Teaching Guitar

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Teaching Guitar

How Good Do You Need To Be?

Want to Teach Guitar for a living?

Sounds like a great idea but just how good do you need to be before you feel entitled to

charge money for your fretboard knowledge and expertise? Is it better for a teacher to know

everything about all modes in all keys or for them to be aware of a bunch of easy guitar songs

and progressions that their students would benefit from learning?

If you take a look around there are some fantastic guitar players out there and it can be a little frightening to decide that that you are going to start a guitar teaching business. After all "Who are you to set yourself up as someone that people should seek out for instruction and guidance? What makes you so special?"

The truth is that the best technical and theoretical guitar players do not always make the

best guitar teachers. Teaching guitar to someone else is not about your own playing but about

making the student's playing better and to do that you need something other than just the ability to fly around the neck at warp speed ten whilst reciting out loud the scale spelling for a Db lochrian mode.

The fact is that GUITAR TEACHING IS ABOUT GUITAR LEARNING, pure and simple. Sucessful education does not depend upon how well the teacher can play but on what the student learns.

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assessing just where you (and your attitudes, attributes and capabilities) might fit into the bigger picture.

Lose your Ego (Ego will encourage you to claim to be competent in areas that you are not really

comfortable and confident in). Equally you should ……..

Disregard your Insecurity and false modesty (which as the other side of the ego coin could

end up in a situation where you underestimate your own capabilities and potential). No one will mind if you decide that you are not good enough to be a guitar teacher if you actually are but don't complain when your neighbouhood fills up with "worse" musicians then you who teach themselves out of a dayjob

Given that you can form a sensible attitude to ego and insecurity and as a result can go on to develop an honest opinion with regard to your own circumstances then it is time to turn your attention to the important task of identifying the types of student that will benefit most from

your lessons.

The secret of a healthy guitar teaching business is in being able to attract (and retain?) the right students. To attract those people who would benefit from the things that you can comfortably teach them. The situation genuinely is that simple.

Identify Your Guitar Students?

Becoming a guitar teacher who attracts the right customers is really just a question of common sense. Of aiming your instrumental capabilities towards an appropriate section of the

market. You need to set out to attract to attract a group of customers who you are capable of

helping and who you would enjoy teaching the guitar to.

There are so many different styles of music out there that it is fair to say that nobody is great at them all. If you can't play jazz funk fusion (and explain what you are playing and why to someone who has little or no understanding of it) then just don't teach it.

On the other hand if Jazz funk fusion Guitar is the only thing that floats your boat and you have dedicated yourself to pushing its boundaries then maybe you should specialise in it?

By making the decision to play to your strengths as a musician and concentrate on those areas where the skills that you have as a player are in pretty good shape then you can have a satisfying and rewarding career teaching guitar.

The vast majority of those who seek guitar lessons are novice/early stage intermediate players with little or no experience of playing guitar but with a genuine desire to improve. When they seek out a teacher they are not really looking for someone to stun them with technical ability (although they will quite reasonably expect to encounter a teacher who can get around the instrument) . People looking (and paying!) for guitar lessons really just want to encounter a guitar

teacher who will help them to start off on the right path.

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instrument. An effective guitar teacher is one who creates a situation in which the student

can take advantage of the opportunity to improve.

A good intermediate standard guitar player with a reasonably sound grasp of music

theory can often be ideally placed to take on the task of teaching beginners (the biggest

single group of guitar students out there by some way). It can actually be argued that such a player can have an advantage over a more “advanced” musician because he or she islikely to

have a clearer and more recent memory of being at the early stage where the student finds themselves.

Assuming that you have the skill and the desire to be a guitar teacher then all that's really

required after that is the right attitude and a plan.

Unfortunately teachwombat can't really help you with the attitude. If you have difficulty

communicating with people on a one to one basis then no matter how skilled you are as a player then maybe guitar teaching isn't the job for you? We all had teachers at school who "knew their stuff" but had little aptitude for transmitting that knowledge and enthusiasm to others. It was no fun being taught by them and if we're going to be fair it probably wasn't a great deal of fun being them either?

If, on the other hand you find it reasonably easy to get along (and interact) with most people then you could be on the verge of starting a rewarding new chapter in your guitar playing life?

We produce downloadable materials (pre-prepared printable student handouts etc) for guitar teachers around the world and I would love to say that as a guitar teacher you need this stuff but unfortunately (for us) it just isn’t true.

To be a good (or better than good) guitar teacher you don’t need our materials (as wonderful as we think they are). Guitar teachers have been getting on just fine without the teachwombat handouts for decades.

What every guitar teacher does need however is a plan. As a teacher you need to make sure that you are well prepared for a lesson and as any experienced educator knows ... preparation is vital. Something else experienced teachers know is that lessons can be very stressful when you find that you’re “winging it” for too much of the time.

