How to Become a Guitar Teacher

If you want to get hired by a school as a guitar teacher, the school is likely to set a minimum requirement. But if you want to teach guitar privately, having a qualification isn't required. That's one of many advantages to running your own guitar teaching business - you set your own rules.

Qualifications aren't as highly regarded as they used to be. We live in a time where you can easily research any topic online - just like you're doing now! The fact is that everything you would learn when studying towards a formal qualification can be learned on your own.
On this website alone, you can learn teaching methods, marketing strategies and relevant skills needed to be a successful guitar teacher.

You may feel like not having a qualification would put you at a disadvantage as potential students will only want to deal with teachers who have formal qualifications. We can confidently say after working with hundreds of guitar teachers over the years that that's not the case. The reality is that most students don't care whether you have a qualification or not - what they do care about is whether you can provide them with good quality lessons.

So keep reading this guide and don't feel you need to get a qualification to teach guitar. If you have one already, great. If you don't, it's not going to put you at a disadvantage.

If you're unsure whether you're good enough at guitar to teach, here's an easy way to find the answer. Imagine you're a student looking for a teacher. Who would you prefer out of:

1. A amazingly-skilled guitarist who doesn't know how to teach, or
2. An average skilled guitarist who is a fantastic teacher

The choice should be obvious - being a great teacher is far more important than your guitar skills.

This is an important point to understand as being a great guitarist doesn't automatically mean you will be a great teacher. Playing guitar and teaching guitar are two very different skills.

So the first lesson here is that you shouldn't worry about whether your guitar skills are good enough. Instead, focusing on building up your teaching skills and knowledge.

If you still doubt your guitar skills, all you need skill-wise is to be able to demonstrate what the student will be learning. If you can demonstrate what the student will be learning, that's the minimum required. So think about your current skill level and think about all the skills, topics and songs you can currently play. Now think of all the potential students out there who would want to learn those skills and songs. There's going to be a lot of people out there wanting to learn from you regardless of your current skill level.