Recommended resources for every guitar teaching business!

I don’t recommend something unless I use it myself! These products and services will help you build your teaching business faster and make managing it easier for you.

Just so you know, some of these are affiliate links, and by clicking on them to buy these products and services, you are helping to support this website and helping to keep the high-quality content coming. If you decide to buy something listed here, please let me know so I can thank you personally!

Website Hosting

I use Bluehost for my website hosting, and I highly recommend them. They are inexpensive, full-featured and extremely easy to use. I’ve used a bunch of different hosting companies in the past, and I recommend Bluehost as the perfect choice for your guitar teaching business website.

WordPress – Instant Website Software

WordPress is the software I use to run this website. It’s the quickest and easiest way to spin up a guitar teaching business website that’s Web 2.0-ready. No HTML coding or technical knowledge required. Oh, and WordPress is also absolutely free!

High-Quality WordPress Themes

Check out WooThemes! Once you have your WordPress site built, you will probably want to install a theme to make it look professional. There are a bunch of free themes available, but most of them are junk. WooThemes is a great place to buy a premium, affordable WordPress theme for your site that will make it look like you spent thousands of dollars on a website design.

Opt-In Email List Service

You need an opt-in email list for your business…something that is affordable, keeps your emails out of the Junk Mail folder and lets you track your marketing like a pro. AWeber is the premier email list service and it works great. I use AWeber for my email list needs, and I recommend that you check it out, too.

Accept Credit Cards

You should make it as easy as possible for people to pay you. I recommend two solutions: first, open a free account from Square…they send you a free card swiper to plug into your smart phone and deposit the payments right into your bank account. With Square, you can swipe credit/debit cards right in your teaching studio. Second, open a free PayPal merchant account to be able to accept payments via email & the web. With this service, your students (or their parents) can pay you from your website, you can set up recurring automatic tuition payments, and get lots of other cool options. Don’t leave money on the table! Sign up for Square and PayPal today…

Create Chord/Scale/Fretboard Diagrams

Looking for a great tool to help you make your own chord, scale and fretboard diagrams? Check out Neck Diagrams! It’s a software application that runs on both Mac and Windows, and it let’s you create great looking diagrams you can copy and paste into any word processor program to quickly and easily create professional looking lesson plans for your guitar students. Download a free trial of Neck Diagrams and try it for yourself…it’s cool!

Tab/Chart Creation Software

Another thing that will really help your guitar teaching business is the ability to create tabs and charts for your students. Guitar Pro is an awesome program that makes excellent pro-quality charts for you (both tab and standard music notation), plus a whole lot more. Check out Guitar Pro…it will even play the charts back for you using MIDI sound files so you can listen to them and make sure you wrote them correctly.

Riff Master Pro

Looking for a good software tool to slow down guitar riffs so you can teach them to your students? Riff Master Pro works great for this. It changes the TEMPO, but leaves the riff at the original PITCH. Perfect for when a student brings in a piece of music for you to teach them…just load it into Riff Master Pro, slow it down and away you go. Works on both Mac and Windows.

Mind Mapping Software

Mind mapping is an incredibly useful tool that helps you plan out and organize the various aspects of your teaching business. MindMeister.com is a web-based mind mapping tool that let’s you create your first 3 maps for free…and share them with anyone you like. I use this service every day and can’t recommend it highly enough. If you’re looking for a free alternative to MindMeister.com, check out Freemind. Not as cool, but…well…it’s free!

Business Cards

Looking for a good, affordable source to get your business cards (and other stuff) printed? Check out Xpress Printing! It’s owned and operated by a good friend of mine, and he does great work. You can design and order your business cards online for less than you might think and get them shipped right to your doorstep. I actually just bought some new business cards from Xpress Printing and their service is as good as ever.