How to Become a Guitar Teacher

So you want to become a guitar teacher!? Here’s how!

Firstly you will need to get yourself a guitar and become, well, good at it to put it plainly. A good beginners guitar would be the Fender Stratocaster but before you decide to go out and empty your bank accounts I would recommend you get a cheap-ish copy from Ebay or a pawn shop for 60-odd quid.

Have some fun on that, learn what all the strings names are (From the top: E, A, D, G,B, E) and learn some songs with some cool riffs – Paranoid, Enter Sandman, Raining Blood, Boys Are Back in Town (Smoke on the Water doesn’t count!) and perfect them.

Make sure you learn your chords and the odd scale.

When you think you are good enough, invest in something more fancy (but not too fancy) like an Ibanez Gio or a Yamaha (Pacificas are a good budget guitar) but not too fancy or expensive (you can get that when your band makes it big).

So you’re all sorted and ready to become a teacher. What next?

Well, you’ll need to have your exam(s). These are done with the RGT (Registry of Guitar Tutors) which is a worldwide association for, you guessed it, guitar players! Go to the RGT website (

Work through the books in order and if you have a friend who also plays guitar have him or her come over and have a play about with the lead, rhythm and improvisation sections.

Now it’s time for your exam. Every RGT book has a form in the back for you to fill in and send off. Do this and send it to the address given in the book with the payment (price lists are on the RGT site).

You will receive a letter telling you what date your exam will be and until exam day just keep practicing. Exams are in winter, summer and autumn, every 3 months so you have plenty of practice time if you send off your form.

When the time comes to take your exam, go take it and within 28 days you will receive another letter telling you whether you passed or not and if you did you will receive your certificate.

It is now time for you to get registered with the RGT. Go back to the site and click the tutors page and scroll down to the bottom and click ‘Register’. Now, for a small price of between £31 and £39 you can be a qualified teacher up to what grade you are ‘officially’ at.

Find a place close to you that does guitar lessons. Contact this place whether it be a school or college, music academy/shop or your home (home being your last resort) and tell them you would like to be a teacher there. Make sure you have a few places lined up because your first choice may not be looking for/needing any more teachers.

When you have your placement it’s time to get to work. If you’re teaching grade 2 or 3 the best prices would be around £10 for a half hour lesson then as you begin getting your certificates thus qualifying you to teach higher grades you can knock up the price a little (but not too much because a high price for shoddy teaching will only get you less customers).

And finally you can update your CV to say you’ve been a guitar teacher at the grade you are now at.