In order to minimise stress and maximise the quality of your lessons you could maybe think about having access to the following materials (which strangely enough you can find among

the teachwombat stuff)

1. A comprehensive range of Handouts featuring Guitar Chords and Scales that can be used to help students become aware of the basics (and beyond) of playing guitar

2. Blank Guitar necks and Chord Grids allowing you to pre-prepare material for favourite or often used lessons or songs/riffs etc.

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3. A set of Backing Tracks with Handouts that you can give to your students making it easy

for them to practice between lessons (which is really where they really get to improve)

4. A range of “fallback” guitar lessons (with pre-prepared handouts etc) that you can give out if a student needs a little more time to work onthe material covered in previous sessions.

At first glance this can seem like a big and frightening subject but if you view the situation from the point of view of someone who wishes to master the guitar (rather than that of someone like us who wishes to use musical skills to ward off or escape from a day job?) then deciding what

to teach novice guitar players can become pretty simple and straightforward.

People who are in the early stages of learning the guitar wish to be able to make noises that they like the sound of and can recognise as quickly as possible. Students want to play songs (or fragments of songs) that they are already familiar with. If they can come to their next guitar

lesson with the ability to make a noise that they like that they couldn’t make before then they generally tend to be pretty pleased about the whole thing.

Our job as a guitar teacher involves no more than to help them to get to that point as quickly as possible by presenting them with a series of challenges appropriate to their current ability.

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The Three Pillars Of Guitar Teaching

Learning to play the guitar (or any other instrument for that matter) can be divided into acheiving progress in three main areas. If the content of your lessons is at an appropriate level in

accordance with the three following areas then you are most probably "doing it right"

1. Theoretical Knowledge

2. Technical Ability

3. Development of Repertoire

Theoretical Knowledge

Very important but being as it would seem pretty pointless to know the theory behind all of

the music that you can’t yet play this can wait until some capability on the instrument has been

achieved.

Technical Ability

This involves the development of motor skills and involves the student in making and refining particular physical movements with relation to the instrument

Repertoire

The more switched on reader might have noticed that two of the above definitions are the same and the real eggheads might have sussed out that if there were a system of combining a

sound technical approach with the development of repertoire then we could end up “killing two birds with one stone”.

To develop both areas effectively why not teach them simple songs (or fragments of songs)

that combine the acquisition of technique with the development of a repertoire that will make them feel pretty good about themselves and their development as a musician?

Having arrived at a point where we have decided that this is a good idea all we need to do is toidentify the right chords and to come up with a bunch of songs or chord sequences that

feature those chords? The chords of the CAGED SYSTEM

Get your guitar students off to a Flying Start (from the very first session)

Using The CAGED SYSTEM of Open Guitar Chords

There exists an established method of teaching and learning guitar called the “Caged System” which when fully developed can be used to master the entire neck of the instrument but whichin

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it's basic form sets out a bunch of open chords generally regarded as being the best and easiest ones for a novice guitar player to cope with and which offer the potential to make rapid progress.

The chord shapes are those of C A Am G E Em D and Dm (hence CAGED-Get it?).

If you were to look at the caged system of guitar playing (and teaching) another way it could just as easily be called the (much less memorable -I admit) “Whatever you do don’t try to get them

to play an F chord system”

Guitar teacher's need to be aware of the things that a student should not be wasting their time, enthusiasm and effort on as well as presenting them with suitable things to study and the F chord is a case in point.

If you think about it for a while to ask someone who has little or no experience of holding down a single string to suddenly start to clamp down two strings with a single finger is really pretty

cruel and it is possible to end up with a situation where an up till now perfectly well motivated

and potentially capable guitar student becomes convinced that they will never be able to play the instrument for as long as they live.

Unfortunately, it is the situation that loads of printed guitar tuition material kicks off from the perspective of music theory and it’s relation to the keys on a piano or the notes on a musical stave.

For this reason ecause the key of C has no #s or b’s it is certainly the easiest key to understand but its chords (or rather the F chord which is a a very important chord in the key) is just about impossible for an novice guitar player to form.

To be aware of the danger of introducing the F chord (and others like it) too early is important to anyone teaching guitar. There can be little guaranteed to dampen the enthusiasm of a novice than presenting them with a (apparently simple) challenge that they find way too difficult.

