Ask questions and then put the guitar down.

Man, I’m so frustrated. I’ve been trying to find a teacher for so long and it’s always the same things.

One question and then the teacher is ripping the neck for 20 minutes.

Then there was my old teacher that would set me homework and never asked me about it in the lesson.

Then there was my other teacher who would have me show him something, would give me a 15 minute talk and then not ask me to do it again.

- What are you hoping to get out of the time together today?

- Is there anything you’ve been working on you’d like to show me?

- Are you enjoying our time together and would you make any changes?

Trying to understand something and figured this was the place to ask.

My parents have a studio and have around 50 students. The part of teaching that takes into the Pareto effect for them is all of the admin stuff and student notes. Prepping for the upcoming week without confusing one student’s progress with another’s. My mom keeps a notebook per student. My dad runs on memory and quick texts to himself. Neither system feels great to them but both kind of work.

I’m curious what other teachers do, especially anyone with a lot of students. A few specific questions if you have a minute:

How do you actually write your lesson notes? During the lesson, right after, end of day, end of week, or do you skip it?

When a parent texts you “how’s my kid doing” out of the blue, can you actually answer that confidently for any of your students, or do you have to scramble?

Has anything you tried, paper, an app, a spreadsheet, actually stuck for more than a few months? What made it work or not work?

Asking partly out of personal curiosity and partly because I’ve been building a tool for teachers in this space and trying to figure out what teachers would need. The tool is an iOS app called ForteAI if you want to look. Not pitching, mostly trying to learn what works for music teachers.

Hey everyone! I’m a guitar teacher, and I have a young female student (about 8 or 9) who really loves pop songs but is playing on a nylon-string classical guitar. She’s not super into traditional classical music, but she loves fingerpicking and softer melodies.

I asked her which Taylor Swift songs she likes, and she told me those were some of the ones that came to mind off the top of her head: “Cruel Summer,” “Blank Space,” “Bad Reputation,” and “You Belong With Me.” I’m looking for more Taylor Swift or other pop songs that have simple, fingerstyle-friendly melodies with a clear bass line.

Any suggestions would be super appreciated! Thanks so much!

Hey everyone! I’m a guitar teacher, and I have a young student (about 8 or 9) who really loves pop songs but is playing on a nylon-string classical guitar. She’s not super into traditional classical music, but she loves fingerpicking and softer melodies. Ive had her as a student for a while and she can play Siciliano by Carcassi fairly well, just show you guys her current skill level.

I asked her which Taylor Swift songs she likes, and she told me those were some of the ones that came to mind off the top of her head: “Cruel Summer,” “Blank Space,” “Bad Reputation,” and “You Belong With Me.”

I’m looking for more Taylor Swift or other pop songs that have simple, fingerstyle-friendly melodies with a clear bass line. Any suggestions would be super appreciated! Thanks so much!

I’m (53m) a Rock/Metal player of forty years. I can read music, taught professionally for many years, recorded, toured and currently play part time in two bands (one cover, one original).

Unfortunately I’ve been stuck on a plateau for well over ten or fifteen years and can’t seem to improve in the areas mentioned above.

Any suggestions for an online teacher is appreciated as there are none in my area?

Please do not DM me offering lessons without disclosing rates or without providing links to your playing.

Thanks for any assistance.

Hey all — I’ve been speaking to a few guitar tutors recently and trying to understand how people manage students, lesson notes, files (tabs/PDFs etc), and payments.

The reason I’m asking is that I’ve been helping a guitar tutor I know build a simple tool to organise this stuff, and it made me curious how other tutors actually handle it day to day.

What’s your current setup like? Spreadsheets, apps, WhatsApp, something else?

I'm way out of touch, in my own little bubble mainly listening to jazz.

I'm wondering what are the most requested things that newer students want to learn. If you ask a beginning or near beginning student 'Hey, what's your interest, what do you want to learn?' Or a list of songs that younger students request.

Thanks!

Hello everybody,

Connor Lynn Guitar (connorlynnguitar) on Instagram has directly plagiarized my work and my writing on Troy Grady's Cracking The Code (CTC) forum in several of his videos. Almost all of the text in these videos had been directly quoted from my comments on the CTC forums without any proper acknowledgment.

I am upset about the lack of credit for my work, but I am much more upset that Connor used my work to misrepresent himself to his viewers and potential students.

