So, if you want to be an instructor on Live4guitar Marketplace – BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE – please carefully read the comprehensive guide below so that you understand exactly what you should and should not be doing. To put it bluntly, we keep receiving applications, lessons and videos from people that want to be instructors which do not meet our requirements. We have tried to be as clear as possible in our instructions but it seems that many are not reading the instructions properly. The requirements are specific and must be followed because we don’t want you to waste your time putting together a lesson that we can’t use. We don’t really want our time wasted either.

1. YOUR GUITAR LESSONS MUST BE OF A HIGH STANDARD

Let’s say this again: Your GUITAR LESSON must be of a high standard. This is not an arena for showing the world how fast you can play, how many scales you know or how many chord changes you can play over. What you submit must be a very high quality guitar lesson that somebody else will learn from and will be happy to have paid good money for. If what you submit is not a well planned, well prepared, well explained and well delivered lesson then it will not appear on Live4guitar Marketplace.

2. YOU MUST USE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT AND APPLICATIONS

You must use a good quality VIDEO CAMERA or CAMCORDER that films at least 25 frames per second. Do not use a mobile phone; they are not high enough quality, regardless of the frame rate or the claims from the manufacturers. If you do not have access to a good quality video camera or camcorder then, regardless of how good your lesson is, it will not appear on Live4guitar Marketplace.

You must also be able to record HIGH QUALITY AUDIO. This means recording both your guitar and your voice digitally, using an audio application like Sonar, Garage Band, Cubase, Logic, etc. You have to be able to record the audio with one of these applications, or similar, as you film yourself delivering the lesson to camera. This high quality audio then needs to be synchronised with the video footage. Recording audio using a built in mic on a camcorder is NOT adequate and if you do it then your lesson will not appear on Live4guitar Marketplace.

You need to produce a 100% accurate tab for your lesson using Guitar Pro, at least two good quality MP3 backing tracks, and a Word document or PDF of the lesson instructions along with any relevant charts or images.

If you CAN meet requirements 1 and 2, great! Read on…

3. TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF

‘Log In’ as normal or ‘Sign Up’ if you have not yet set up an account. For more info about setting up an account please watch the first part of this video.

When you're succesfully signed in, click 'Become an Instructor' link.

At the bottom of the ‘Become an Instructor’ page there is an empty box. The box only appears when you are logged in so be sure to do that first. In this box you need to:

• Include a short biography of yourself or no more than 10 sentences.
• Include a Youtube link of you playing live in front of the camera.

In the short biography:

DO TELL US:

• Your age
• Years playing experience
• Preferred styles of playing
• How advanced you are
• Lesson concepts you would be covering
• Anything else important and directly relevant to being a guitar instructor at Live4guitar

DO NOT TELL US:

• What gigs you’ve done
• How amazing your band is
• Who you’ve played with
• How many famous people you know
• Anything else that is not directly relevant to being an instructor at Live4guitar

Seriously, even if your dad is Jimi Hendrix, please do not start telling us about it here. The only things that should go in this box are simple, clear and brief facts that are 100% relevant to you as a guitarist and guitar teacher. Daddy Hendrix is not going to be delivering the lesson, so he is not relevant.

The point of the Youtube video is for us to see that your playing is of a high enough standard and that you are adequately set up to record a high quality lesson with all the suitable equipment. It doesn’t have to be long but it does have to be high quality and a reflection of the quality of video lesson we can expect from you.

You need to have a simple, clean professional looking background that you would expect to see in any other professional guitar video lesson. Do not film yourself with your amp and desk behind you, your pet cat and a coffee cup in the shot, your underwear hanging off a radiator, etc. You can use a nice clean curtain or almost any other clean plain fabric that provides a full background.

Use a good strong light source – daylight is often best – that shows your fretboard and fingers clearly. The quality of the video production is very very important to us.

Watch this video "Producing guitar lessons for the L4g Marketplace - a quick guide".

