Guest Speakers

Over the past few weeks we had a few guest speakers come in and talk to us about their respective jobs, John Daniel (Skeletor Promotions/Guitar teacher) and Andy Nichol (Sound Engineer).

What did you learn from them?

The main thing I took away from Andy's talk was that you can start becoming a sound engineer at any point, with no training apart from what you can read in a book, and no experience.

Johns talk was much more relevant to me as I intend to become a private guitar teacher myself as well as a performer also. John spoke about how much he can get paid from teaching, what grade you need your music theory to be at before you start teaching etc. John also went to university but dropped out after a year and went onto working a van job for a number of years. At some point he decided to start to learn the theory he needed to and started to get himself out there as a guitar teacher. He started sending out resumes to schools and eventually began teaching.

The main thing I took away from John was that he said to do what I want to do as a career the main thing I'm going to need is a car. It was after his talk that I decided to post-pone university for a year to pass my driving test and get a car, as well as improve my theory, have more guitar lessons and get myself out there to get as much experience as I can.

Update!

After Johns speech I differed my offer until next year to do exactly as I listed above. I have begun teaching guitar to a friend of mine on a weekly basis and treating it professionally. I prepare what I will teach him in the next lesson and set him tasks and things to practice for when the next time I meet him. I also do this for free just to get the experience of teaching.

I am also going to be working full time to buy myself all the gear I will need and to get my drivers licence. I'm going to be an intern at the college next year as well.