When searching for country guitar teachers you must ask yourself are you a beginner, intermediate, or advanced country guitar student. While general guitar teachers can usually get you started in country if you are a beginner, but the more advanced student should seek country guitar teachers who specialize in more advanced country guitar. Just like other styles and genres, advanced country guitar is a specialized area that is not just a general guitar curriculum. Country guitar lessons can be taken on either an acoustic guitar, steel or nylon (gut) string guitar, or an electric guitar. When taking lessons from country guitar teachers you could expect to learn some of the following skills and techniques.
*Beginners: Country guitar teachers for beginners could teach you on acoustic or electric due to the basic nature or the specific style wanted to learn. Beginner lessons could consist of the following; posture and hand placement, finger picking and right hand or picking hand finger identification, using a guitar pick, strumming techniques and patterns, major, minor, and 7th chords, both open and bar style, and alternate bass lines.
*Intermediate: For the intermediate student country guitar teachers need to be a little more specialized in country. These types of lessons too can be taken on an acoustic or electric guitar and could consist of the following; major and minor pentatonic scales, 7 tone scales, and arpeggios. Techniques such as; alternate picking and hybrid picking (using a guitar pick and fingers together).
*Advanced: Country guitar teachers for the advanced student need to be highly specialized in country guitar. While this type of lessons can be taken on an acoustic or electric guitar, most advanced country guitar techniques are played on an electric. You could expect to learn the following; hammer on/pull offs, sliding, double stops, “chicken pickin”, bending and double bending, arpeggios, banjo rolls, open and alternate tunings, improvising, and playing melodies over chord changes.
Some more advanced things you could learn from country guitar teachers are; using a “B Bender”, a device installed on a guitar that pulls the “B” string sharp, and how to set up an electric guitar and amplifier to get signature country guitar tones such as the “Nashville twang”.
When searching for country guitar teachers, especially for the more advanced student, you should look for someone who specializes in country, has had a lot of experience both playing and teaching country. Look for online reviews of previous and current students so you can hear what kind of success they have had and if they would recommend them as a teacher. Go to your local guitar shop and ask the employees if they know of any good country guitar teachers, often guitar stores will either employ teachers or have a guitar teacher referral program.