If you want to take a trip back in time and recall what it was like to be a total beginner on the guitar just flip it around. If you are right handed just fret (rather than strum) with your right hand and strum (rather than fret) with your left. Spend a few minutes trying to play some of your favourite simple music. It is a great way to develop an understanding of where your customer is at

The first couple of months of a novice guitarist’s career could (and probably should?) be largely taken up with becoming firstly aware of, and then familiar with the chords that make up the caged system. Some of the CAGED chords work particularly well in the key of G

and by becoming familiar with just four of them (G Em C and D) a student can develop an extensive and varied repertoire of stuff to practice and play.

examples include

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“Itchycoo Park” G to Em (Chorus)

“The Locomotion” G to Em (verse:1 bar each chord) “Shout” G to Em

“Hallelujah” G to Em (ok I know its Em7 but it still works?) “You Really Got A Hold On Me” (G to Em)

“Stand By Me” (All four chords in the order presented) “Every Breath You Take” (All four chords in order) “Simply The Best” (All for chords in order)

“Blue Moon” (All four chords in order) “Crocodile Rock (All four chords in order) “Hungry Heart” (All four chords in order)

The above list is just intended to help the student to realise that they are capable of making

rapid progress. Some of the songs detailed above are not in the original keys of the recorded

versions and there are occasionally some simplifications going on there.

The Caged guitar chords give you access to quite literally hundreds of thousands (and possibly even millions - I never really got around to counting them!) of songs (or recognisable fragments of songs) and they can be used to form the building blocks of a sound technical and

theoretical approach to teaching and learning the guitar

We also offer a range of Guitar Backing Tracks and Handouts that you can distribute to your students for those teachers who like to work that way

By employing the Caged Guitar system alongside a gradual introduction to single string riffs, patterns and scales you can create the beginnings of a well-rounded guitar player and thestart of a successful new business into the bargain?

This article (by Rob Hylton of teachwombat.com is an extended version of an article published on Ultimate guitar.com

The article gained a five star rating among the readers and has an approval rating of 9.3 (on a ten point scale) If you would like to read that article (along with some insightful and relevant comments by the many ultimate Guitar.com visitors who reviewed it) just go to ultimate guitar-columns and enter the search term "teach guitar"

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How To Give Your First Eight Guitar

Lessons

The material that follows is a simple "two step plan" designed to help you give the first few

months of guitar lessons to a a complete beginner?...

Step 1: Make your guitar students aware of the "best" guitar

chords for a beginner

Step 2: Give guitar lessons that make them familiar with the

process of changing between those chord shapes (in time to

a band)

It really is that simple?

The following material is an examination of the way that you might choose to structure a series

of guitar lessons to an absolute beginner (by far the most common type of student

encountered by guitar teachers?)

Leaving the "art" to one side for a moment it might be a good idea to take a look at the physical act of playing the guitar and to distill that act down to a couple of "first principles"

It is important for you as a teacher to develop an understanding of what your student expects from the first few months of guitar lessons?

When someone can't play the guitar at all they will most probably be delighted if after a few lessons they can develop...

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1: The ability to change between chord shapes with the fingers of the left hand

2: The ability to strum those chords (in time) with the right hand

The focus of the first few months of study should probably revolve around the "big idea" ofhaving your student master the left (fretting) hand fingering and and some right hand

strumming patterns for a set of guitar chords that are the easiest to form and which along

with some right hand strumming patterns will allow them to play thousands of songs?

Acheive this and it is very likely that not only will the student be delighted with their progress but that you will continue to get paid?

The open chords contained within the basic CAGED Guitar System (C A Am G E Em D and Dm) allow us to do just that and are used by experienced guitar teachers all over the world to "kick start" their students into a playing career. It is no coincidence that these chords are also the ones chosen by the various organisations around the world who offer formal

Qualifications/Grades in guitar?

First Guitar Lesson:

You can use this basic guitar lesson plan template over

and over again to help your students to progress effectively?

The first lesson will be covered in some detail because it forms the template for a great

many guitar lessons to come (using the same basic principles and methods but with different

chords and more complex strumming patterns) This first lesson plan can be used to great

effect over and over again with a novice player.

All you need to do as a teacher is to present your student with either new chords (drawn from the eight on the "first guitar chords" handout) Or use the chords that they already know from the sheet presented in different combinations and with more involved tempos and rhythms?

Although the series of lessons presented on this page supposedly concerns itself with the "first eight lessons" the truth is that I have probably set out do cover too much ground in order to

demonstrate the potential of the materials that I'm trying to sell to you(sorry!). The (happy?)

reality is that the vast majority of guitar students will be more than occupied for the first

few months of study by engaging with the process of ...

1: Learning a set of suitable basic chords

and

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Guitar Lesson 1:

Learning to form the G Em C and D chord shapes and

developing the ability to move between them

Talk to your guitar student

Before you get straight into the meat of the first lesson it is a good idea to talk a little about what the problem is (they can't play guitar?) and how the two of you are going to combine in order to solve the problem?

People like to know what's going on and like to feel that education is a process that they participate in rather than something that is "done to them"

Ask them how they feel about the idea that the first lesson will set out to create a situation whereby your student will be able to ...

