Teaching Ukulele to Children

The ukulele is a wonderful instrument and kids really enjoy both listening and playing it. Since it is making a comeback in a huge way, it has also become cool to be a ukulele player, which can only increase the demand for a ukulele teacher among children and their parents. It is also highly suitable for children, as explained in this article: http://guitarlessonssingapore.com/why-are-ukulele-lessons-suitable-for-children/. If your aim is to teach ukulele to children, you need to keep certain things in mind in order to cater to the specific needs of youngsters.

Marketing

If you are not already established as a ukulele teacher, then the first thing you need to do is to market yourself. If no one knows you can teach the ukulele, they aren’t going to approach you. You could distribute leaflets in your community, to start off. Contacting the local schools and public institutions and leaving your contact details are not a bad ideas either. Schools and libraries usually are happy to give such music programs a boost. If you know other ukulele teachers in the locality, contact them and let them know you are happy to take a few students if they find their workload too high. For all this, networking is essential. Consider it a business, so marketing has to be done accordingly. After all, you have to convince both parents and children!

Providing materials

It is expected that the student will bring his or her own instrument. But as most parents have no clue what kind of ukuleles to purchase, it would be appreciated if you can assist them. Apart from the instrument, you will have to provide all the other materials required for ukulele lessons for kids. These would include sheet music, books, chord charts, etc. They can be quite expensive, so budget for them.

Setting a price

Find out the going rate for ukulele lessons by the hour and schedule your fees accordingly. If you are a professional with a lot of experience, then you must be compensated for your time. Don’t be afraid of asking for what you are worth. It is, after all, a full-time career for you. If you are an advanced student, then you can lower the rates a little. But make sure you don’t take in students who are of a level close to yours. You need to be really well ahead of your class or you will not be able to do them justice.

Dealing with students

Once you start lessons, you will discover that the kids all respond to your teaching in different ways. Some will pick up things much faster than the others. You will have to give individual attention to each student for this reason. Just because you are teaching a group does not mean that each person in the group will progress at the same level. You teaching method will have to make allowances for this fact, and at the same time you have to ensure that every student is gaining something.  In the end, you need teaching skills to teach children.

If you want to start giving ukulele lessons to children, your best marketing tool will be your students and their parents. Do a good job and they will recommend you to others. In a couple of years, you would have established yourself. For more information on teaching ukulele and guitar, refer to: http://guitarlessonssingapore.com/.

Selecting an Electric Guitar Teacher

There are always musical geniuses who start playing the guitar (or any other instrument) at a young age and go on to take the world by storm. But since this is not true for everyone, it makes sense to spend some time and thought on deciding a good guitar teacher. A good teacher will bring out the best in you and will make a competent guitarist out of you. They will also pave the way for you to join the world of music by helping you with networking and encouraging you to participate. For more information on why a good teacher is essential for electric guitar lessons, please read: http://guitarlessonssingapore.com/why-to-take-electric-guitar-lessons-from-a-good-teacher/. In this article, we will see what a good teacher must not do.

• When it comes to learning how to play the guitar, you can learn a lot from the internet for free. The reason why you choose physical lessons with a good teacher is because you want to learn the right techniques so you can benefit the most from your lessons. Your teacher must teach you how to hold the guitar properly and help you develop a comfortable posture. If they tell you to just do whatever is natural to you, be wary.
• If your teacher is the type of person who schedules classes and then consistently turns up late or is on the phone when they should be teaching, drop them. Your teacher owes you respect. Remember that you are paying for their time and your time is valuable too. If they want to be on the phone, then they should reschedule your class and not waste your precious time.
• If your teacher tries to convince you to do something you don’t want to do, such as switch the genre of music you want to learn or force you to take certification exams, they are probably not the best fit for you. Your teacher must be able to accept the goals you have for yourself, and not force other things down your throat. They must understand your long-term and short-term goals and help you work towards them.
• If your teacher hasn’t written any music of their own, then consider it a red signal. If your goal is to be able to write your own music and set your own tunes, then you need a good deal of guidance to enable you to do so. He or she doesn’t have to be the best guitarist in the world, but they ought to be able to play something more than just cover songs, even if they happen to do it very well.
• If the teacher is rude or makes you feel inadequate, they are a bad teacher. Yes, you are a beginner and yes, you probably don’t know anything. But if the teacher is unable to encourage and motivate you to continue learning, then it’s time to seek another teacher who can do it. Never accept bad treatment from a teacher, and immediately seek out another teacher if this happens.

Your aim in going to a teacher is to learn how to play guitar lessons, so make sure that your teacher does exactly that. If you are not satisfied with them, then you are free to move on and find someone else. With so many guitar teachers around, you have a number of choices but it also becomes slightly complex to figure out who is the best one for you. So keep the above points in mind and check out our website www.guitarlessonssingapore.com for more information.

Acoustic Guitar Lessons For Beginners: How To Break Bad Habits

Guitar players admit that their flaws and weaknesses in guitar playing usually stem from bad habits.  Beginners normally make mistakes. But when left uncorrected and carried out over and over again, students of acoustic guitar lessons for beginners find it really hard to shake it out of their system. These bad habits may seem harmless at first.  It may start out as a simple mistake; or a beginner who has not yet been able to properly execute a particular playing technique.  However, failure to nip it in the bud could hinder your progress in learning to play the guitar properly.  A bad habit is hardly recognizable until it is deeply ingrained.  It would be a real and difficult struggle to unlearn and blot them out of your consciousness.

Before these bad habits become a major pain, here are some ways to identify and correct them:

1. The Thumb Position. Beginners are usually awkward in holding the guitar. Their fingers are usually tensed.  Thus the tendency is to grasp the neck of the guitar, with the thumb extending towards the top of the neck. This would distort the sound of the top string, and it would be difficult for you to play other chords. The correct way is to be relaxed and place your thumb at the middle area at the back of the neck.

2. Out of Tune Guitar. New guitar students may not yet be able to tune their guitars; hence, they just mindlessly press the chords and strum away.  This habit could lead to disastrous results.  Remember that playing the guitar is not just about training your muscle memory to finger the right chords.   It involves training your ears and brain as well to remember the correct sound of a chord.  Apart from sounding horrible, playing out of tune can possibly discourage or make you quit playing the guitar later on.

3. Rushing and skipping ‘the boring stuff”. The over-excitement to become rockstars overnight could hamper the progress of students of acoustic guitar lessons.  Singapore guitar students are exposed to exercises that could enhance their discipline and control.  Rushing to be able to play a song is like being a one-trick pony.  You will lack the skills and depth to mature as a proficient guitar player.  You may still be able to learn to play guitar even if you brushed-off or skipped music theory fundamentals and essential exercises.  You may be able to play guitar fast; but it will get you mostly nowhere.

An acoustic guitar may seem like a relatively simple, easy-to-learn instrument.  Some opt to be self-taught guitar players.  Yet, guitar playing is a discipline.  It is an art-form crafted to produce masterful sounds in the hands of a fully-accomplished player.  If you want to learn the fundamentals of acoustic guitar playing and take your skills up a notch, check out: http://guitarlessonssingapore.com/tips-for-mastering-the-acoustic-guitar/

As the old adage goes:  “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.  Bad habits could be hard to break. It is best to acquire the right attitude and discipline early on.  We recommend www.guitarlessonssingapore.com to refer you to teachers who could lay down the proper guitar playing fundamentals that would usher you to fulfillment and success.