Authentic Guitar Lessons

Q. Describe the most common types of jobs you do for your clients.

A. Quite often, I get clients who were dissatisfied in the past as the result of poor training and they end up being the people I look forward to the most.

A very common demographic I have is players who are either hobbyist or professionals who have always been self-taught and they seem to be surprised how often I try to encourage them to CONTINUE with many of the benefits of being self-taught while using their training with me to become more aggressive with their progress and take more control over it while at the same time finally addressing any habits that might be holding them back

If you are a beginner, you might be tempted to just find a cheaper instructors who claims to just teach beginners.

The beginner stage is where you have the BEST opportunity to establish habits that will allow you to progress faster as time goes on instead of building bad habits that act like a leash that has run out on you while your are running full speed.

This is why it's crucial to find an EXPERIENCED and SKILLED instructor that can provide you with those habits long before you even see the need for them.

The beginning stage is NOT about making things easier, it's about making things SIMPLER. If you do not know the difference, guess what...most teachers don't either and this a crucial difference. CALL ME and I will be glad to discuss this more in detail

Unfortunately, my job ends up having to show people how to fix the bad habits that they actually paid good money to learn from a "cheaper" inexperienced "beginner" instructor who hasn't gone far enough for themselves to help you anticipate obstacles and problems.

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. NEVER NEVER NEVER allow a 3rd party like a salesperson or referral "service" sign you up and accept payment on behalf of an instructor! Did I mention NEVER?

ALWAYS avoid lock-in (often called registration or sign up) fees of ANY kind. No Exceptions! Even if they "wave" them to give you a fake "discount." Places that employ these tactics will always find a way to lock you into training and products that YOU DO NOT NEED.

There is big business of people trying to step between teachers and clients and EVERY one of them dilutes the benefit of private instructor/client relationship who have a mutual benefit of doing business together. 3rd parties ALWAYS create unnecessary obstacles and barriers that only benefit themselves and resort to just about anything to convince both parties that they need their intrusion.

ALWAYS avoid out-of-state referral "services" who claim to put you in touch with the instructor who is right for you." They will insist you pay up front and then they will sell your referral to the LOWEST bidder and pocket the difference. This is the perfect formula for a client to end up PAYING the MOST for the LEAST QUALITY.

A private instructor has a responsibility, I would even say and obligation to focus on how to operate in their clients' best interest while 3rd parties often interfere and intrude for their own benefit.

Example: When I have a client who is excited and ready to start today, I say clearly, "While that would benefit me financially and my bills would love it, it would not be in YOUR best interest to do that until we discuss YOUR strategy more." and I would usually follow up with a couple of assignments.

This approach infuriates salesmen, "school"/store owners and referral "services" who want to sign you up and lock you in and have you pay right NOW.

I know as an EXPERIENCED, SKILLED instructor that timing is important and having someone locked in just because they're excited is NOT the right timing for my clients.

If you are afraid to call an instructor yourself then how do you expect to be in the same room with them for an hour?

An EXPERIENCED, SKILLED instructor will ALWAYS be happy to talk to you directly about their favorite subject. It's HUMAN NATURE. Any 3rd party that tries to get you to walk into their facility and sign up BEFORE you talk to "their" instructor, is trying to obligate you into being THEIR clients before you find out their instructor is inexperienced and probably unqualified to provide you with what you will be paying.

The FACILITY wants YOUR goals to be about the facility which has NOTHING to do with YOUR progress. They have no conscience about making most of the money for doing nothing.

For more tips like this, check out my site.

Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?

A. Write down your goals! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

People who know where they are going will get there faster. If you don't know how to do that, CALL ME and we'll discuss this BEFORE YOU SIGN UP WITH ANYONE.

YOU DO NOT WANT A TEACHER WHO JUST KNOWS HOW TO KEEP YOU BUSY! ANY IDIOT CAN KEEP YOU BUSY!

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. I do everything I can to make myself the SECOND BEST teacher for you by showing YOU how to be YOUR BEST teacher. This is NOT some clever sales line, IT'S FUNDAMENTAL

All of the best training, the best schools and latest products combined CANNOT match the quality of a SKILLED instructor because only a private instructor has the OPPORTUNITY to factor in the most important ingredient for YOUR progress; YOU.

I emphasize the word "opportunity" because it takes many years, decades even to know how to exploit those opportunities and most teachers you find to day have not been teaching very long, if at all

An EXPERIENCED and SKILLED instructor KNOWS that their knowledge of YOU is every bit as important, if not MORE important than their knowledge of the subject. ANY facility or instructor that acts as if THEY are going to make you better either doesn't have the slightest idea of how the learning process works or they are lying to you. YOU will achieve or fail as the result of how YOU invest YOUR most valuable possession; YOUR time.