1. Understand the two areas (theory and technique) involved in the mastery of any musical instrument

2. Learn the shapes of four of the chords (G, Eminor, C and D) most suitable for a novice guitar player

3. Play those chords in time along with a (supplied) backing track

After getting the guitar in tune take time at the start to tell the student that to play any musical instrument (not just the guitar) properly involves a mastery of two important elements. These

two elements are the “Theoretical” and the “Technical” aspects of musicianship

Music Theory

(and why we won't worry about it during early sessions)

The first of those elements mentioned above (Music Theory) covers some of the following questions

1. Which notes do I play?

2. Which scale will fit over a particular chord sequence? 3. Which chords sound good together and why?

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Explain that theory is very important to a musician and let them know that these sort of questions will be discussed during future lessons but that at the moment there is very little point in knowing which notes and chords you would like to play if you can’t physically play them! For that reason it's a good idea to let them know that the first lessons tend to be taken up with

developing a physical capability on the instrument.

The Lesson Itself

First up give the student the handout featuring the G Em C and D chord progression. Explain how the chord diagrams work and make sure that they know that the numbers inside the

black dots refer to the fingers used to hold down the strings.

Ask them to refer to the handout, slowly form each chord in turn and strum it once in their own time.

Depending upon the individual this may take a little while.

During the lesson work toward a situation where the student can change between one

chord and the next one

Ask them to play the chords first in the sequence presented on the handout (G Em C and D) and when they can do that mix the chords up a little (eg request that they play an D chord followed

by a Em chord etc)

The idea is that the pupil develops an ability to remember the fingerings and play them without

continued reference to the handout.

The handouts are great (I would say that I’m trying to sell them to you!) but it’s no good if the

knowledge stays on the paper! Let the student know that what we are looking for is a situation

where the chord names and the fingerings are available for instant recall.

When these changes are reasonably secure let the student hear the backing track “G Em C

and D ”

The track features drums and a bass player going around the chord sequence.

Now ask the student to strum a single chord as each change comes around. The idea behind this is that having played a single chord the novice player has time (almost two bars) toget ready

to fret the next one.

Some students will adapt to this fairly quickly whilst others will take a little time to get to grips with the fingerings involved.

Now might be a good time to talk to your pupil about the following notion.

“You don’t learn to play guitar "during" guitar lessons-you learn to

play "between" guitar lessons”

If an individual was able to play everything presented to them perfectly by the end of the lesson then it can be argued that the material was pitched way too low.

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The object of a good lesson is to give the student a desirable (and achievable) outcomethat they can work towards between sessions. If you explain this to them and have them understand

it then they tend to feel a little less frustrated that they don’t play everything perfectly straight away.

For the students who pick up the changes early it is possible to introduce more involved strumming patterns. It is a good idea at this stage to be careful to restrict the strums to the early part of the first bar of each chord so that the learner will continue to have time to move

between the chord shapes.

Towards the end of the session give the student a copy of the backing track on CD for private study (this usually goes down very well!) and ask them if there is anything that they do not

understand about the material studied.

Before the lesson ends give the student a copy of the handout “First Guitar Chords” and tell them that it may be worth looking at the sheet before the next session as the chords used in the

next backing track (Am Dm and E) are on it. You could even use a pencil to indicate which chords from the sheet are to be studied.

Finally: Check that your student knows what to practice before the next meeting

Lesson 2:

The Am Dm and E Chord Shapes and more involved

strumming patterns

Three more chords and a new backing track this time with the chords of Am Dm and E lasting

for only a single bar (requiring the student to form shapes a little more quickly)

The basic guitar lesson plan above (using G Em C and D) can also be used for this

lesson. In fact it forms the basis of most of the first few months of study for a novice guitarist. All that is really required of the teacher is that he or she presents their students witha series of tasks which require them to change between the eight caged chords comfortably and at will.

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If you ask your customers if they would like to get to the end of (say?) a couple of months of

lessons with the basic ability to play thousands of songs (or at least recognisable fragments

of songs) then they will probably say that they would be delighted?

Giving them the opportunity to develop that ability by becoming able to move between a set of

"user friendly" chords will get them there. Perhaps more importantly it will help them to realise

that they can actually become guitar players rather than just wishing that they were?this has

to be good for your business?

Lesson 3:

A to G With a "rock" feel?

This lesson introduces a new chord (A) whilst reinforcing the students ability to work with

one of the chords learned in a previous session. The backing track for this one is more of a

heavy rock thing and will work particularly well for students who aspire to be rock players. This backing track (like all of the others) can also be used by guitar students learning Bar

Chords and the handout relevant to this developmet is also shown above.

Beginners can use the track to practice forming the open chords of A and G (again playing single strums with downstrokes of the plectrum). From there they can progress to playing the same shapes with more involved strumming patterns. Later the backing track can be used for power chords (with palm muting?) before moving on to full bar chords ans solo lines. Depending upon the tastes/aspirations of your student it is possible to keep going with the above system of playing and changing between chords using the backing tracks or to introduce the concept of single note playing for students who are (understandably) keen to develop soloing skills on the guitar?