In an effort to cover his tracks, Connor has removed the original videos. However, I had saved screenshots, which are available at my Google Drive here.

The first video, concerning economy of motion and discussing the physics of forced oscillators and Fitts’ law of motor control is a direct quotation of my original comment here:

https://forum.troygrady.com/t/question-about-picking-velocity-orientation/76484/3

The second video was concerning the physiology of fretting hand technique. I am known on the CTC forums for my work on this subject and I have written on it extensively. This video was cobbled together from several comments across several posts. Most notably, the video seems to have been inspired by my comments on this recent post.

https://forum.troygrady.com/t/fixing-left-hand-tension-pinky-control/95874

I am not the only person who Connor has plagiarized, though I am probably the least publicly visible. I am not usually active on Instagram and I do not post guitar content there. However, I have made a series of posts on this series of events.

I would appreciate it greatly if you could share these posts in every online guitar space where you are active. Send them to your guitar playing friends, or link to them on social media. The online guitar community deserves more honesty and more decency than this.

Connor Lynn Guitar Plagiarism - Part 1

Connor Lynn Guitar Plagiarism - Part 2

Connor Lynn Guitar Plagiarism - Part 3

Connor Lynn Guitar Plagiarism - Part 4

To the mods of this subreddit: This post directly relates to teaching in online guitar spaces. The members of this subreddit have the right to know of of dishonest online teachers. I have no plans to post more guitar content to Instagram. I am not advertising or promoting my Instagram page; I have no plans to post more guitar content on Instagram.

Guitar teachers beware!

I own a music school with 1600 students, and one of our guitar students sent me a screenshot of an AI Coach ad on Ultimate Guitar.

I gotta say, I’m pretty disappointed. as someone who has contributed many times and used software to aid lessons for years. For them to crawl our hard work and create some AI crap to compete with what we do is awful. Though nothing can replace in-person lessons and people will always wanna play with real people, it’s a pretty low blow.

I’m 100% will be canceling our memberships and standing up for the true artists who put the hard work in the prop up these company.

Please stand up and let your voice be heard!

🎸

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for 10 people who’d be open to trying out Notey, our AI-powered platform that turns music practice into interactive video games using your real instrument or voice! We’re currently refining the experience and would love your help.

What you get:

• Free access to the app
• A chance to shape the development of our game

What we ask:

• Test the app and play through it
• Report any bugs or issues you encounter

In return:

• $1 for every valid bug reported
• Bonus reward if you leave a review (App Store / Google Play)

Note: Best used with a guitar!

No need to be a pro musician, beginners are absolutely welcome. If you’re interested, just comment, DM, or email me directly at [mak@notey.co](mailto:mak@notey.co), and I’ll get you set up.

Thanks so much. Your feedback will help us improve.

I've been playing casually or semi seriously for a really long time and I have an opportunity to take on some beginner students. I think I've got enough under my belt to do this with no problem, but I wonder if anyone could drop a specific set of coordinates that work well, important things that new teachers might overlook, core principles that I should focus on to be an effective and enjoyable teacher etc. Thanks for any input!

I’m planning to teach a few friends beginner guitar over 1–2 months (one session per week) and would appreciate any advice.

My current plan is to cover:

• Tuning

• Holding a pick

• Using a metronome

Plus helping them learn two beginner-friendly songs of their choice.

Any suggestions on what I should add or change?

Edit: I forgot to add that these are just for cowboy chord songs. Just simple chord playing.

Been teaching for about 20 years, playing for 30 and I recently decided to make a practice app after not being fully satisfied with what I was finding. I’m pretty pumped for it because I’m a nerd, but curious - what features as either a teacher or a student would you love to see?

I (M40) have tried and failed to learn guitar on my own several times over the years. My son (M9) asked for a guitar for Christmas 2024. I got him a fairly decent squire strat and paid for a lesson app. We did a some app lessons together for a while but lost momentum pretty quickly and now both our guitars are gathering dust. I'd like to get back into and I think it's time to admit that in person lessons are the way to go. I've also been trying to think of things me and my son can do together to get more quality 1 on 1 time. I think it would be nice to find a teacher who will give us lessons together.

Is this a common thing? Is it even a good idea or would we be better off having separate lessons? Are there any potential pitfalls or caveats I should be aware of?