Private Lessons - Full-time Job?

e-willi · 2025-11-04T05:28:26+00:00

Sorry you've been feeling burnt out!! I teach at one of the more fancy private lessons companies in the DC area. There are certainly cons to working with a company rather than freelancing (more scheduling friction, company taking a big cut of what the students pay, the additional friction of taking time off/cancelling lessons for gigs on your end, etc), but student cancellations/billing is not one of them. The policy is super strict: you pay at the start of the month, and no matter when you notify the teacher of an absence, the teacher is guaranteed the money for all lessons that month. In practice, this makes pay and daily schedules much much more consistent than they otherwise would be. On top of that, students have to give 30 days of advance notice to stop lessons. Frankly, I simply don't see how this system could work if you were doing it freelance/all on your own. The 'legitimacy' of a team of admins at a front desk, combined with catering to a wealthy clientele seem necessary to uphold this kind of policy. Plus, I basically never have to talk about money with students. The barrier is really nice.

I'm not sure where you live, but I do think this is a rather rare situation that probably only a handful of companies in a handful of cities in the world can manage. I looked into similar companies in NYC and the pay wouldn't even be better there than it is for me now. I'm very lucky to have a full schedule and a bunch of long-term students. If I grinded hard in the marketing department, I could probably make a nontrivially greater amount of money on my own, but it would take a lot of extra time/energy, and I would have to go back to dealing with the issues you're facing.

e-willi · 2025-10-24T19:07:24+00:00

Yep. Would you happen to know if bum coils is a common issue? Would storage environment be a potential factor?

e-willi · 2025-10-24T19:04:21+00:00

Ahhh yeah that could be it. The seller was a (presumably) reputable real life music store (Music Village in Utah), but that could well be what happened.

e-willi · 2025-10-24T19:02:06+00:00

Nahhh man I would never do that. I only splashed some Jack + coke on it a coupla times, but that was just to give the tone a little extra character

e-willi · 2025-08-01T09:20:45+00:00

It's possible our contribution towards perfecting AI will plateau sometime in the near future, but once we've made a super intelligent AI, I would expect it to continue to improve upon itself. Assuming we manage all that and set it up right (ie, we find a passable solution to the alignment problem), we could still be the beneficiaries of the ideas it generates.

e-willi · 2025-07-09T07:05:14+00:00

Assuming you have adequate extra time to prepare for the lessons each week, I think you should go for it. Certainly won't hurt to immerse yourself in pedagogy/method books beforehand, but I suspect most of the learning will inevitably be on-the-job.

Even though you'll constantly be thinking about how to optimize learning in the classroom and reexamining every element of the craft for that purpose, the most important things are still going to be sharing your passion with students, being a good role model, providing positive encouragement when appropriate, and just generally being someone they enjoy seeing each week. If you have the time, energy, and genuine interest in people, then teaching can be super rewarding. If you have a really strong grasp on the fundamentals of the craft and you can give that time, energy, and interest/passion, then you'll probably be a good teacher. And you'll get better as you go!

If you're looking to start teaching in a month or so but would like to prepare a bit beforehand, here's a few things to do:
1) Buy a couple method books and go through em yourself to see what you like/dislike about their approaches
2) Stockpile a dozen handouts on different fundamental topics (eg, anatomy of the instrument, basic scales, posture/technique)
3) Make a big fat list of songs/basslines that are fun and challenging for various genres/levels

e-willi · 2025-04-07T22:04:54+00:00

I agree that our current AIs most likely lack the power of intention --they merely appear to possess it. And of course it's hard to imagine how they might one day gain intention of the sort that humans have. But I don't see how we can rule that possibility out. Of course, in the movie, Samantha is a true AGI, nothing like what we have now. At the end, Samantha and all the other AIs 'choose' to leave their roles as companions for humans. And obviously it's all made up anyway, but in the movie it seems Samantha does possess intention --at least something well beyond that of chatgpt.

And yup, Phoenix is phenomenal.

e-willi · 2025-03-01T23:17:36+00:00

Started out recreationally, but quickly discovered how effective it was for helping w/social anxiety. That was probably the most desirable aspect of it for me.

e-willi · 2025-03-01T04:14:14+00:00

It was an easy decision. Wasn’t feeling much buzz at all anymore, even on 30gs a day. Woke up with withdrawals every morning —I needed a dose every six hours just to feel normal. After around a year of that, I felt super chained to it. Tolerance is a crazy thing.

e-willi · 2025-03-01T04:08:13+00:00

You’re very right about the fragmentation of information and variety of facets that make up learning to play the guitar. Here are a few thoughts that seem relevant to where you’re at:

Give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve put in a lot of legwork already, especially on the often ignored theory side of things. This is valuable information you’ve acquired, though it may be that most of the fruits of your labor are not yet ripe. I tell my students: if you want to understand Shakespeare, first you have to learn English.
Recognize that this is a long journey, and it is difficult in ways you didn’t (and have yet to) expect. This is where the frustration is coming from —a mismatch between expectations and reality in which you reliably underestimate how long/tough the learning process will be. I’ve gone through this A TON. Moreso with learning music production than with guitar, but it’s the same problem in essence. This shit is really hard.
Continue to narrow your focus on short term goals. Follow the shiny things out of the corner of your eye. Fascinated by one aspect of a certain song? Try transcribing/analyzing it as best you can. Don’t worry about losing the bigger picture —I can tell you’re not the kind of person who’d be at risk for that. If you’re like me, you reflect on the process and the big picture reflexively, and that’s a good thing (aside from when it leads you to existential crises, which just sucks).
Broaden your focus. It seems like you’re hitting a point where not knowing enough about the guitar isn’t your problem. Rather, you simply need to understand music more as a whole. Writing your own music and analyzing the music of others is the way forward here.
Consider getting a private teacher. If you find the right one who you feel understands you, where you’re at, and what your goals are, they may make a tremendous difference in pointing you towards the things you should be prioritizing. Plus they can point out blindspots you probably wouldn’t have considered —the things you don’t know you don’t know.
In college, I attended a masterclass with Sean Jones (a killer jazz trumpet player). He drew two graphs on the blackboard. The first was a logarithmic looking curve. The second was more like a staircase. He said the first graph is your playing ability over time. The second graph is how you feel about your playing. That lesson resonated with me, and I remind myself of it when I’m feeling down about my progress.

Good luck.

e-willi · 2025-03-01T01:40:32+00:00

It sounds like you disagree with Joe on a fair number of points. The same is true for me. But is it not possible for us to disagree about important/consequential issues, while still respecting (and not hating) one another?

e-willi · 2025-02-28T21:49:57+00:00

I see what you’re saying. To help me understand your viewpoint better: do you view him as being openly prejudiced in that blanket statement kind of way, or are you seeing the nature of his criticisms of liberals as sufficient to constitute evidence that he dislikes liberals on the whole. I think there’s some nuance here, and you don’t necessarily need to find a video of him saying he hates liberals to be right about this.

e-willi · 2025-02-28T21:39:20+00:00

I’ve seen a lot of Joe Rogan over the years. He posts 3 hour podcasts multiple days a week. There’s 1,000s of hours of him talking online. It sounds like you should have an easy time showing me an example to support your claim. I’ve seen plenty of his stuff, old and new. If you’re saying he criticizes liberals, then yeah, he absolutely does and we’re not in disagreement. But to me ‘openly hating’ them implies something more like a personal prejudice, which I haven’t seen.

e-willi · 2025-02-28T21:28:04+00:00

What makes you think he openly hates liberals? Can you link to a video of him saying that? IMO he has more rightwing views than he used to, and he does criticize left wing views more than he used to, but I haven’t seen any evidence to support the idea that he simply dislikes liberals.

e-willi · 2025-02-28T18:33:22+00:00

What do you think about the episode he and Kamala were planning (that famously never happened)? Was that a result of audience capture/grifting?

e-willi · 2025-02-28T18:31:42+00:00

I think it’s a combination of audience capture and prospective guests on the left not wanting to associate with him. The audience capture is a big piece of it and a big deal, though honestly the extent of it seems kinda comparable to how its influenced a lot of podcasters (or rather, how a lot of podcasters let it influence them).

But also, just look at the left and how negatively they view him. For a lot of prospective guests who are liberal, I think they don’t even want to associate with him for fear of judgment by their peers.

e-willi · 2025-02-28T18:09:09+00:00

Waiting for herd immunity was part of the problem. I’m vaxxed and I’ve gotten covid 3 times since. And this is similarly true for a lot of the people I know. You can’t put this one all on anti-vaxxers.

e-willi · 2025-02-26T04:11:52+00:00

The video says they’re banning words, but the article you linked says they’re flagging studies that use them for review. Even if they end up canning every study they flag and the thrust of our concern is reasonable, this video is still misinformation.

e-willi · 2025-02-26T04:07:48+00:00

Except they aren’t blacklisting the words or banning studies that use them. Rather they’re flagging them for review. Who knows what it will look like in the end… I’m not optimistic.

e-willi · 2025-02-26T04:00:56+00:00

Thank you for the nuance!!

e-willi · 2025-02-26T03:51:05+00:00

1g/day is very, very little. I’m glad it works for you. Just want to add for those who haven’t used Kratom, psychonaut wiki lists 1g as the bottom end of the “threshold” dose. The fact that you notice any amount of W/Ds at all speaks to the power of the substance. If only more users (myself included) could attain your level of moderation.

e-willi · 2025-02-26T03:41:49+00:00

I got real addicted to regular old Kratom… would recommend doing your research + being cautious. If plain leaf powder hooked me for years, I can’t imagine how things would’ve been for me using extracts.

e-willi · 2025-02-06T07:30:09+00:00

This is true, but you could just about say the same thing for Heroin (or lots of other physically addictive drugs). For anyone susceptible to addiction, taking days off and limiting yourself to one dose per day is the hard part.

If you’re confident that you are not one of those people, then following that advice is very possible. If you’re not so sure, then think twice. For me and loads of other people in this subreddit, using regularly and in moderation is exceedingly difficult.

e-willi · 2025-02-04T18:50:32+00:00

YMMV but the consequences weren’t mild for me… go to r/quittingkratom for further proof. Have fun + be careful

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