The backing tracks and handouts package features a total of twenty backing tracks and forty

six handouts based around combinations of the chords that make up The Caged System and by

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the backing tracks can also all be used to develop players who are at a more advanced stage by using them to develop capabilities with bar chords and soloing etc?

Guitar Lesson 4:

More advanced lessons: Playing Single Notes-The Em

Pentatonic Scale

After introducing the Em Pentatonic scale it's back to the G Em C and D backing track.

You can use some of the blank guitar neck sheets with tab (a few of which can be seen

above) to help teach students short single note riffs and figures. The idea is that youteach

stuff that both you and your student are comfortable with. It's just a little bit of trial and error

really. If your student is having trouble with a lick then simplify it, conversely if they are picking the stuff up too quickly then complicate things and challenge them a little?

Guitar Lesson 5:

Introducing Solos and improvisation: "A New Scale"(Am

Pentatonic)

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Having introduced an"easy" scale using open strings it might be time to up the ante a little with a one octave Am pentatonic scale (starting at the D string at the 7th fret?)

Back to the Am Dm and E backing track for this one if you like (or the A to G progression for a "rockier" feel?) with more use of the blank guitar neck and tab handouts that will allow you to teach individual licks and phrases?

Guitar Lesson 6:

Bending Strings: "Introducing Single Note Bends"(Am

Pentatonic)

Introduce the topic by showing the student some simple figures that rely on bending the D

note(G string 7th fret) that is contained within the Am pentatonic Scale

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Guitar Lesson 7:

Power Chords and Bar Chords:

It can be a good idea to prepare students for full bar chords by first helping them to

become familiar with two note power chords

"The bar chord root finder" sheet can be used along with the A to G backing track again. Other backing tracks can be used as desired /applicable.

You can use the Am Dm E backing track or the A to G backing track for this one. At first ask students to sound the power chords only once as the chord changes?

Guitar Lesson 8:

Muted Power Chords: "Muting Strings at The Bridge"

Right hand muting techniques (assuming that the student is right handed) with more involved strumming patterns (lots of downstrokes and an even eight to the bar rhythm?)

As with the previous session you can use the Am Dm E backing track or the A to G backing track for this one?

The lessons above use a combination of our pre prepared handouts and backing tracks It is important to realise that students vary quite considerably in terms of how quickly (or slowly) they are able to develop skills or take on board information. It is quite possible (even

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introduced to some of the material from the next session. It is equally likely (and indeed desirable) that you might spend more than one lesson dealing with a particular chord sequence

or fingering exercise. Please bear this in mind and regard the material presented above as

guidelines rather than a rigid structure?

The picture above features just some of the sheets that form part of the guitar teacher's toolkit

Blank Guitar Teaching Templates - Customise Your

Teaching!

The Guitar and Bass Teacher's Toolkits contain a huge variety of blank necks, chord grids, tablature and standard notation sheets. These products are designed so that you can use them as you go or even better, they allow a guitar or bass teacher to prepare favourite or often

used lessons and examples in advance.

The picture below shows just a few of the blank resources. You will find guitar teaching sheets that combine chord grids and necks with tablature and notation. You can be sure that that you will always be able to impress your customers with a professional looking handout to help

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them understand the concepts that you need to get over to them.

Any experienced guitar or bass instructor knows the value of excellent preparation and by making use of a scanner or photocopier these "blank" elements of the toolkits allow you tobuild

up a library of favourite or often used guitar teaching content as you go.

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Backing Tracks and Handouts Package for Guitar Teachers

In addition to the paper based products that we make teachwombat has just introduced a "Backing Tracks and Handouts Package" designed to dovetail smoothly with our existing

materials.

We have produced a set of TWENTY downloadable guitar backing tracks with accompanying handouts featuring the easy guitar chord diagrams to go along with them. These materials have been especially designed to be used not only for novice guitar players learning open position

chords but also for intermediate standard students who need to work on bar chords and guitar soloing techniques etc. You can simply drop the tracks onto CD's for your pupils or even

email them to your customers safe in the knowledge that they won't just be practicing the chord shapes but will be working towards playing them in time to the music.

The chord sequences featured on the Backing Tracks are largely based around the CAGED Guitar system which is used by teachers around the World as a way of developing novice

musicians. The Chords in open position are C A Am G E Em D and Dm (hence CAGED).For absolute beginners this means that they are exposed to a set of open position chordsgenerally

regarded as the easiest and most useful to learn.

The backing tracks and handouts in the package are directed not only at total beginners but at the intermediate level players who need to develop skills with relation to bar chords/knowledge of

the neck etc. To this end some of the handouts feature bar chord root finders as well as the relevant chord diagrams.

The backing tracks encourage a student not only to learn the shapes and change from one to the other but more importantly to make those changes in time with the music.

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terms this makes a huge difference to a guitar student's progress

The backing track can be used to help students develop the ability to play open chords, bar chords or to solo (maybe using the Am pentatonic scale?)

