When I was 11 years old I started taking guitar lessons. The way we picked my first teacher was simple: we got a single recommendation from the local music store, did a trial lesson, and that was that—he became my teacher for the next year. There was no comparison between teachers, no assessment of his skill level, and no way of knowing (without a lot of work) if there were better suited teachers out there.
The above was normal 20 years ago, but it’s a huge contrast with my recent search for a guitar teacher. I’ve become interested in a very particular 5-string tuning developed by Jacob Collier. Via YouTube I found a musician in Colorado that has put a lot of time and effort into understanding this tuning. So when I found out he gives lessons over Zoom, it was an easy decision for me. Within 24 hours of emailing him, I had paid for, and booked, our first lesson.
The internet is amazing.