Almost every guitar player dreams about doing music full-time for a living. There are different ways to make this happen, including performing with a band and doing session work (covered in this excellent article by Michael Dolce), but I think most guitar players overlook the fastest and easiest way to fire your boss and make a living using your guitar: teaching guitar lessons!If you approach it the smart way, teaching guitar can let you set your own hours, be your own boss, make as much money as you want and still have all the time you need to play gigs and do whatever else you need to do. I know, because I started a successful teaching business and grew it from just helping out a few friends on the weekends for free to making a 4-figure income every month, and I did it in a matter of weeks.
Think about this for a minute. Not many jobs will let you work out of your own house, wear whatever you want to, take off whenever you want, set your own work schedule and decide how much money you’re going to make. Want to grow a beard like ZZ Top? No problem! Want to take off every Friday so you can play gigs in a neighboring state? Easy! On top of all that, you also get to work using your guitar and do something you love. You actually get to play and talk guitar with interested people and get paid for it.
Another cool thing about teaching guitar lessons is that you get to make a difference in people’s lives. I remember a guitar teacher I studied with in Shreveport, LA when I was a teenager. I had only been seriously trying to learn for about 6 months, I had no confidence and my playing completely sucked. I found this teacher through a recommendation from a friend, scheduled the lesson and showed up with my beat-up Squier Strat. I was feeling insecure, nervous and intimidated, and I felt like my whole future with music depended on how well this lesson went. I walked in and saw that the teacher was handicapped (he had to use special crutches to walk), and that he was just a normal guy like me, who happened to be an incredible guitar player. He instantly made me feel relaxed and welcome, and the first thing he did was get me talking about myself and what I wanted to get out of the guitar. By the end of that lesson, I was a different person. Having an accomplished guitar player accept me and take an interest in me made a huge impact on my life and validated me as a musician. I’ve tried to do the exact same things in every guitar lesson I’ve ever taught, and as a guitar teacher, you get to have the same kind of impact on your students. You could be the reason they keep playing the guitar, and you never know…one of your students could be the next Steve Vai.
Most of the guitar teachers you’ve seen and worked with probably didn’t make teaching look as cool as I’m describing it here. That’s because many of them are stuck in old and ineffective ways of thinking, teaching and running a business. If you don’t do it right, a teaching business can be WORSE than the job you left it for…after all, nobody wants to work all day teaching lessons 7 days a week and just barely make enough money to pay the bills. But if you’re smart about it and you set things up the right way, teaching guitar can be the best thing you ever decided to do.
Give it a shot! Find a kid in your neighborhood or a friend who wants to learn how to play and start showing them a few things. I taught my 8-year-old son how to play “Smoke On The Water”, and the next thing I knew he was sitting out in our garage teaching it to his friends. One of his friends showed his grandfather what he learned, and the next day the grandfather was asking my son for guitar lessons, too. See how things can grow quickly? If an 8-year-old kid who barely knows how to play can do it, so can you!
Start with learning more about how to teach guitar the smart way. You can avoid most of the trouble associated with teaching music if you set your business up the right way and learn from other people’s mistakes. I put together a website and a podcast devoted entirely to this subject, and it’s a great place to start. Just like you’ve invested time and money into becoming a better guitar player, invest some time and money into learning how to be an effective teacher. Ask a bunch of questions and learn what you can from other teachers who are doing it the right way. It won’t take long for you to set up your own business, get some students coming in and make some positive changes in your life.
Have any thoughts or questions about being a guitar teacher? Let’s talk about it in the Comments section below!
About the Author
Donnie Schexnayder is a musician, guitar teacher and small business coach. He produces the Start Teaching Guitar podcast and loves to help guitar players become guitar teachers and successful business owners so they can do music full-time and escape their day jobs. Check out his website at StartTeachingGuitar.com for more info.
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