In the backing tracks and handouts package we have sheets that you can distribute to your students for each of these outcomes

"The BIG Guitar Chord Grids"

Aside from the 100+ sheets that make up the Guitar Teacher's Toolkit you will get a free

download featuring another 100 GIANT (letter sized) Individual Guitar Chord Charts that we call the "Big Grids". The Big Grids are quite simply giant sized versions of the chords that you

need as an instrumental teacher.

At first they were limited to being the seven chords of the basic caged system (the shapes that novice guitarists should learn first) but they have been added to and expanded to include loads of more advanced material.

The sheets were originally intended to be used during group guitar tuition. The idea was that the sheets would be printed onto stiff card or laminated and a guitar teacher would be able todisplay

the giant chords to the entire student group as required.

This works a treat and the BIG GRIDS are an invaluable guitar teaching resource for those who earn a living teaching guitar to groups of players (evening classes etc).

"The Big Grids" have developed to have another life all of their own.

The situation was that guitar students from the group sessions began to request copies of

the grids to stick on their own walls at home. It then turned out that students who took

individual lessons were just as keen to have access to what one of them called “The Big Wall Of

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This is probably no surprise. When you come to think about it the majority of folks who learn

to play the guitar tend to practice in a bedroom or a study room where they are able to decorate the walls with all manner of things. If the stuff that they need to study is right there

in front of them then they don’t even have to get up from the chair (or the bed!) to look up the chord shapes that they need. They say that all good ideas are essentially simple ones?

You can give your guitar students the grids in any way you want. A very popular method seems to be the "Chord of the week" method by which they get to stick them on your wall one at a time gradually building up their own "wall of knowledge".

Many guitar teachers choose to line the walls of their teaching studios with the big grids

(they look great printed out on high quality paper) as an aid to teaching. It looks fantastic and pointing at a giant chord shape on the wall can be preferable to squinting at a diagram three

feet away on a music stand?

Administrating a Guitar Teaching

Business

Part of the guitar teacher's toolkit are a selection of guitar themed business card designsthat you can just import into any photo editing package and then from there its simple to add

your own text.

The files are presented in ordainary jpeg format allowing you to originate the professional looking material required to promote your business . they can also be used to provide the basis for

"camera ready" artwork for any publications or websites that you may use for advertising

purposes

Another handy feature of the teachwombat.com materials is that they don't feature our logo all

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Great teacher/player but not very well organised?

There is an extremely useful guitar teaching diary and accounting system that comes with both the guitar and bass teaching toolkit. The teacher's diary and appointment sheets allow you

to record details of daily or weekly income and expenditure as you go.

Say goodbye to that sinking feeling that you get when you open the door to a lesson you forgot that you booked or worse still opening it and finding two students that you accidentaly told to

come at the same time!

The diary and accounting systemtakes the hassle out of booking appointments and doing

the annual accounts.

The flexible system gives you a choice of"day to view" or "week to view&" diary form and it also contains separate sheets so that you can record details of expenditure etc if required. It's the boring stuff and not the reason why we teach guitar and bass guitar but since it has to be

done we might as well make it as easy and stress free as possible?

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Bass Guitar Teaching Resources

The Bass Teacher's Toolkit is made up of over more than sixty handouts (that's why it's less expensive than the guitar one). It covers just about everything that you need to teach bass

guitar for a living.

The kit contains printable handouts featuring Chord Arpeggios, Scales and Modes along with a range of Blank Bass Guitar necks and Bass Tab Sheets that you can fill in as required. Like the guitar package the material presented will guarrantee that you are ready for any teaching

situation.

This allows any bass teacher to free up the time that they spend preparing and get on with the

profitable and enjoyable part of teaching bass guitar

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Guitar Backing Tracks are a great weapon in the arsenal of any guitar teacher. Many teachers

choose to (or would like to) supply their students with easy chord guitar backing tracks as an

aid to practice.

teachwombat have a set of twenty downloadable guitar backing tracks with forty six handouts featuring the easy guitar chord diagrams to go along with them. The materials especially designed to be used not only for novice players learning open position chordsbut also for intermediate standard musicians who wish to work on bar chords, soloing etc. You can

drop the tracks onto CD or even email them to your customers to allow them to practice guitar more efficiently.

The chord sequences like the free one that you can download further down this page which features the major chords of A D and G are largely based around the CAGED Guitar systemwhich is used by teachers around the World as a way of developing novice musicians.

The Caged Chords in open position are C A Am G E Em D and Dm (hence CAGED).For absolute beginners this means that they are exposed to a set of open position chordsgenerally

regarded as the easiest and most useful to learn.

The backing tracks and handouts in the package are directed not only at total beginners but at

the intermediate level players who need to develop skills with relation to bar chords/knowledge

of the neck etc. To this end some of the handouts feature bar chord root finders as well as the relevant chord diagrams.

The backing tracks encourage a student not only to learn the shapes and change from one to the other but more importantly to make those changes in time with the music.

