Should I Teach Guitar Online Or Offline?
A lot of potential guitar teachers may think that the only way to teach guitar is online, after all, everyone is online.
But I hope to debunk that idea and show you that teaching locally makes more sense (to get started), and that if you do want to teach online, teaching locally is the best way to start.
## Who Is Your Competition?
This is a big consideration that people don’t think about. When you are teaching online, you are competing against every other guitar teacher, course and program in the world.
Your competition is world famous guitarists that are teaching.
You are competing against:
- Steve Vai’s Patreon
- Nita Strauss’ beginner lessons program
- Dave Weiner (plays in Steve Vai’s band)
- Greg Howe
- Every other guitar teacher in the world
- Online education companies that have enormous marketing budgets
- YouTube
Now, all these people have limited time, so if you did want to teach online, that would work for you, but, you have to realise that the bar is incredibly high.
Now let’s compare this to the local competition. Your local competition is Fred down the road.
Here are some characteristics of Fred:
- Teaches from a shed in his garden
- Spends 25 minutes out of a 30 minute lesson complaining about his life
- Tells students they are so bad at guitar that they should quit and it’s not for them
- Teaching “method” consists of giving students a tab and blaming them when they can’t play it
- Is rude
This may sounds facetious, but these are all things that students told me about guitar teachers they had taken lessons with before they came to me.
When you are considering your competition, who do you want to compete against? Greg Howe, or Fred?
What Do Students Want?
Another assumption that new guitar teachers make is that students want to learn online.
Now this is partially true - there are a lot of students that want to learn online.
But there are also a huge amount of students that want to learn online.
Different people are motivated by different things.
One of the motivations that in-person students have is that they want the social connection that in-person lessons give, and they enjoy being in the room with the teacher. They also value the in-person feedback.
And they want to pay for and actively seek out in-person lessons.
How You Learn to Teach
Let’s assume that teaching online, or writing books or courses on playing guitar are a goal that you have.
What is it that makes instructional material, whether written or delivered on Skype, valuable?
Why do people seek out a teacher?
They want insights and guidance.
If they wanted a book of chords they can play, or a book of scales, those things can be easily obtained, for a much cheaper price than a lesson!
Part of what makes a good lesson different from a PDF of barre chord shapes is that the student gets insight that is tailored for them and what they are doing.
And the best way to learn to deliver that insight is to practice it, by teaching - and teaching in person.
When you are teaching in person, it is very easy to look at the students hands and posture, it is really easy to listen to what they are playing. When you are teaching online, it may be difficult to see exactly what the student is doing - their guitar may be “off screen” because they aren’t aware of the camera. You may not be able to hear them because they can’t turn off Background Noise Filtering on Zoom.
If you have experience teaching in person, you know what you need to be looking and listening for. This can translate to teaching online or with instructional materials, as you can specify what the student needs to be looking for.
For example, say you want to teach a course on barre chords. You know from teaching barre chords to your in person students that often, when learning barre chords for the first time, students don’t keep their first finger straight which causes muted strings. So in your course, you can specify that the student needs to watch out for this and demonstrate the right and wrong way to play the barre chords.
This is delivering insights.
## What Qualifications Do You Need?
Online and offline qualifications are also going to be different. When we talk about what it takes to be qualified, we don’t mean “what degree do you have”, we mean, “What does it take to get a student.
When it comes to online, the qualifications are going to be:
- Be famous, or/and
- Have 1000s of social media followers
When it comes to offline, you qualifications are going to be:
- Caring enough to try and help the student
- Living nearby
There is no reason why you can’t build an on-line following over time, but you do not need an on-line following to get started teaching locally.
To start teaching locally, you just need to exist.
What Logistics Do You Need to Get Started?
This is one area where online teaching wins - all you need to get started teaching online is a computer or tablet that can run Skype or Zoom.
When it comes to teaching in-person, you are going to need a space to teach in.
Now, getting a proper teaching space isn’t that difficult to do and there are a surprising amount of options available, but it is something you need to sort out to get started.
Of course, we have completely ignored the marketing requirements and competition that we talked about earlier.
What Is Easier To Start With?
So when it comes down to it, which is easier to get started with?
By far, in-person teaching is 100x easier to start than teaching online.
When it comes to teaching locally, the competition is often atrocious and finding students is relatively easy.
Learn More
If you’re interested in learning how to teach guitar, how to help students improve, find new students and build a side-gig or a full time income from teaching guitar; then check out the Guitar Teacher Training Program.