Calling All Teachers!

Teacher's Lounge
#1

We’re incredibly appreciative that so many teachers watch our stuff and find innovative ways of making use of this information in their lessons. Learning what works and doesn’t work for players in the real world, and devising effective ways of getting through to those players without hitting them over the head with an anatomy textbook: this is where the rubber meets the road.

So I think it would be great to get a sense of who out there is teaching our stuff, what kinds of students you work with, where you’re located, and if you teach in person, online, or both. We get regular requests for lessons, and while it’s not something we ourselves do, I would love to have something constructive to respond with.

This can be pretty informal for now, but I’m not above establishing an actual directory of teaching resources if we have enough interest, and if we can figure out a way of doing this fairly. Open to suggestions in that regard.

So teachers… introduce yourselves and let me know what you think!

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#2

I haven’t taught in ages, but I’ve occasionally thought about hanging a shingle to teach Skype lessons part-time, especially now that CTC has illuminated the mysteries of string switching. If there seems to be a shortage of teachers, I might jump into the fray at some point, though for now I’ll wait and see.

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#3

I’m here in Windsor ON Canada.

I keep a roster of about 9-12 students at any one point.

Skill levels vary but most are young and just getting into it or adults returning after many years away.
Honestly I prefer the adults, they’re just more invested and apply what we talk about. I’ve seen too many young kids with crazy raw talent (natural intuitive technique) that just aren’t that into investing time on the instrument. Breaks my heart. The adults sadly are the ones who struggle to find the time in our busy lives.

I’m lucky to spend hours with the guitar in my hands everyday but I’d get no vertical growth without my personal practice I’m pretty hard on myself for practice or lack there of. I could really go for a study buddy (to keep me accountable)

I do have some more serious players that ask for help. more like fellow guitarists with equivalent skills but maybe have struggles with practice routines or theory. Sometimes we get together and just run patterns for the whole hour. It’s great practice for me and I get paid. Talk about a dream job.

Other times we work on song analysis. that leads to repetoire. . The best part for me is when a student finally grasps the theory concept we’re working on. That lightbulb moment is priceless.

I drive around to do lessons in peoples homes. Evenings and weekends.

I’d be glad to help with anything for our community here.

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#4

I teach here in Norway.

I have probably 35-40 students a week, mostly beginners who are relatively young.
My teaching is face to face, as I work for a public music school.

I really love the idea of having this forum to share and discuss teaching strategies and specific techniques.

One concrete tip, which is not just for students is the book “The Practice of Practice”(Jonathan Harnum), it is not specific to guitar but does contain a lot of concrete tips for practicing in new and interesting ways. And its written in such a clear way that it’s great as an audiobook.

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#5

I’d really love to teach guitar, but it doesn’t seem to be an option for me. I’m always here to help though if anybody needs anything.

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#6

I teach teach guitar and piano through a studio and I pretty much do in-person lessons only. I’m only taking bare-bones beginners on guitar at this point, but I teach all levels of piano as that’s actually my main instrument. I have about 30-some students now but before I moved to Vancouver I taught about 60 piano lessons/week in Edmonton 6 days a week. Was my full-time job. Hoping to get back to that level here on the west coast within a couple years.

Cracking the code has definitely been helpful when it comes to helping with kids’ technique at an early age. I don’t have any young shredders but you’d be amazed at what a dash ofTroy Grady mechanics will do for little Timmy’s re-imagining of an Ed Sheeran tune. Possibly even more helpful are the efficient practice strategies covered by the fellow from Julliard.

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#7

Troy, you definitely know I teach! A few students have found me through you, thanks to the videos you’ve put up of me. So, BIG THANK YOU for that! Yes, please, keep those students coming!

I market towards intermediate - advanced players. I’m working my butt off to grow the Skype lessons and online presence. I do offer in home lessons for those in the Denver metro area since my office was shut down a year ago.

I talk about pick slanting, cross picking, and swiping with only those I feel are ready to hear about this stuff. I’ve talked to a few “noobies” about this stuff before, and they basically said… “huh?”. For the more advanced players it seems like they understand what I’m talking about more and it helps them become a bit more aware of hand positioning when playing certain things.

I am starting to incorporate pick slanting, and other picking technique you’ve taught me in video lessons I’m starting to do. Just put up the first exclusive Patreon lesson covering a riff where DWPS is heavily used, followed by some cross picking with a bit of an UWPS when I play it.

