David, Hi,

I have been teaching guitar, bass and banjo for many years now, and the best advice I can give you [assuming you are doing it to earn a bit of cash ] is to have students come to you, not you to them. Keep your expenses minimal and give the best value that you possibly can.

Remember that teaching is a profession, and there are many techniques involved in being a good teacher. The world's best player isn't neccessarily a good teacher, and vise versa.

Pre planning lessons is a must, and [please don't be offended by this, it is not meant to be anything except constructive critisim - if you need advice on a "beginers curriculum" then you aren't ready to teach. Dogs, and nowhere at your pad to teach from are both against you. Travelling around teaching either sends you broke or means that you price yourself out of the market. And travelling time takes away from the time you have available for teaching.

Sorry to sound so negative, but I am honestly trying to be practical.

dags

Adding to what Dags already posted, I can encourage you on the curriculum end, to frame your lessons like Bass Guitar for Dummies is laid out. It assumes that you (your student) knows nothing and is laid out accordingly. I just started teaching last year and I have 2 bass students and one guitar student that come to the house. I do it by the 1/2 hour weekly or bi-weekly. What I teach depends on the student. I teach middle school kids, so they just want to learn songs. I make sure that I am serving their desires, but I always give them an exercise assignment (starting with finger permutaions, crossing strings, and leading to scales and applications) and make that 1/2 of our lesson. It is important for a student to know "why" you are teaching them what you teach them also.

I would encourage you to go for it, but being honest on what you can or can't teach. You can't wait for five years teaching experience without starting with zero. Explain that you have been playing a long time, but that teaching is new. I'm with Dags, that the lesson must be planned ahead of time and I personally have to keep notes or I forget. Maybe you start a couple of bucks cheaper than the music store lessons and when you feel more competent, change the price for new students. I'm also much more flexible than the music store in terms of scheduling/cancellation. It can be very rewarding soul food and students that practice improve rapidly. I look forward to the day I have to pass my begginers off because they have passed me.

Best luck,
-j

My son takes guitar lessons from a young guy that is an extremely good player. I play guitar well enough to teach beginners. I tried to teach my son, but it became apparent that he would probably relate better to a guitar teacher that wasn't his Dad...:^}

Anyhow, we go to this young man's apartment and I usually stick around because I have to drive him back in 30 minutes.

He teaches my son songs that my son likes, and also some contemporary Christian songs because my son wants to play in the youth band at our Church.

They get along great. My only complaint is that the teacher doesn't do a good job teaching the "why." He's great at teaching the "how."

So my only suggestion is to make sure if you begin teaching beginners is to always explain "why" things work. I often spend the drive home from my son's lessons talking to him about "why" what he was just taught "how" to do works.

I took bass lessons for a while back when I was 14 and 15 and my teacher made lesson fun and always explained the "why" as I learned "how".

I have wonderful memories of my bass teacher. When I was only 15 he took me with him often on the weekends when he played piano and sang to play bass for him.

Best of luck. I admire people who can and want to teach... it's a skill I certainly don't have.