I Play Guitar by Ear. Could I Give Lessons?
Posted in guitar lessons on 17. Mar, 2011
We’ve had a reader question come in on the subject of guitar lessons. Let’s take a look:
I’m sensing a lot of haters that had to actually attend school to gain musical significance. I’ve always been told it was a gift, so maybe my method of teaching wouldn’t benefit anyone for the fact that it came pretty easy to me. I was playing top 40 music by age 11 and maybe people just aren’t capable of doing what I do. You people do understand that great music was created and taught way before theory and sheet music was invented. Music never gets better, it just changes.
I can learn and teach anything I can hear on the guitar, so students may not be able to give me sheet music they want to learn, but if they give me a recording, that’s all I need. I don’t know random chords on the guitar, I know pretty much every chord in standard tuning with the exception of some 9th’s or diminished chords and what not. Thanks for the replies.
OH! I absolutely would explain that I’m not teaching them theory or sheet music… I would be teaching them time signatures, chords, scales and many finger picking techniques I have learned over the years…
OK. Started learning sheet music today 03-16-2011, just so I’ll have it under my belt.
Go for the gold, if you can sense eargazms by force of nature, I say it would be a shame to not get paid to teach the ways descended from a god.
Warn any potential students ahead of time that you can’t read music and that you play only by ear.
There is no reason for you not to give lessons, but you need to be up front from the beginning that you do not read music and play only by ear. Unfortunately you may lose students because they will not be able to bring music to you to learn. It isn’t too late for you to learn the basics either, at least to teach beginners. Good luck!
You know a lot of of chords and scales, but can you explain them? Do you know why a G major chord is a G major chord? Can you explain a Mixolydian scale in any way other than a meaningless scale shape?
If you answered yes to those questions, then you can teach (well, not necessarily, you may be a crappy teacher, but you’ve got the necessary knowledge to actually teach music).
Just out of curiosity: How do you play guitar for nearly 30 years and never learn to read music? It’s really not that difficult… you can learn the basics in just a few hours. It’s a useful skill too. I love it when I can just write something down, hand it to somebody, and have them play it. It’s such a waste of time teaching people a song when you could use that time to actually play music.
Do you know any theory about chord construction and scale construction? Just knowing a bunch of random chords and scales, but not truly understanding them isn’t good. If I were a student I would feel cheated out of my money.
"…haters that had to actually attend school to gain musical significance." Even if you’re amazing, this statement alone shows how much you’ve missed out on. There are elements of musicianship that can only be adapted by learning information, not innate ability or instinct. You may be able to help students get started in their musicianship, but knowledge of theory and standard technique is mandatory for helping them develop it to their fullest potential.