It’s easy to laugh at the past…..

but just don’t laugh at your student’s present.

What I mean by the above is, when you look back at yourself as a player it is often funny to think “wow I couldn’t even do an E chord or strum” however if you laugh at your students for not being able to do these things then you obviously have too short a memory to be a great teacher. All great teachers should remember the time when what they now consider simple, was very hard for them.

I remember the first time I learnt a difficult solo, the summer I spent trying to master the basic open chords and my struggle with barre chords. I overcame these things but it is important to remember that I went through them.  You should never say to a student “well that’s easy, why can’t you do it?” or if they say “I can’t do it, it’s too fast” you should not say “it isn’t that fast” but “practice it slower and you will get there in time”.

It is important to always value your student and where he or she is. I have had students who were not as far along as me on guitar but in perspective were coming on a lot faster than I ever did (which hopefully reflects on my teaching and giving them all the help and information they need). I really enjoy seeing pupils come from nothing to really becoming musicians and I always praise them for overcoming difficult first obstacles, however small.

It is important to remember that one of the main things you should teach in any subject is self belief, because without it you can never acheive what it is you want to do.