34 years EXPERIENCE TEACHING PRIVATELY is a qualification that I place front and center above EVERYTHING in my resume which I will say is more extensive than that of anyone in south Florida.

Here's a reality though; no matter how impressive someone's resume is, from the standpoint of a customer, it is only an indication of what that teacher has done for THEMSELVES.

As a teacher, the skill of adapting to the needs of your clients is an art that is very SIMILAR to learning to play an instrument where it isn't enough to understand what to do and have a great philosophy etc. YOU HAVE TO DO IT AND DO IT A LOT TO BE REALLY SKILLED AT IT.

Subject knowledge and the ability to play is ONLY A START but not enough to know how to connect people from THEIR point A to THEIR point B.

In spite of instructors claims of being "certified" (which is ALWAYS a lie because "certification" doesn't exist for private instructors) and whatever degrees they might have worked very hard to achieve, Instructors are still self-taught when it comes to teaching privately and it takes AT LEAST 10 years for an instructor to even start thinking beyond the VERY NARROW LIMITATIONS OF THEIR TRAINING and they shouldn't be charging any more than around $20 per hour.

Unfortunately, more than 95% of instructors have not even come close to that much experience and EVERY instructor on "staff" in a middle-man facility or being brokered with online sites are in that 95% with the middle-man charging you as if you are getting the best instructor who is faster than a speeding bullet and leaps tall buildings.

I will be glad to show you ways to protect yourself from hype where the credibility of my tips with be self evident.

Price-wise, I provide the highest quality training at a wholesale price while facilities and "services" charge as much or more for cheap labor sold at triple retail.

I WELCOME and encourage the scrutiny that worry 3rd party salesmen. Call me directly EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT PLANNING ON TAKING LESSONS.

I am proud of my art and skill as an instructor because I have spent more than 3 decades refining it and continue to do so with each client.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. It cracks me up when I see teachers advertising how "patient" they are as if they are doing their clients a big favor. It doesn't require "patience" to teach privately because it's a privilege and I STILL love doing it more than ever after more than 3 decades.

People come to me to talk about my FAVORITE subject! How does that require patience?

Since my clients deal directly with me, I am able to afford the luxury of my clients being friends, people that I like to have in my home, who I want to enjoy the victory of reaching THEIR musical goals.

Teaching makes me stay on top of things, new techniques, breakthroughs, artists in all genres in a way that I would never do for myself. I think it's human nature to go the extra mile for someone else that you wouldn't do for yourself.

Funny how I am always trying to get my clients to treat themselves better but I struggle with taking my own advise on that one LOL

Q. How did you decide to get in your line of work?

A. I started by accident when professors in College started recommending me to tutor music majors/minors and noticed students were turning around from struggling to nailing everything.

Then someone asked me after playing at a store grand opening if I taught and was basically like "okay." I didn't realize that was the start of my career because he and then his friends started and then it just got around until local stores found out where they were losing students and then they brought me into their establishments.

Eventually I ended up working at the best places in southern California rent free, teaching 90+ per week. I never advertised until I moved to Florida.

I started transcribing because of class final and I chose to do an Al Di Meola solo. Then during the following summer (1976), I found myself doing it again and again with more full songs.

It's the teaching that made me take it to the level of transcribing authentic recording artists for international publishers. That career didn't even exist until 8 years after I have been doing it full time for my clients.

Q. Write your own question and answer it.

A. QUESTION:
What do you know about these online referral services that claim to put students in touch with "safe and certified" instructors like Takelessons.com (San Diego), Robinson Taylor (Dallas), Elite Music Instruction (Orlando) etc.?

ANSWER:
They are scams! This is not even debatable! They are telemarketers who just want to get "bodies" into one room and collect most of the money.

EVERYTHING about their claims in print and on the phone is misleading to the point that no matter how much I understate how poor they are, it will STILL sound like an exaggeration.

I have made it very clear to them that I do NOT want anything to do with them. Yet, in spite of that, I am finding out that they have used my name/image/likeness in their ads and then pull a bait and switch when a customer calls them and sends them to am instructor they "certify" as equivalent according to their high standards" (cheap) because I am filled up.

Their certification is fake and based on an "instructors'" willingness to accept the lowest pay.

For them to take credit for making lessons "safe" is like taking credit for you not being trampled by elephants during the lessons.

As a result, your referral has NOTHING to do with bringing YOU quality and EVERYTHING to do with getting you to pay THEM as if you are receiving quality and making the biggest profit by selling YOUR referral to the LOWEST bidder.

An experienced instructor with high standards and dedicated to YOUR progress would NEVER allow themselves to be a part of these telemarketing frauds.