Sometimes the desire to fix every problem a student may have all at once may cause even more problems. Tom Hess describes how to break down a bad habit so that both teacher and student can tackle it in easy, manageable steps.

Have you ever thought about teaching but then thought that you might not be qualified? Let’s dispel a lot of the myths about what it takes to teach guitar.

In his latest article, Tom explores some of the problems that beginners tend to have making and changing guitar chords. Whether you’re a guitar teacher or just someone starting out on the guitar, you’ll find some very valuable tips here on how to go about practicing chord changes.

If you have read our lesson “Could You Teach Guitar?” and finished with a resounding “Yes!” then the next question is “How?” This article hopes to answer that question with a detailed look at how to teach the all-important first lesson.

Tom details four very important steps that anyone seriously thinking about starting a career in the music business as a performing artist truly needs to think about and develop. If you take Tom’s advice to heart, you’ll giving yourself a big step forward.

Teaching beginners is tricky at best and can be, for some guitar teachers, downright frustrating. Guitar teaching guru Tom Hess outlines five basic mistakes that many guitar teachers make when teaching beginner students and details way to avoid them in the first place.

Most people in the music business didn’t start in the music business but came into their careers while working their “day job.” After all, it’s important to have some income, right? But the choice of the “day job” can sometimes mean not being able to get into the career you want. Tom Hess looks at typical “safety net” strategies and the problems that can arise from them. Plus, he gives great tips on how to avoid most of the problems of transition by focusing on the end goal from the start.

Tom discusses the business side of teaching guitar, focusing on nine problem areas in promoting and maintaining your business as a guitar teacher.

You often hear that success in the music business is not about what you know as much as it is about who you know. So how does one go about getting to know the “whos?” How do we make contact and who are the right people to make contact with? Tom Hess gives some very valuable tips in this article.

This article discusses children and musical instruments. How young can one start? What things should be taken into consideration? There’s some wonderful tips and advice here.

At its heart, the music business is a business. Silly as it sounds, if you go into the business knowing this and knowing how to become a partner with your record company, you stand a lot better chance at being successful. Tom Hess provides a lot of valuable information in this article, taken from his personal experience in the music industry.

You can sit around and hope things happen, usually talking yourself into believing they wont’ – or you can start to take important steps now that will help you get where you want to go. Tom’s advice is great for everyone, whether you plan to have a future in music or just simply have a future!

As almost every aspect of the way people create, consume and listen to music is changing, it’s good to know there are certain trends that are likely to hold true for some time to come. This excerpt from Peter Spellman’s Indie Marketing Power highlights some of the ground-shaking and enduring trends that are currently shaping the music biz.

Music is too big a world for a one-size-fits-all model of music career success. Musicians’ career paths are as unique as their individual finger prints. Peter Spellman shares his guidelines for anyone trying to make a career out of their love of music.

This is the first in a series of articles for Music Careers, where Peter Spellman reflects on where things may be going in the music industry. Peter Spellman is director of the career development center at Berklee College of Music, Boston and the author of The Self-Promoting Musician, The Musician’s Internet, and several other career-building books.

Whenever you pick up guitar magazine or look through a book at a music store, do you ever think about the fact that someone actually wrote out all that TAB? Dale Turner, who’s written for Hal Leonard, Warner Brothers and many others, gives us a little insight into how to go about pursuing this kind of work as a career.

Dan has been kind enough to find a good comprehensive list of sound/engineering schools on the web. He also offers a few thoughts about choosing a school that’s right for you.

We all hear over and over how important speed is. Well, you might be surprised at the kind of speed that’s important to the professional studio guitarist. Chris gives plenty of great advice for those of you aspiring to the life of a professional studio musician.

Here’s an inspiring tale from an inspiring person. In her first article for us, Sonata Jones tells us how she went about starting up her own record label and then producing her own CD.

Professional musicians will one day need to satisfy both financial and artistic needs. Chris Juergensen, the Director of Education at the Tokyo School of Music, shares all sorts of advice gleaned from his years as a studio musician and guitar teacher.

For anyone who has recorded a demo, the big question is where do you send it when it’s done? Most major labels throw demos out without even listening to them. This article gives you some ideas of where to send your demo and avoid having it end up in the trash.

There is no sure fire way to get your demo heard by record company executives. The industry has developed a series of filters or hurdles which aspiring musicians must surmount to prove they are worthy. Here are some valuable bits of advice from out “friend in the business.”

Ever see some pop or rock star in an interview complaining that he/she has no money? You’re thinking “yeah, right!”. They sold so many albums that they have to be rich. Let’s see how it works.

Musicians can get a bad reputation if they don’t act like professionals. This article lists some of the things you can do to give a favorable impression when gigging, and ultimately, get you more work.