Howdy, Banjo Ben!
I’ve been wanting to start teaching people how to play Banjo and Guitar. I’ve been playing guitar for about 7 years now and banjo for 4 years. I was wondering how do I get started? Are there certain things I need? How did you get started? Instead of figuring it out on my own, I figured I would come to someone who’s been doing it for a while now.
And do Y’all have any advice? Do any of you teach lessons? I would appreciate the feedback.
Thanks,
-Kaden.
One of the best things you can do as a teacher is develop a system for figuring out where a new student is and taking them from their starting point to where they want to go. I’ve had several teachers over the years. Kristin Scott-Benson was the first that ever gave me a series of tests to figure out how to teach me. It’s been incredible!
It also doesn’t hurt to go ahead and make up a lot of your own material that you’d give as hand outs. Things like tab for common rolls / licks. Tabs for songs you know you want every student to learn… build yourself a repertoire that you can just pull from at a moment’s notice. This is something Alan Munde is very good about. You always see Alan show up to camps with his big plastic tote of handout material, and he’s very free with it.
Good luck!
Thank you @Mark_Rocka for your advice! I really appreciate it.
So the series of tests she gave you, were they like a Q&A type of tests? if so, what kind of questions did she ask?
Another question I just thought of, for getting started, would it be better to create a website and start putting lessons up or would it be better to do private lessons?
It was a hands on test. She would ask something like “Can you play rolling backup?” and I would play it. Then “Can you find a G chord in 3 places on the neck?” I’d do so. Then “Can you play rolling backup while moving between those different G chords?” For me, this is where the test ended and she knew where to start. These days I would get a little further along in the test series.
I really don’t know how to answer your last question. The online teaching market is so saturated. If you can find a way to set yourself apart, I guess you could try. Just know setting up a proper web site to do what Ben does is not for the faint of heart.
I will add that, if you want to make this your career, I highly recommend making sure you’re not using anyone else’s material, and that includes tabs on public domain songs. Any new variation on a PD song could technically qualify as having its own copyright. I learned this while building JamTrainer. I found out that, while the melody to “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” is in the public domain, the words we all know and sing are not. They were written years later and still fall under copyright law.
Ok Cool! So are there any tools online I would need like, TAB creating, Jam track tools, stuff like that? If so, do you have any recommendations on what some good ones are?
For tab creation, https://tabledit.com is king.
For jam tracks, at the risk of tooting my own horn, I feel like https://jamtrainer.com is the best. 
Great! I’ll check those out. Thank you!
These are two very different things/endeavors. For one, when you create lessons for the internet, you have to think about how to appeal to a group of people, considering the size of that group and whether it’s worth it to create a lesson targeting them. Teaching this way is also much more of a one-way street. You present the lesson, from beginning to end. You do get feedback, either with words (comments/emails) or with metrics (views, purchases, etc).
When you teach a private lesson, you a) interact in real time and b) get to tailor each lesson to the student’s unique needs, regardless of how niche they are.
It is far easier to start teaching some private lessons, either in-person or online, as you don’t have to:
• Create a website for online lessons to live on
• Write, film, edit, and upload the lessons with good quality
• Work as hard to make your lessons stand out amongst a sea of online content.
When you start teaching one-on-one, you can probably gain a good 3-5 students just from church, friends, word-of-mouth, etc., especially if you teach multiple instruments. Consider the following:
• People value being able to take lessons in person, so your competition shrinks.
• People will be more inclined/comfortable taking lessons from you if they know you.
• You can make more money per student. You can probably obtain 5 students paying $15 for weekly lessons easily enough, making you ≈$300 per month. Making $300 per month through subscriptions, for instance, on a brand new (& untrusted) lesson site? It’ll take you longer to get that ball rolling, and you also have to think about your niche, shoot videos well, learn how to build a website, most likely pay for website hosting, etc.
That being said, the drawback to the local/friends/church side of teaching is that your students can end up being little kids or very casual musicians who may or may not be all that interested in actually learning 
BTW, I do think Guitar Pro is a superior software to TablEdit nowadays, but look into both of them and determine which is right for you.
Good communication skills are essential to becoming a good teacher. Having the ability to breakdown and explain the the elements and skills required to play the instrument. Students need to be able to grasp the fundamentals quickly and not become overwhelmed or frustrated during the learning process. Lessons need to be interesting and challenging but not too difficult. If a student becomes bored or frustrated early on they will quickly give up.
@BanjoBen possesses all the skills of an excellent teacher and you would do well to study Ben’s teaching approach and develop your own from his example. I have studied with many, many teachers over the years, each has his or her own teaching style and skills. That said I rank Ben No1 because he has all the knowledge and skills I seek from a great teacher.
My background as a military training and weapons instructor taught me how to teach raw recruits to become trained soldiers. I have to stress it’s NOT all about barking orders like you see in the movies. It’s all about education and the development of the individuals skills and confidence. No two students are alike, each has his or her own needs. A good teachers job is identifying those needs and developing a teaching syllabus to meet the students requirements.
Lastly everyone makes mistakes… It’s not the end of the world when you have a train wreck. Students need constant reasurance