The chunking method you’ve discussed is something I’ve been doing since before we met. I never used the word chunking though. Definitely a great method for getting a better understanding for a given piece of music, and to help something crazy difficult.

If you set up a directory of teachers I would absolutely love that!

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#8

Hi Troy,

First of all thanks for all your hard work and sharing it with us!

I am an instructor in Colorado. I am available to teach. If you set up a directory I would like to be added to the list.

Joe

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#9

Two Colorado teachers we be! Where in CO are you at?

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#10

Hola
I’m from Colombia, I teach guitar at Yamaha music school (18 years till now) and I teach in a university called ITM (music theory, recording and production).
It’s been a joy and a pleasure to teach this new techniques that we all learned from Troy. I’ve been doing my best to make a decent adaptation and translation to Spanish of the new acquired guitar vocabulary.
If I can assist you in any way, I’m here to help

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#11

I am down in Monument.

#12

Hi Troy and gang!

My name is Az Samad. I’m based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia & I teach both in person lessons here and also via Skype. I work with a variety of students from complete beginners to adults coming back to guitar after not playing or studying for awhile.

I also work a lot with students who are preparing to audition for music college studies particularly Berklee. Most recently, a student of mine was accepted to both Berklee and The New School in NYC and decided to go to New York.

The entire Master in Mechanics video series and Cracking The Code has helped me personally tremendously over the years. I’ve also included the videos as recommended videos for my students to watch as we cover picking technique. Depending on their style or level, I cover DWPS, UWPS, edge picking and cross picking. Swiping is something newer for me and interestingly enough I realise I’ve been doing it intuitively but never had a name for it. I feel that knowing the different moves and concepts helps solidify the technique for me.

The close up videos from both the YouTube material and subscription videos are amazing.

Would love to be on the directory or list for sure! :slight_smile:

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#13

Hi guys,

My name is Graehme and I’m a teacher in Canada. I own/run a school with two other colleagues of mine and we presently have about 70 students at the school, with about half of that being guitar students.

I’ve been a big fan of the Cracking the Code series and have already incorporated it into our school’s curriculum - the kids especially love watching the videos and learning about awesome guitar players!

Students range in ability from absolute beginners to some who are playing out in bands locally.

Also interested in the idea of a directory listing.

Cheers!

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#15

I use what I have learned from CTC/MIM when a technique and/or topic becomes second nature. Besides teaching the techniques/concepts, I plug Troy’s materials to my students as well as my colleagues.

#16

Teaching guitar in Sweden. not to much focus on mechanics due to easy level students. Mostly focus on DWPS and pentatonic scales, + Volcano-technique and Malmsteen DWPS-sweeping. CTC have been a great help for me when it comes to explaining pick-mechanics for the students that “level up” :slight_smile:

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#17

Hey fellow teachers! My name’s Dave (Benziger) and I’m based out of the 'burbs of Chicago. I’ve been teaching full time for over 25 years now, and I’ve been playing guitar professionally for 30 years.

I’ve had countless lessons helping others with their picking technique, but once I found Cracking The Code, I’ve been able top share some of the massively valuable information with my students and from day one have stressed to those players how much they would benefit from diving in to as much of the Code info as they can. Watch the videos, buy the lessons with all the added materials, etc.

Looking forward to hearing and sharing teaching material with you all!

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#18

Hi Troy

I have been teaching full time for a very long time now, with students both online and in person.

I currently do a few things:

  1. I work with advanced/intermediate players (usually with an improvisation oriented focus) both online and in person (link)

  2. I teach beginners and children, including lots of group classes, at my own physical studio (not online.)

I have actually just recently started incorporating slant-oriented material and approaches into my online and advanced-player lessons in a more formal way, and intend to continue looking for ways to help my students solve picking-related problems.

I essentially start beginners on economy picking but am not dogmatic about it, and introduce some slant concepts, but only dig in further if there is technically challenging picking stuff they’re trying to to dig into.

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#19

Hello from across town/colorado. :slight_smile:

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#20

Where are you located?

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#22

Get ready to audition to give my nephew lessons pretty soon. He lives in Denver and f***ckin LOVES guitar. Already has a mini strat he’s been banging around with for a while. Turning 5 this year, so maybe next year.

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