If you are an experienced guitar player in need of some cash, why not give guitar lessons? Would you rather spend all of your time working hard just to make a lowly minimum wage, or would you like to spend a half hour teaching someone how to play some chords and get more than double that? Why submit yourself to an employer’s orders and demands when you can be your own boss and do something that you actually enjoy? Giving guitar lessons can really be a nice gig, but for a number of reasons, most people who are perfectly qualified would never even consider it.
You don’t have to be a guitar virtuoso to give music lessons, and you don’t need to have twenty years of playing experience under your belt. All you have to do is find someone who can learn from you, someone who can benefit from whatever you do know. There are plenty of people who have just picked up a guitar and want to take lessons. In many ways it would be better for them to avoid the highly trained guitar professionals and take lessons from someone who was at their level not too long ago. If you know basic chords and scales you can teach someone who doesn’t even know how to get their instrument in tune yet.
So how do you find people that would be a good fit for you as a private teacher? When I decided to start giving lessons I put one add up on craigslist and within a few days I had multiple replies. From those replies I could choose the students who best fit my schedule and knowledge. I ended up getting a few students who would come to me and pay me well, and I was making decent money from a couple hours of work per week. I don’t even think I would consider it work.
On craigslist you can browse posts from people who are looking for teachers or you can put up your own listing with a description of your services. There are other websites that have similar services specialized for guitar players and teachers, but they generally do not have the traffic that craigslist gets.
If you want to ensure that you get some interest from possible future students, just give them a good price. Giving cheap guitar lessons will still make you more money than most other part time ventures. Some of the more experienced teachers command $30 for a half hour. You could offer rates of $10-$15 for a half hour and still be in good shape. Many private instructors travel to student’s homes for lessons, and if you are considering doing this you can charge more for travel expense, but it should also be easy enough to find people in your area willing to come to you.
Having said all that, not everyone would be a good candidate for becoming a private guitar teacher. You do need to have some guitar ability and knowledge, and you will have to keep an organized schedule and plan things out. You will also usually need to provide equipment, or at least have your own functioning and quality equipment. Having chord charts and other resources available to your students is important and will make your services seem more professional and dedicated, but the thing you will need most of all is the ability to communicate and work with your students.
Not everyone can sit there and patiently explain to a beginner where to put their fingers and how to pluck a string. Some people just aren’t meant to be teachers and if you don’t think you can spend a half hour to an hour talking people through guitar techniques, do not start lining up students. If you are unsure, try giving a music lesson to a friend or relative and see how it goes, but at the same time, don’t worry if you take a few lessons to get the hand of it. The important thing is that you have a desire to do it.
There is still, and will probably always be, a large demand for guitar teachers to give people private music lessons. If you are at all considering becoming one, I would encourage you to give it a shot. As they say, it beats flipping burgers.
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