How to become a good music teacher

[rock-lobster]

I've been thinking of becoming a music (well, guitar mostly) teacher for a while now. I think I have enough knowledge of music theory to pass on to others. I've taught people before but it's always been the type of teaching where you teach people to play songs over and over. I'm very interested in taking on students who are interested in studying music theory, ear training and compositional and improvisational techniques. I fear that it might be hard to find people that are both beginner or intermediate enough that it is still worth their time for me to teach them, and also interested in the fundamentals and the abstractness of music theory.

I also don't really know a good approach as of yet to starting this kind of teaching. I know that if someone has at least a rudimentary understanding of what a major scale and minor scale are, that I could teach them theory and application of that theory up until a good jazz-harmony level, but I don't know exactly how to start doing that, if that makes sense.

Basically I'm looking for advice from people who have taught music with that kind of approach. Learning about music theory has been a great experience for me that I want to share. I'd love to take on a beginner student and make them one day be able to half-ass a Giant Steps solo. It would take a lot of patience but the result as a teacher would be pretty rewarding.

 

[BoomBoomBigelow]

So you need a teacher to teach you how to teach. Get one of those.

 

[Kerouac]

Teach because you ENJOY teaching, not just because it's your only way to make money with music. I made a lot of mistakes my first year, but I loved it. A lot of teachers half-ass it because its a paycheck and they're good players, but the teaching mindset is completely different. Patience and empathy are necessary in spades.


Sent from my iPhone at a Tijuana donkey show.

 

[Mark Wein]

Teach because you ENJOY teaching, not just because it's your only way to make money with music. I made a lot of mistakes my first year, but I loved it. A lot of teachers half-ass it because its a paycheck and they're good players, but the teaching mindset is completely different. Patience and empathy are necessary in spades.


Sent from my iPhone at a Tijuana donkey show.

This.


You need to develop a way of teaching that allows you to communicates star effectively to your students. Not everyone teaches the same way to get good results. And also the ability to adjust how you do things relative to the students strengths and weaknesses.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Modern Saint]

Teach because you ENJOY teaching, not just because it's your only way to make money with music. I made a lot of mistakes my first year, but I loved it. A lot of teachers half-ass it because its a paycheck and they're good players, but the teaching mindset is completely different. Patience and empathy are necessary in spades.


Sent from my iPhone at a Tijuana donkey show.

This.


You need to develop a way of teaching that allows you to communicates star effectively to your students. Not everyone teaches the same way to get good results. And also the ability to adjust how you do things relative to the students strengths and weaknesses.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All this and best to know what the goal of the student is. You are just a guide to help them get where they want to be. The goal of teaching to me is to help that student progress. Not really this is what I want to learn so I am going to teach them that. Also once you start getting students, all of them will have different goals. That will be really your challenge.