This article discusses some of the issues you will face when you go looking for a guitar teacher. There are plenty of guitar teachers around but there are a few tricks to finding the best one for you.
If you restrict your search to your neighborhood you probably won't find the BEST guitar teacher but you will find one who can teach you something. Guitar teachers come in assorted shapes and sizes - some know a lot about a narrow niche of the musical world, some know about music in general, some know a little about not much - but if you are a raw beginner you can learn something from whatever source of guitar tuition is available.
Some teachers insist on teaching students to play in the genre they enjoy most, but that does not always work out. If you want to play songs around a campfire, rock and roll strumming and picking techniques are not for you, but not every guitar teacher can adapt to his students. So, the best guitar teacher for you is one who can teach you how to play a guitar using the music you are most interested in.
If you want to learn to play rock and your prospective teacher is more pop or jazz oriented, he can get you started on guitar playing, and you could even stick with him for a few months, but if you are really serious about rock or metal or whatever, you are going to need a teacher who plays your kind of music sooner or later.
It will help if you can tell a prospective teacher what it is you expect to learn. For example a beginner with no guitar playing experience will have different requirements from a person who has been trying to teach himself the guitar for some time. And a child will need a different approach from a grownup.
Where do you find the best guitar teacher for you? In the classified ads, of course but it would be far better if you take a trip down to the nearest music store and ask them if they have a resident guitar teacher or if they know of one. Getting into one on one discussions will be more helpful than perusing the classifieds.
Then there's the question of how much a guitar teacher should be charging you. It will vary from place to place but don't go too far out of your budget range unless you have found a teacher that you are really enthusiastic about. The prices a guitar teacher will charge are not an indication of his quality. If you see someone who is not charging much, go talk to them. They could be cheap because they are building up their business.
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