Teacher Feature
Mark Mumford names the award winning RGT Teachers of the Year and interviews overall winner Vic Hyland…
RGT presented its Guitar Tutor of the Year Award at its Annual Conference in September at Thames Valley University. The Award recognises the consistent achievements of the tutor's students in the RGT guitar exams. Future Publishing, whose music magazines include Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Techniques, is sponsor of the Award. The winner was Vic Hyland, a guitar teacher from north Kent.
RGT Director, Tony Skinner, said: "This award reflects Vic's consistently high standard of guitar teaching as shown by the repeated achievements of his students in the RGT exams". James Uings, Music Editor at Total Guitar, awarded Vic Hyland an engraved trophy and a cheque for £500. Vic, who has been entering students of all ages and levels for RGT examinations since 1992, said, "I am very honoured to receive the Award. I've found RGT exams to be more flexible than others. For me, this is essential when students are learning contemporary guitar and bass styles. Many of my students have gone onto become professional musicians and RGT exams have really helped to prepare the ground for this." There were also four Award Finalists, who each received an engraved plaque and a £50 cheque: Jonathan Butler, Jimi Savage, Dave Crawford and Julian Brady. In addition, a special award for Guitar School Of The Year was awarded to Riffs Guitar School in Stockport.
GT. What do you enjoy most about teaching guitar?
Vic:The freedom that organising your own work presents; the challenges presented by pupils (my approach to teaching is to be guided by what they seem to be interested in); I enjoy playing guitar so any excuse to play seems good to me!
GT.
How do you balance your teaching commitments with other aspects of your
life?
Vic: When my children were younger I organised my day so that I was able to pick them up from school and cook them a meal before teaching again in the evening. Now they've all grown up and don't live at home I organise my week so that I have some spare time during the day to have a break. I make sure that I look after myself, eat properly and exercise on a regular basis.
GT. Summarise your approach to teaching guitar.
Vic: I have a fascination for the processes of learning and creative thinking and so I use techniques such as NLP to help pupils discover their musicality.
GT. Do you find guitar exams useful?
Vic: The RGT exams are very useful for setting the structure and achievable goals, and in the process of preparing for the RGT exams students learn the essential elements of playing i.e. scales and chords and music theory.
GT. How do new students find out about you?
Vic: I use a number of techniques to develop my business including referrals, website adverts and also gigging.
GT. How do you encourage students to practise?
Vic: Find out why the student is learning to play the guitar, have they got a dream? If they have, use this to motivate them and provide them with the spark to light that fire.
GT. Do you have any tips to pass on to new guitar teachers?
Vic: Run the teaching practice professionally as a business, not a hobby. I have recently launched a new website to help teachers and musicians set up in business; www.teachmusic.co.uk
