Do you feel ready to teach guitar?

A few days ago I was reading on Jack Pribek’s blog about the fact that he decided to give guitar lessons (again). That made me think of the fact that I have been often asked questions like “will you tech me to play the guitar?”, “how long would it take me to learn to play the guitar?”, etc.

To tell you the truth, I have never given guitar lessons. One of the reasons is the fact that I don’t have time to do this and I don’t think I really find the pleasure for it, but it is not the main reason. The main reason is that I don’t consider myself a guitar teacher. I know how to play the guitar and I play it since a while. I love both the acoustic guitar and the electric guitar and I would probably manage to teach somebody to play. But I think that this doesn’t quite qualifies me as a guitar teacher, because there’s more than meets the eye in this, as far as I can see.

One of the facts that I don’t feel comfortable with is the terminology. Being a self-made guitar player, what I know comes from listening songs, reading books and watching video. When speaking to a friend of mine that is a guitar teacher, musically educated, at a local music school I realized that he has a vocabulary that I totally lack.

Also, I play my own way. Not the best, I don’t actually know which is the best way to play the guitar. My licks, my finger positions are personal. In time, I understood that some were not the best and I changed them or I have tried to. For ex,a few years ago, when playing a C major natural scale, starting on A string, when reaching the B note on G string, I used to play the next C (for going further on the second octave) with my little finger. I realized, at that point, when watching a basic video lesson that you need to slide your pointing finger to the C (on G string) in order to be able to play the next notes correctly.

This is a basic example, where I want to say that what you learn by yourself is not always the best thing. Sure, it worked the way I used to do it (of course, how often you play 2 full major natural scales?) . I realized that I am doing this wrong after explaining to a friend of mine how you play that C scale.

The point is that I CAN teach somebody to play. But I am not a teacher. I think there is a difference here.

I remember a great electric guitar player in Romania, when trying with his band to make it big outside, in UK, if I well remember, after a while, in order to earn a living there, somebody asked him to teach guitar. But I am not a guitar teacher, he says. I can not teach! Well, just try and do your best! This guy is one of the best guitar players here and the band is well known here, one with great fan base, a lot of sales and publicity. by the way, they’ve never made it big in UK.

Well, to make a long story short, the only reason for which I would teach somebody to play the guitar would be for my own interest, for learning myself, because it’s said that the best way of learning to do something is by teaching others.

So, do you feel comfortable teaching somebody how to play the guitar?

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