Why being a guitar teacher is good for you

Being a guitar teacher involves putting our knowledge and skills into words. We have to examine what we know and do in order to give good clear explanations to our students.

There is no room for vagueness.

Being a guitar teacher brings things into focus

Having to give clear explanations about music and guitar playing puts us on the spot.

How well do we really understand modes and their usage?

What approaches could a guitarist take to improvise over that tricky chord progression?

There is nowhere for a guitar teacher to hide when in these situations. This motivates us to identify and fill any gaps in our musical knowledge. This is very good for us!

It’s as much about teaching guitar technique

It’s not just about teaching knowledge, the same is true for teaching guitar technique.

How exactly should the student’s left hand thumb be positioned with that chord?

Do you actually know?

Is YOUR thumb actually in the best position?

What exactly is the student doing differently to you?

Actions that are repeated many times become almost completely subconscious over time. This is great when the actions are good ones, but potentially very bad if the actions are poor or inefficient!

The ability to scrutinise what we do as guitarists and to spot differences between our guitar students’ playing and ours is an important skill.

Apart from helping your students make improvements to their guitar playing, it can also help reveal flaws in our own. This is good for us too.

A bit of self-assessment goes a long way

Why is being a guitar teacher is good for you? Well unless you’re already a truly world-class guitar player, examining your own knowledge and guitar skills is an important part of making progress.

It’s very hard to improve our shortcomings if we’re barely aware of them. Apart from being a great way to earn a living, teaching guitar keeps us honest and helps us to reveal these flaws.

This, first and foremost, is the answer to why is being a guitar teacher is good for you.

	Stuart Bahn
	Stuart Bahn is a professional guitar teacher in London, and creator of the Be A Guitar Teacher video course.

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