as sheet music, books, videos and DVD lessons, with a 
bit of research on your behalf and preparation, you can 
begin offering a basic program to your students and begin to
teach them how to play guitar.

Play Music By EarMusic Ear Training Method

See more Guitar Ear Training Methods



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