This is my breakdown of the current landscape of guitar instructors:

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1) Folks who are working to pay bills. They don't prepare for lessons. If they do it's usually a few minutes beforehand. Maybe they are a bit better and actually take notes regarding what they are studying. They will cancel or no-show at their own lessons for various reasons, often because they got a better gig or a performance gig. Lessons look something like this:

• How you doing, how's the guitar? What do you want to learn today?

• Did you practice? (if so, great, if not also great, because they aren't invested in your development they don't really care either way. If they DO care, it is often because they are tired of teaching you the same thing every week.

• What do you want to work on today? OR

• Check out this cool thing I just learned that is way above your skill level OR

• let's bullshit for 5-10 minutes, then watch me noodle for 10 minutes, when you see/hear something cool you stop me and I'll try to teach it to you, then we bullshit for a few more minutes and then I tell you to work on whatever OR

• I use this method book because it's convenient and I give it to everyone at a certain skill level, and this buys me 3 months of lessons because it is how long it takes the average person to get through a method book OR

• There is NO accountability for the student

• There is NO real investigation of the student's goals, skills, or preferences

• There is NO motivation or incentive for the student to practice

• There is NO system or scaffold in place to ensure student growth

• IF the instructor has a really good student (which is rare), the student can be successful in this environment because the student is self-motivated, knows what they want, and asks good questions.

• For the most part, these instructors have decent turnover and have produced a generation of adults that now have a guitar or two in their closet or attic.

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2) Folks who are amazing musicians that enjoy teaching the occasional lesson because they legit want to share their knowledge. They teach when they feel like it, because who wouldn't take a guitar lesson with Jimmy Page or [insert your favorite famous guitarist]. These people fall into the "pro-gigging/touring musician" category, or "famous musician category" and usually have some very specific things they can teach, all of which are usually focused on their specific style or technique. Here is how these lessons look:

• Hey dude, nice to meet you, what can I do for you? (Student struggles with being in presence of their favorite musician)

• An inexperienced musician/student will struggle to get anything out of this lesson. This is because A) they are too overwhelmed by the instructor's prowess, B) they will likely only have this one session to extract information, C) don't know what questions to ask to make the most of the session

• An experienced musician/student can get a TON from an hour or so with one of these instructors. This is because an experienced student enters into the arrangement with significant knowledge before the session. The student knows what to ask, which is usually stylistically specific.

• These instructors aren't usually great at explaining why/how, but their knowledge is so deep that a good student can unearth the information with a solid strategy for the lesson.

• For the most part, these instructors will only have one lesson with a student, and the quality of the lessons depends greatly on the student and their approach. These instructors genuinely care about the student and hope that the student gets some big take-aways, but most often don't know how to do that from a pedagogical point of view.

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3) Folks who are professional instructors. (Look up Charlie Banacos or Barry Harris) These people focus their professional careers on helping others learn about music. A lesson with someone of this high caliber usually looks like this:

• The first session is an introduction, goals, current skill level, approx length of study, and scaffold are all established. No teaching occurs

• The following sessions are well scaffolded, the instructor creates a customized lesson plan for the student based upon the student's goals and current state

• Lesson prep can take several hours for one session

• Exercises are designed specifically to bolster the skills of the student, and progress in a natural logical way

• The instructor can answer virtually any question the student has, though they may occasionally deflect. This is because not all information will be relevant for a student using a specific scaffold for a specific goal.

• All the content is clearly explained, often in multiple ways so that the student really understands the concept

• The student does not "practice" in front of the instructor, but rather information is exchanged so that the student can (and will be motivated to) practice between sessions

• There exists a solid explanation for WHY an exercise or part of the scaffold is designed. Nothing is arbitrary

• The instructor keeps a detailed log of student progress

• The instructor provides an introduction and recap of the information during each session

• The instructor is completely invested in the student's progress, and will often communicate with the student between sessions

• The instructor has a specific goal for the student (based on mutual design) and therefore there is typically an end date. An instructor of this caliber does not expect (nor want) a student to study with them indefinitely because this would indicate that the student has not reached their goal, and thus the instructor has failed

• If a student does end up working with the instructor long term, this is due to the students continued success and desire to set new goals

• Virtually any student will be successful in this environment so long as they do the work and are providing honest feedback with their instructor

That's my breakdown from a significant amount of experience teaching, studying, and working alongside tons of other instructors. I have had the pleasure of studying with all 3 types of instructors. I began with a type 1, and because I was dedicated, I was successful. When those lessons had run their course and I felt as if I was no longer progressing I found a type 3 instructor. After that, I went to college which was entirely type 3 instructors. After college, I moved to NYC to study with my guitar heroes, AKA type 2 instructors. All were beneficial to me at the time I worked with them.

The industry as it currently stands is mostly filled with type 1 instructors. In my late teens and 20s I was a type 1 instructor. At the beginning of my 30s I was frustrated beyond belief with this situation and decided to retire from gigging and return to school to study pedagogy so that I could become a type 3 instructor.