It isthe distinction between awareness of the chords and familiarity with them. In educational terms this makes a huge difference to a student's progression

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Guitar Lesson Topic 1: Open Chords

and Single Strums

Lets take a closer look at just one of our backing tracks and

the handouts that go with it.

We have a rock style backing track that uses a repeated chord progression consisting of one bar of each of the following chords. A C D and E. The chords are part of the CAGED System as it applies to the beginner and are all featured on the free Caged Guitar System handout that you can download free from this site.

When working with a complete beginner it is enough to ask of them that they learn to strum each of the chords once (with downstrokes of the plectrum) in time to the backing track. When this has been accomplished then more involved (down-up) strumming patterns can be introduced. Follow this link to see a much more detailed lesson plan dealing with a whole series of lessons aimed

at the beginning and intermediate guitar student. The reality that lies behind the first few months of study for any novice is that the most effective plan is to introduce a set of suitable chords (that will allow them to play literally thousands of songs?) and to and to give them a collection of practice routines that will encourage them to be able to move comfortably between

these chords at will

Guitar lesson Topic 2:

Beyond The Basics: The SameTrack And "Power Chords"

The same backing track (A C D and E) can be used again when the student is at a slightly more advanced stage (once they have mastered the basic open chords and the ability to move between them) The track

can now be used to help develop a facility to play "power

chords" (and from there work towards a situation where they will be

able to handle full barre chords).

The handout featuring "Two Note Power Chords" which explains the principle behind the shape (simply a root note combined with another

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a fifth above it) and which also has a "Bar Chord Root Finder" on it serves as an aid to study

and also helps develop in the student a "map of the neck"

Guitar Lesson Topic 3:

Working Towards Full Bar Chords

After mastering two note power chords its a relatively straightforward process to extend this principle to include the "fuller sounding" three note versions (featuring another note an octave above the root)

Again a "Root Finder" is supplied along with diagrams which will help a teacher to explain the principles behind the lesson.

Practicing three note power chords is an ideal preparation for the next step which is to develop the ability to form full bar chord shapes.

Guitar Lesson Topic 4

Bar Chords With Roots On The A and E Strings

Full Bar Chords now with root notes to be found on the E and A Strings.

A root finder is again provided in order to increase a students familiarity with the neck of the guitar. By asking students to use the root fider (rather than just by telling them where to play the relevant shapes) your

customers are more likely to develop a "joined up" knowledge of the neck and move from a situation of "imitation" towards one of "understanding" which when you think about it is the whole point of the

exercise?

Guitar Lesson: Topic 5

First Steps Toward Soloing

This guitar teaching sheet features the A minor pentatonic scale at

the bottom of the neck. It is particularly suitable for novice players

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generate "feel" without having to bend strings by sliding between the notes (eg sliding up from the B string at the third fret to the same string at the fifth fret or from the B string at the third fret down to the first). Working with this shape can be very satisfying for beginnersas even those

with a basic technique can produce "authentic" sounding lines

There are a series of tab grids to the right of the neck where teachers can write down licks and figures appropriate to the students current ability.

There is another sheet (not shown) which adds a further octave to the scale and takes it down to the A Sring Open

A teacher can use this shape as the ideal preparation for the next one where the scale is played in a different (more common?) position and bending notess can be introduced.

Guitar Lesson Topic 6

Extending The Am Pentatonic Scale

The sheet on the left shows the Am Pentatonic Scale played in a

more common position (with the first finger positioned behind the fifth

fret). Playing here allows students to bend strings (particularly the third string at the 7th fret with the third finger and the second string at

the 8th fret with the pinkie)

Again there are several lines of blank tab that you can use to write

down licks and runs for your students.

The scale is illustrated with shaded circles but the scales previously learned (at the bottom of the neck) are also shown in white so that a

teacher is able to supply licks and figures that move between the

shapes on the neck

Guitar Lesson topic 7

Further Extending The Am Pentatonic Scale

There are two more handouts (shown on the left) which further extend the scale.

In addition to the rock backing track featuring the chords of A, C, D and E there is another (slower-funkier) backing track which

uses the chords of A minor, D minor and E.

This track is also well suited to solos and single note phrases drawn from the A minor pentatonic scale and it is possible totransfer the knowledge and technical expertise developed

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How To Use The Backing Tracks and handouts

Above you can see some of the guitar teacher's student handouts that go along with one of the other tracks in our package

The first handout features the open chords and is designed to help the novice work through

from a position where they will be able to strum each chord once as the changes come around to a situation where they can make more involved "down-up" strumming patterns

The second sheet shows the bar chord shapes for the progression and is intended to be used with intermediate level guitar students

The third handout that you can see shows the bar chords along with the Am Pentatonic

scale and is intended to help with the development of single note and soloing skills

A tip when using this sheet is to ask the student to play the chord as it changes and then to provide short single note fills before playing the next chord (these fills can either be from their own heads or you can provide appropriate figures as the lesson progresses)

This has the effect of breaking the single note sections into "short bursts" so that your guitar

students are not confronted with the daunting prospect of having to solo over a long section of music. After a while of playing the "short phrases" longer sections of single note

passages will not seem anywhere near as scarey? >

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Teaching Guitar

How Good Do You Need To Be?

