FAQ: Do You Teach Guitar?

Update: Guitar Twinklers is coming in September 2018!

I am often asked if I offer guitar lessons or classes, especially once someone visits my home and realizes a guitar is in or visible from the majority of rooms! (Only two of them are mine; my husband plays guitar, too.) 

So do I?

Nope -- not yet.

I have, occasionally, in the past; twice to barter for Spanish lessons, and a few times, short-term, to help a student currently enrolled in private lessons with me on another instrument use a little of their lesson time to get a good solid start on the guitar if they were otherwise planning to try to learn it on their own. I am pretty emphatic about correct body posture and hand/wrist alignment and want everyone, at bare minimum, to have a good positioning set-up, plus of course anyone just starting out benefits hugely from having a resource for all the questions that invariably come up to avoid frustration.

So why don't I teach guitar?

I'm not ready yet!

I've been playing for over twenty years and have confidence in my guitar playing as well as my general teaching abilities. But that is not enough to meet my personal standards.

Before I offer an instrument, I take a long time to try various methods and materials specific to that instrument, hash out a general trajectory of skills, consider student ages and stages of development relative to that instrument, fill any gaps in my own knowledge, and ensure that I will be able to practice regularly to fuel my love for that instrument -- something I find to be essential for good teaching. I also need to have room in my schedule for an additional class, which is currently full with a waiting list but will gradually increase as my youngest child's needs evolve.

I have gone through this process every time I decide to teach a new instrument, and it takes as long as it takes! Being a multi-instrumentalist is a challenge, but so rewarding as both a musician and a teacher. I cannot count the number of times I have found the answer to one instrument's thorny problem while playing or teaching a different one.

So yes, guitar is in the works. It's gone from a "maybe someday" to a "yes, likely in the next year or so." When that changes, you'll see Guitar Twinklers and/or Teen Guitar appear in an upcoming session's schedule! Update: Guitar Twinklers is coming in September 2018!