Finding a great guitar teacher will help you learn faster, reduce your frustration, and make learning to play more fun. Unfortunately, many teachers are not very effective. Studying with an ineffective teacher will slow your progress and potentially make learning the guitar seem like a chore. Here are four questions you need to ask to avoid working with a lousy teacher.

Many inefficient teachers will start to answer this question right away without asking you questions first. These teachers tend to teach everyone the exact same way, or even worse, they use some dull and uninspiring method book. You could waste a lot of time and money learning things that are not related to your goals if you study with this type of teacher

A good teacher will not be able to answer your question without asking you some questions first. The prospective instructor should ask you questions about your experience with the guitar and what you are hoping to achieve by taking lessons. Without knowing your goals, it will be impossible for a teacher to create a lesson plan designed just for you.

On the surface, learning something new every week seems like a good thing. In reality, it can lead to a lot of frustration and overwhelm. A bad teacher will not understand this and constantly give you new material.

Every instructor will teach you new things. A trained instructor will know how to pace it so that you also have opportunities to learn how to use what you have learned. Applying what you have learned and integrating it with other skills is one of the most important things you need to know.

Bad guitar teachers don’t understand this and will overwhelm you with new material every week. You don’t want to know a ton of scale fingers but have no idea how to create an exciting solo.

A great teacher will understand and be able to explain the importance of mixing new material with application and integration.