Lesson Delivery

In-Person vs. Virtual Formats

Here we'll discuss formats to consider when teaching in person and teaching virtually, and where/how they fit into your business.

Whether you're teaching in-person or virtually, there are multiple formats this can come in, in either case. You may want to offer any one of these, or a combination.

Each one comes with its own specific challenges and benefits, so it's up to you to decide which ones are right for you, but first let's identify them.

The most obvious and most ubiquitous form of lessons, 1-on-1 private lessons are generally what people expect when they go looking for lessons. 

Pros: The student gets your undivided attention & the lesson is based on what that student needs. You also get to charge your highest lesson rates for this format.

Cons: This is the worst leverage of your time. Whatever you're charging per lesson is the maximum amount of money you are able to make for that amount of time. This format is also easy for the student's perception to turn it into a "dollars for minutes" exchange, rather than paying for an experience & personalized guidance.

This is somewhere between a 1-on-1 lesson and a group class. Technically, it is a group you're teaching, but it's usually no more than 3 students, so it's got private lesson vibes. 

This is really something you'd offer for students who are already friends with each other (or family members), where they already have a shared goal, and by offering a small discount on your normal 1-on-1 lesson rate (a special group rate) it's a way you can get several students at once. 

If you're offering a free introductory session, you can even have them all come at once, if you know ahead of time that they have friends/family members who are also interested. 

This is more about activities. Whether you follow the "jam session with specific criteria" model later in this course (Module 5 Lesson 4: Improving Your Teaching Away From Lessons), or simply choose a song for everyone to play, in a class, everyone needs to get a chance to play.

And ultimately, the more students you have, the more it makes sense to just have them all play together, or at least together in sections, by assigning parts to different guitarists.

These are really 3 different types of in-person teaching formats, but I'm lumping them together because they are all generally public or semi-public events, which you'll have to work out logistics (or be invited) to hold them.

A clinic is essentially a mixture of a concert and a lesson. Typically they occur at music stores, music events (NAMM or other expo), or occasionally at other music festival/concert settings.

A workshop is a hands-on, group-driven session focused on practicing specific skills or techniques. They generally take place at music schools, community centers, conference breakout rooms, or multi-day festival tracks. Participants bring their instruments, work through exercises together, and receive real-time feedback—making the learning process collaborative and immediately applicable.

A masterclass is basically a 1-on-1 lesson on stage in front of an audience. You teach one person directly, and those in the audience learn from what you're teaching. (Interestingly, this can also work well on video, where you film yourself working with a student on solving a specific problem or addressing a specific skill.)

This is the virtual equivalent of private 1-on-1 lessons. It's exactly the same thing, except you don't have to be geographically anywhere near each other. It's also a good option if you or your student have a cold and still feel okay enough for a lesson, so you don't get each other sick. 

Plus, if you're using Zoom, you can record the call and supply your student with something to refer back to afterwards — this is great added value.

The only 3 downsides are:

1. Because you're on an internet connection, playing at the same time as each other is out of the question, because the latency will put you both out of sync with each other, and

2. Sometimes the sound and video quality suck, and that comes down to (a) their mic and camera, (b) your mic and camera, and (c) the quality of the internet connection.

3. If the power goes out, or your internet goes out, you can't teach your lesson. However if you install Zoom on your phone, get a phone-mount tripod, and use your cellular data, you might be able to pivot and not miss the lesson if the outage is on your end.

If you're using Zoom, you can also host online coaching calls, and just share the access link privately with those who are enrolled to attend them.

Unlike in-person group classes, these are much harder to get everyone playing at the same time, once again because of the latency caused by the internet connection. So while you can (and should) encourage everyone on the call to try playing it, they should do so with their mics muted while you continue talking.

These are best for giving presentations with talking, demonstrating examples on your guitar, and using visuals, so using OBS Studio and its virtual camera as your Zoom camera source is recommended for maximum flexibility to give the best presentation possible.

However, you can incorporate elements of a masterclass, where you talk 1-on-1 with one of the attending students for part of the call, and walk them through the challenges of a given activity while everyone else learns from watching.

You can even cycle through the different students on the call in the same way, giving each student your undivided attention and including them in the presentation, if desired.

This is not too different from an online group coaching call, except your attendees are generally in a chat rather than on the video call with you. 

So this would be more like a musical hangout, or it could be a virtual version of a clinic (the ShredMentor LIVE! series was a combination of both), where you just keep an eye on the chat (and generally, you put a copy of the chat visibly in the window so they can see their own text on-screen too).

While people often do this for free as either a marketing tool or to build their YouTube channel, you CAN also do a private live stream and charge money for access; it all comes down to what you're offering and how you communicate the value.

Having pre-recorded video lessons on hand for topics you cover regularly allows you to:

1. Keep the student's progress moving forward even if one of you can't make it to a live lesson, and

2. Keep the student's billing and lesson schedules aligned so they don't start forming a perception that they "missed a lesson so now they should cancel and wait to pay." It's a silly reason to derail their own progress, but also a natural conclusion to arrive at, given the unnecessary discrepancy.

So be sure to record a video replacement version of any lesson that a student misses, DURING their lesson time, so you ALWAYS have that lesson handy to teach the next person who needs it. Also, in your free time, be sure to record any other lessons in this format if you find yourself teaching them again and again.

This is a form of virtual teaching you don't need to be there for at all. 

As such, it is a form of passive income — you do the work once, and get paid for it over and over again.

It does take a lot of planning, but once you've got everything planned, recorded, edited, and uploaded, and all of the membership, payment, and file access stuff sorted out, you can take a deep breath - you're done, and all that remains is to market it.

In fact, it doesn't even have to be a whole collection of videos, either. You can make one full-hour video, where you go in-depth on how to do something that people struggle to do, and market it as a mini-course, and charge something like $19 for access. Just a one-off video lesson like this works great, and again, is passive income.

If you have a question, simply hit the "Contact Us" button to reach out to our team.

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