Want to Teach Guitar for a living?

Sounds like a great idea but just how good do you need to be before you feel entitled to

charge money for your fretboard knowledge and expertise? Is it better for a teacher to know

everything about all modes in all keys or for them to be aware of a bunch of easy guitar songs

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If you take a look around there are some fantastic guitar players out there and it can be a little frightening to decide that that you are going to start a guitar teaching business. After all "Who are you to set yourself up as someone that people should seek out for instruction and guidance? What makes you so special?"

The truth is that the best technical and theoretical guitar players do not always make the

best guitar teachers. Teaching guitar to someone else is not about your own playing but about

making the student's playing better and to do that you need something other than just the ability to fly around the neck at warp speed ten whilst reciting out loud the scale spelling for a Db lochrian mode.

The fact is that GUITAR TEACHING IS ABOUT GUITAR LEARNING, pure and simple. Sucessful education does not depend upon how well the teacher can play but on what the student learns.

Prior to deciding to teach guitar it is important to sit down and spend a little bit of time realistically assessing just where you (and your attitudes, attributes and capabilities) might fit into the bigger picture.

Lose your Ego (Ego will encourage you to claim to be competent in areas that you are not really

comfortable and confident in). Equally you should ……..

Disregard your Insecurity and false modesty (which as the other side of the ego coin could

end up in a situation where you underestimate your own capabilities and potential). No one will mind if you decide that you are not good enough to be a guitar teacher if you actually are but don't complain when your neighbouhood fills up with "worse" musicians then you who teach themselves out of a dayjob

Given that you can form a sensible attitude to ego and insecurity and as a result can go on to develop an honest opinion with regard to your own circumstances then it is time to turn your attention to the important task of identifying the types of student that will benefit most from

your lessons.

The secret of a healthy guitar teaching business is in being able to attract (and retain?) the right students. To attract those people who would benefit from the things that you can comfortably teach them. The situation genuinely is that simple.

Identify Your Guitar Students?

Becoming a guitar teacher who attracts the right customers is really just a question of common sense. Of aiming your instrumental capabilities towards an appropriate section of the

market. You need to set out to attract to attract a group of customers who you are capable of

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There are so many different styles of music out there that it is fair to say that nobody is great at them all. If you can't play jazz funk fusion (and explain what you are playing and why to someone who has little or no understanding of it) then just don't teach it.

On the other hand if Jazz funk fusion Guitar is the only thing that floats your boat and you have dedicated yourself to pushing its boundaries then maybe you should specialise in it?

By making the decision to play to your strengths as a musician and concentrate on those areas where the skills that you have as a player are in pretty good shape then you can have a satisfying and rewarding career teaching guitar.

The vast majority of those who seek guitar lessons are novice/early stage intermediate players with little or no experience of playing guitar but with a genuine desire to improve. When they seek out a teacher they are not really looking for someone to stun them with technical ability (although they will quite reasonably expect to encounter a teacher who can get around the instrument) . People looking (and paying!) for guitar lessons really just want to encounter a guitar

teacher who will help them to start off on the right path.

Teaching a guitar or bass depends on more than just being able to get around on the

instrument. An effective guitar teacher is one who creates a situation in which the student

can take advantage of the opportunity to improve.

A good intermediate standard guitar player with a reasonably sound grasp of music

theory can often be ideally placed to take on the task of teaching beginners (the biggest

single group of guitar students out there by some way). It can actually be argued that such a player can have an advantage over a more “advanced” musician because he or she islikely to

have a clearer and more recent memory of being at the early stage where the student finds themselves.

Assuming that you have the skill and the desire to be a guitar teacher then all that's really

required after that is the right attitude and a plan.

Unfortunately teachwombat can't really help you with the attitude. If you have difficulty

communicating with people on a one to one basis then no matter how skilled you are as a player then maybe guitar teaching isn't the job for you? We all had teachers at school who "knew their stuff" but had little aptitude for transmitting that knowledge and enthusiasm to others. It was no fun being taught by them and if we're going to be fair it probably wasn't a great deal of fun being them either?

If, on the other hand you find it reasonably easy to get along (and interact) with most people then you could be on the verge of starting a rewarding new chapter in your guitar playing life?

We produce downloadable materials (pre-prepared printable student handouts etc) for guitar teachers around the world and I would love to say that as a guitar teacher you need this stuff but unfortunately (for us) it just isn’t true.

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we think they are). Guitar teachers have been getting on just fine without the teachwombat handouts for decades.