About
I teach to the student's taste whenever I can: I personally choose the pieces we work on personally, and make such decisions to individually/for each student. Therefore, I choose songs the student is explicitly expressed interest in whenever such choices are fit and able to be applied to the subject matter. I make a specific effort to select music the student has expressly communicated interest in, whether it be the song itself, its artist, or even its genre, I do the best I can.
Secondly, I mostly work with kids. I find them to be more challenging and more rewarding as students (no offense to adults, I hope). I feel the same about teens, to be clear. I know not every teen wants to thing of themself as a kid, but the same things that make kids a bigger challenge are true with teens -- just taller.
As Oprah would say it, it's the "Aha moment." More specifically, my favorite moment in lessons is when whatever it is specifically that I'm teaching, and sometimes even why I'm teaching it, "clicks" into place. Students always always ALWAYS smile right when that happens; in fact, the smile stretching across a student's face is often the first sign that "the eureka effect" (as it is technically referred to) took place. It's like watching an athlete cross the finish line, or made it to home base, or scored the final point. All the effort pays off, and the student knows it too. To me, that smile is the best kind of validation as to me about teaching. I have to be doing something right to make a student be able to earn that smile. Aha!
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Abbie B.
Frequently asked questions
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I've been playing for a decade, and teaching for a little over two years!
Do you have a standard pricing system for your lessons? If so, please share the details here.
I usually teach hour-long (or rather, 50-55 minute) lessons.
Keeping that in mind, I charge $25 for half an hour and $40 for a full lesson.
What advice would you give a student looking to hire a teacher in your area of expertise?
Get a guitar teacher (ideally the one you will be taking lessons from) to pick out your guitar before you buy one. Some will charge for the service -- although if they will charge more than an hour's worth for it, get someone else to do it because that really is not necessary at all -- and in my opinion, it's a very, very good use of a lesson's worth in wages. I will say, though, that I do personally charge half of a lesson's cost (so $20) for the task, and it does actually cost more for the materials for me to retrofit a guitar for easiest playability for a student who got the guitar before the teacher.
I have another answer to this question as well.
Ask a prospective teacher -- one you plan on hiring -- where the lesson she with him/her will end, AKA what's the last thing they can teach you. Then ask the next guy, or it'd be even better to ask a friend who play some guitar if you have one how far along that'd be. You don't want a teacher who's only going to be able to teach you the most basic basics. If they can't keep you learning for over a year at the least, then you probably ought to find someone who can play better/know more technique.
What questions should students think through before talking to teachers about their needs?
They should think about how much they want to spend on their first guitar, and how much they want to pay a professional to pick one out. FAR too many students spend money on the guitar first and the teacher second. However, and I mean no offense by this, but even a terrible teacher is better at picking out an instrument than someone who hasn't even taken a single lesson yet. That's the one thing I always wish a student (or a student's parent(s)) thought through a little more first.