I’m spending the morning revising Rob’s Totally Awesome Guitar Teaching Handbook, still on track for an October 3 release. Writing a first draft can be a slog, but I love revising. I just turned a terrible paragraph in the book—my introduction to my Teaching 101 chapter—into one of favorites:
Old:
Teaching is a complex art, and it takes a lot of practice to be really good at it, but you’ll be off to a great start if you use the roadmap that I’m about to lay out for you.
New:
Aristotle calls teaching “the highest form of understanding.” What does that make the act of teaching about teaching? I don’t know, but it sounds like it could create a black hole.
To avoid obliterating the universe, I won’t try to teach you everything…
Much better.
Update: The Handbook is now available for purchase here.
Comments 8
Rob,
Congradulations!! I look forward to reading your book. Any young person who writes a book deserves to have it read. My hat is off to you young man.
I have often thought of teaching the guitar. I think you have to be the right kind of person though. Being able to play well is a very different skill to being able to pass it on well.
Hallo – thank you for many chords, it help me a lot, I am a vocal teacher in BERLIN – EUROPE
so – have fun – i love to teach – like you do.
Jana
You might be interested in a book I’m working on. It’s meant to teach the reader how to teach teachers.
Cool Joe, I’ve been diggin your site. When will your book be done? Can you let me know when it’s for sale?
Yes congrats on the book, hope you sell many.
I am a medeocer guitar player and have tried teaching my son. I must say it is a lot harder than I ever figured it would be.
Kirk
Thanks Kirk! Teaching a family member is a lot harder than teaching someone you have more “emotional distance” with, I’ve found.
I’m really waiting for your book.
I hope you ship, I live overseas. =D
Today, I gave my brother his first guitar lesson. Went of a lot better than I thought it would, but like you said, the emotional distance is a bit hard. There tends not to be the general ‘WOW he’s awesome’-ness that you give to your guitar teachers, and hence tend to listen to them much better.