DO NOT:

• Send us links to MP3s or Soundcloud telling us your solo is from 2m53s to 3m06s
• Send videos of you on a gig or with your band, even if you played at Wembley Stadium

Neither of these will show us that you can produce a high quality guitar lesson.

4. RECEIVE THE WELCOME EMAIL

If you have done all of the above correctly and we are happy that you can deliver a high quality lesson, we’ll send you a ‘welcome’ email notifying you that your account has been upgraded to an instructor account. Congratulations! That wasn’t so hard was it? The email will clearly explain what your lesson needs to include so be sure to read this carefully.

As an instructor you will now see new options in your dashboard such as ‘add lesson’. You are now ready to go.

IMPORTANT: You need to upload a lesson within two weeks of this upgrade otherwise your account will revert back to a normal account and you will have to start again.

5. PLAN AND PRODUCE YOUR LESSON

Any lesson you decide to create should be well thought out and structured. Take a look at the guides we’ve already published on how to make a great lesson:

Part 1 - System Rquirements and Setup

Part 2 - Creating a Backing Track

Part 3 - Video Capture

Part 4 - Audio and video synchronising and finalising the product

You should explain and provide all the relevant details within your lesson, just like you would if you were writing for a guitar magazine. If your lesson is theoretical, for example, then you should prepare all the relevant PDFs of charts, scales, etc.

6. ADD YOUR LESSON

When you’re ready to upload your lesson go to 'My Account', click ‘Add Lesson’ and complete the ‘Add Lesson’ form:

• Short description – This should be kept very short and to the point; no more than 5 sentences.
• Lesson description – This is what will sell your lesson to other people. Say what the lessons is all about, why it is great and what the learner will get out of it; essentially, why should someone buy it?

Finally, all of your lessons files need to be zipped up into ONE single .ZIP file – we will not accept any other format. Upload this .ZIP file using the upload icon.You will then be automatically redirected to your ‘My Lessons’ page.

What you must do now is click ‘Publish’. This finalises your lesson. If you don’t do this then we won’t see your lesson and neither will anyone else.

7. EVALUATION

When all of the above is done, we’ll get your lesson and evaluate it. The price of your lesson will be determined by the quality and quantity of material – you don’t get to decide this.The better your lesson is, the more valuable it is to users and the more sales you will make.

8. PROMOTE YOURSELF

As much as we are an open community and do what we can to show your lessons to the world, we cannot magically get you a million sales. It’s important that you work for yourself, the community and the guitar world as a whole. Tweet, post and spread the word about your lesson. If it’s good it will spread like wildfire. You can upload just main video of your lesson to Youtube to promote it, and so may we, but no other parts such as explanations, breakdowns of sections, charts, backing tracks, etc. Include the full direct link to purchase your lessons from Live4guitar Marketplace so that people know how to buy it. Youtube is an excellent way to get people interested in your lessons. If you get 100,000 hits you might get 1,000 purchases.

9. GET YOUR REWARD FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK

Once approved you will get a 50% of each sale of your lesson, if exclusively sold via Live4Guitar, or 25% of each sale if sold non-exclusively via Live4guitar.

10. BE FRIENDLY, RESPONSIVE AND SUPPORTIVE

This is a community so be part of it! People will leave comments about your lesson. Reply promptly, offer advice and be helpful. Get involved in the forum and contribute to discussions. Keep an eye on the ‘Ask an instructor’ topic as people may have questions about your lesson. Being responsive and helpful is all part of developing a fan base and will be a big help when you publish your future lessons.

11. USE LIVE4GUITAR TO PROMOTE YOURSELF

Make a short free guitar lesson to let people know who you are and how wonderfully you teach. Do a 'Lick of the Week'. This could be a lick taken from the lesson you just uploaded. Lots of people really dig the free stuff, so help them and help yourself; we will always point people to your paid lessons.

OK, that’s it! You now have all the knowledge you need in order to make lessons that we can put on Live4guitar website and that people will be paying money to see.

Good luck! We look forward to hearing from you :)

The L4G team