Essential Gear & Tips for Guitar Teachers

If there’s one thing we can thank 2020 for, it’s bringing live stream teaching into the mainstream.

When the world went remote, we suddenly realized that learning anything online, including music, was possible!

Now, live streaming has become a popular way for guitar teachers worldwide to share their knowledge and skills with students.

But without the right tools and approach to teaching, live streaming guitar lessons can be frustrating for you and your students.

That’s why we’re going to share some essential tips for teaching guitar via live stream so that you can enhance the value of your lessons and help your students overcome their biggest musical challenges.

What Gear Do I Need To Teach Guitar Online?

To set yourself up as a professional online guitar teacher, you’re going to need some basic gear.

The right gear will set you apart from amateur teachers and deliver a more value-packed lesson for your students, ultimately helping you become a more popular, lucrative, and effective guitar teacher.

In addition to yourself, your guitar, here are three key pieces of gear you can invest in:

• Video recording device – Live streaming requires a high quality visual component. The easiest way to record yourself live via video is to use a webcam that can capture you and your guitar in a clear, well-lit environment.
• External microphone – Almost all devices already come with built-in microphones to detect sound, but very few of them can offer the audio quality of an external microphone. There are lots of affordable but powerful external mics available online that can elevate the quality of your lessons and give students the best possible guitar (and vocal) sound experience.
• External audio interface – Similarly to microphones, audio interfaces are typically built-in to devices like smartphones and laptops, but the level of quality an external one produces is unmatched. External audio interfaces are great for refining and clarifying live sound.

Don’t forget that you also need to choose a platform to live stream your lessons on.

You can go with free options like Twitch, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or even Facebook or Instagram Live, or you can opt for one of the many custom teaching platforms available. If you have these basic gear components, live streaming your guitar lessons should be a smooth, rewarding experience for you and your students.

5 Tips For Recording Value-Packed Online Guitar Lessons

As a teacher, it’s natural to want to give your students the best learning experience possible.

When it comes to live streaming guitar lessons, that entails acquiring the right tools and setting yourself up in a way that is conducive to clear, rewarding, and mutually satisfying online sessions.

So how do the best of the best achieve that?

Let’s run through five tips for new and experienced guitar teachers who want to increase their output and deliver the best lessons possible for each student.

1. Prepare your “stage” or “classroom” environment

Once you have all the gear you need to stream your lessons, you need to think like a teacher and build your own classroom.

Find a spot with decent natural light and set up your webcam to capture the best quality video. Then, position a chair so that you give your students the best view, and put your guitar stands in easy reach.

A whiteboard and a small table for storing music and whatever else you need close by is also a great idea.

Streaming from the same, well-equipped spot every time makes it easy for you to step into teacher mode and create a sense of continuation for your students.

Plus, having an allocated spot to return to for each lesson makes setting up a fluid and effortless process.

2. Plan lessons in advance

If you have any experience teaching any skill, you likely already understand the importance of lesson preparation.

But its value cannot be understated – and this applies to live streaming guitar lessons, too.

The more prepared you are, the more educational value your students can extract from each lesson.

Developing a basic template for the lessons you can draw from across a wide variety of students will result in tighter, more organized live streaming that benefits both you and your students.

3. Speak slowly and clearly

Working on your pronunciation and communication skills is a great way to add more value to your live streaming sessions.

Even the best external microphones in the world can’t substitute for clear annunciation and accessible, concise language – so do your best to work on yours.

Live streaming can produce occasional sound or connectivity issues, leading to verbal misunderstandings and confusion.

By speaking clearly and boldly into your microphone, you can avoid unnecessary miscommunications and ensure your students grasp every word you say or chord you play.

4. Invest in quality gear

The right gear is absolutely crucial for working as a professional guitar teacher, especially when it comes to live streaming lessons.

The skills you’re imparting can only be fully received if the right technology can transmit them, so make quality hardware and software a priority for your work.

It’s helpful to look at the gear components listed above as investments for your career as an online guitar teacher.

Once you have them, you can set yourself apart and use the gear to record and capture other live musical performances you may want to do in the future.

5. Ask for feedback from your students

Sometimes, the reason why a live stream lesson isn’t going well isn’t obvious.

Making sure each of your students can hear and see you properly is crucial.

Check in with your students as you open the session and make sure they feel comfortable speaking up if something goes wrong on their end.

Keeping an open dialogue and taking their complaints seriously will show them that you care about their experience and want to give them a positive, rewarding experience.

Expanding Your Teaching Repertoire Made Easy

Live streaming is a great way for people of all ages to learn new skills and access different creative and technical resources from wherever they live.

With the right tools and approach, being a live-streaming music teacher can be a fun and rewarding way to share your passion for playing guitar with the world.

At the same time, you get to learn new skills and advance your career.