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Now before anyone gets upset this is not Neil I'm talking about. This is about actual teachers you've gone to in the flesh so to speak.

Personally I've not had a problem, my first and only teacher (excepting Neil) was particularly good, a current muso, who knew the best way to teach was via songs you actually liked and knew. Much the same way Neil approaches teaching.

Now I paid for lessons for my Daughter who was quite keen, I bought her an intro nylon string 3/4 guitar and found a teacher and paid for a course of lessons with this lady who advertised as a professional teacher (which she may well have been). I never met this lady as my daughter lives in the South Island of NZ and I in the North, therefore I found the teacher on the net and phoned her to organise things. The phone was not easy as this lady is Dutch (nothing wrong with that) but my command of the Dutch language is not flash and her command of the English language as I later found out even less so.

This lady started my daughter off with songs which were Dutch folk songs and then progressed to religious songs. Now my daughter was 13 at the time (5yrs ago) and this was not a clever move by the teacher, as such my Daughter quickly got disillusioned and gave up. I spoke to the lady about this suggesting she try more modern songs or at least ask my Daughtrer what she wanted to learn, then the language difficulty seemed to get exasperated at this point. The lady wouldn't budge saying I shouldn't tell her how to teach and that kids these days have no respect! At least I think thats what she said amidst several Dutch sentences! I'm not sure how long this lady intended to be in business...

But anyway my question is have any of you guys had similar experience with teachers not budging and trying to force you into learning something you don't want or like?

Unfortunately, my Daughter who was initially very keen is not so much now and may end up like Dad and coming back to the guitar years down the track!

My students get an all Christian song list to choose from but since its a church class, there is no problem with that.

But I have added songs I wouldn't normally use because they have asked for them. What good is teaching if nobody shows up?

No nothing that bad. My first teacher back in 1976/77 was almost all folk song based as well. Looking back on it. I appreciate it because it taught good right hand technique. I also learned open chord really well.

But in a class of about 40 there was some people who where not as happy with folk song, folk song, a CCR song, folk song. It got pretty heated between one of the more advanced students and the teacher. He wanted to play serious rock and roll. I for one didn't think the acoustic instrument was suitable for this...so wrong. But I thought he should respect the efforts of the instructor. The instructor trying tell him it was all a building processes. You have to play this first in order to look at that later. At the time being 12/13 I am surprised him and I didn't go to blows over it. Which was typical for the time/age. But we didn't.

But I can say after two years of that, I didn't want no more folk music.

That's bad luck Chas. I haven't had those bad experiences fortunately, my 9 year old's teacher is just great, always ensures that the kids are playing stuff they want to play, along with the requisite theory. So I guess I was lucky to get a really talented teacher for my son, but it's hit and miss no doubt.

Chas- I've had a couple of bad experiences with teachers. The basic problem I found is that they typically play in a band at night or on weekends and are starving to death. Since they generally play the guitar better than their students it's an easy way to pick up some extra cash. Good for them, bad for the student.

I believe that playing and teaching are very different animals and good teachers are quite rare. You may have experienced that with your teaching and training gigs. Teaching is hard work and takes a real commitment. All of us can show another player a few chords or songs but really teaching is much tougher.

I believe the key to learning the guitar is to get the student's attention immediately. That means learning some songs right away that they know and can play. Mix in theory and technique as they grow but don't start out with Bach or Mary Had a Little Lamb. Dutch folk songs is a very poor excuse for getting a young player's attention.

Which leads me to Neil. I am enormously impressed with Neil's teaching skills. Sure, he is a fantastic guitarist but I value his ability to make the complex seem simple even more. His ability to explain the melody in conjunction with the chords and scales is so good it blows me away.

Good teachers are rare and expensive. And they are usually booked solid. Being a good player is rarely a recommendation for a teacher!

Cheers! :cheer:

I'm self taught, so my first teacher sucked big time! :woohoo: LMAO

I think I've already posted this on another thread, but here goes anyway.

My first instrument was violin, starting at 8 years old. My first music teacher, a nice English lady--Mrs. Brown, did not insist on proper left hand positioning.

FYI, the correct left hand position for playing violin is even more unnatural than it is for guitar.

After we left England (and Mrs. Brown), my next violin teacher was an ancient (I was 10 at the time) grumpy Russian who did insist on correct hand position. This frustrated me and in the end caused me to give up on the violin, breaking my Yiddishe Mama's heart, and setting me on the road to guitar-inspired hedonism and debauchery.

Chas, the best way to find a good teacher is to talk with the students. If you talk with several students (hopefully a beginner, intermediate, and advanced level) from the same teacher you will find out what you need to know. For most of us, it only took a few brief lessons on YouTube for us to realize that Neil Hogan was the 'real deal' and follow him back here.



Bill

haoli25 wrote:

Chas, the best way to find a good teacher is to talk with the students. If you talk with several students (hopefully a beginner, intermediate, and advanced level) from the same teacher you will find out what you need to know. For most of us, it only took a few brief lessons on YouTube for us to realize that Neil Hogan was the 'real deal' and follow him back here.



Bill

Hi Bill, the problem in the case with my daughter was the tyranny of distance and not being able to speak face to face or get feedback from other students. I was somewhat embarrassed being a Training Manager I know I should have checked this lady out more but didn't, so the blame for my daughter not following through lies partially with me on this one also.