A Class of One

I've been very happy with my teaching practice lately. First of all, I'm enjoying private teaching more and more. I tried teaching privately a few years ago, but in spite of my music education degree, I just hadn't spent enough time playing guitar to speak with any kind of authority. Now that I have more playing under my belt, I can combine my playing experience with my education degree to become an effective teacher.

I recently began teaching beginning guitar classes at Tessitura – one for adults and one for youngsters. Each class is eight weeks. So far, each class has exactly one student! I'm not worried about the numbers, though. I'd rather teach a class of one than a class of none. It's a start. I only began teaching privately at Tessitura five or six months ago, and this is the first time we are offering guitar classes. I am confident that the next round of classes will be larger. Until recently, Tessitura focused exclusively on early childhood music classes and keyboard classes. Guitar is a new thing at the studio. We held a recital at Tessitura last week, and one of my beginning students performed. After the recital, one of the parents approached me about guitar lessons for him and his son. As the guitar students become more visible at Tessitura, my student roster will grow.

Lynnette, Tessitura's owner, had a great idea that we're going to pursue: family guitar lessons. Tessitura is such a family oriented studio that this makes a lot of sense. I think it would be a lot of fun to teach a family, and with parents taking part, the family would be able to help each other practice at home.

Overall, I'm super excited about my prospects as a guitar teacher in Atlanta. My goal in the next 2-3 years is to develop a thriving studio filled with excited young (and not so young) guitar students.