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Registered: 01-2015
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Being a younger guitar teacher


Hi guys. Looking for a bit of advice regarding dealing with students uncomfortable with having a younger (22 years old) guitar teacher.

I'm a female 22 year old teacher working in a music school which happens to have primarily older student. There is only one other guitar teacher in the school who is a 44 year old man. Usually students are fine with me, but every now and then students don't wish to take lessons with me, or have doubts, due to my age and question my qualifications.

I have a first class honours degree in Classical Guitar, and am currently completing my teaching diploma, and I am by far the most qualified teacher in the school. However, these doubts still emerge for people.

How do you deal with students who have these doubts, or is it best to let them head on their way to an older, if less able teacher? I have no doubts in my ability and have taught students up to a classical Grade 8 level, as well as electric and acoustic guitar to a high level also. However, students with these doubts get under my skin and bother me. What is the best way to approach these people?

Any advice appreciated!
1/14/2015, 1:29 am Link to this post Send Email to TheRhubarbTart   Send PM to TheRhubarbTart Blog
 
Don P Profile
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Re: Being a younger guitar teacher


Well if your lucky enough to have them stick around for any amount of time they will learn that you know what your talking about and you can help them.

Unfortunately if someone is judging you strait off you may not get a chance. I just had a perfect example. I'm primarily a classic rock/Hard Rock/Metal teacher. I had this older guy come in, maybe in his 60's I think. Anyways he said he wasn't into Metal and I reassured him that it was ok and that I could still help him.

He described what he needed help with and I began working on finding his weak spots. I was immediately able to find areas that he really needed work on. It was our first meeting so we weren't able to get too deep into much but I did help him out a little with improvising in that first lesson.

Unfortunately I could tell he was stuck on the Metal thing although I assured him that while I loved this style it's not the only style I can play.Needless to say he made up some laim excuse of why he couldn't continue on.

He never came out and said it but I could tell from his attitude that he very ignorantly thought metal was nothing but a bunch of noise. Having played it for almost four decades now I'm still challenged by the technical abilities needed to play in this style. Not to mention you have blues,jazz and classical styles intertwined within the music.

So no matter what I said to this guy he couldn't get past his narrow minded views enough to realize just how much I could actually help him.

Without having time to prove your knowledge and ability to help someone there really isn't much you can do. Some people just prejudge you and can't get past that, which I'm sure spills into the rest of their lives, so the best thing for yourself is to not pay it much mind and move onto someone else that is a better fit for you.

By the way I've found that students and even parents are not really concerned about degree's or credentials.I've had I think one person in 10+ yrs of doing this that even asked if I had formal training.

What is more important is to come across as being confident and demonstrating how you can help them reach their goals. If you can help them with one of the biggest things they struggle with, even in a small way, in the first lesson then your age should become secondary. But again, you'll always have those few closed minded,prejudging idiots that won't be able to get past what in the end is really their own insecurities. It's best to just let these people move along. Otherwise even if you get them to stick with you they'll probably second guess everything you say and do.
1/15/2015, 12:50 am Link to this post Send Email to Don P   Send PM to Don P
 
zen guitar Profile
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Re: Being a younger guitar teacher


You can't control what other people assume or think or that they won't even give you a chance. Just present yourself in the best way you can and people will judge you for your skill and professionalism. If you don't already have a website, make one immediately. On your website is where you can prove to the world what an awesome teacher you are. You'll want a bio, current recordings, you can list your credentials, your awards and honors. You can have a section with free web based lessons like video lessons etc...Then direct everyone to your website when you first talk to them. When they go to your website and see how well qualified you are, that will dispel any doubts they may have. Your not going to convince them just by telling them. SHOW them. That's what a website is for. You should also probably be making a habit of having regular public performances. Make sure to post flyers around your music school promoting your performances, so all those fools who dismissed you because of your age can see them and go to your recitals and be so impressed they regret being an idiot and not taking lessons from you (sarcasm intended!).

Having an honor degree in classical guitar doesn't automatically make you the "most qualified" teacher of your school. To be honest it sounds to me like you are immature and a bit arrogant. Immature for worrying about what people might mistakenly think about you, and immature + arrogant for assuming your better qualified for the job then people much your senior with much more experience teaching. Teaching guitar has little to do with guitar playing skill or formal credentials. It has to do with a lot of other things like good communication skills and the ability to assess what a student needs the most, as well as help them learn what they want. And just because you can play grade 8 classical guitar doesn't mean !@#$ to someone who wants to learn heavy metal or country or jazz or a number of other popular styles. The fact is, classical guitar is the one of the LEAST popular styles and only about 1 out of 20 people that come to you will ask for it (that's been my experience anyways). So the other 19 people who come to you will not only not be impressed with your credentials, they may not want to study with you for that very reason. They may assume (perhaps rightly so) that classical music is the only thing you can teach. If one of the older guitar teachers at your school that you dismissed is well experienced in teaching multiple styles on guitar and you can only teach 1, I'm sorry, but you are the less qualified teacher. I don't care if you have a three doctoral degrees in classical guitar. You may be the more qualified for teaching classical guitar or for being a college music professor (once you complete some graduate degrees), but for teaching the general public guitar lessons, you are actually not the most qualified.

I offer all this to you as a friend, not with a negative attitude. I'm actually someone who has been wrongly stereotyped as being "just a classical guitar teacher" simply because I play advanced classical guitar and have a degree in music. I play many other styles, and some even more proficiently then classical. But because of my credentials and preferences, I've been discriminated against at 2 different music stores that I have worked at and been sent less referrals because of it...So believe me when I say, I understand where you are coming from. I also suspect you may be wrongly assuming they are not coming to you because of your age, when in fact it may be because of your credentials. It is what I have had to deal with.



1/21/2015, 12:00 am Link to this post Send Email to zen guitar   Send PM to zen guitar
 


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