I like to tailor my lessons to my students needs, so that students can learn the most in a way that's right for them. If a student likes to learn by ear, I will teach them songs and techniques by playing them first and then have the student immitate me. Lots of students prefer to have the music in front of them, and I will send them copies of the songs we are working on so that they can read the music as we play it.
I believe a thorough understanding of music theory is a great asset to musicians of all levels. Most of my students learn about various aspects of music theory, such as the structures of major, minor, and blues scales, in addition to how to build various types of chords and the chords commonly found in a key. For those that just want to play and have fun, though, I'm also happy to work with tablature instead of standard music notation and just stick to playing songs without the emphasis on theory.
I work with all levels of students, from first time beginners to intermediate and advanced pickers. I believe that it's important for students to have a large repertoire of songs, and so I usually give students new songs frequently so that they are always learning something new. It's also important that students learn more than just one way to play a song, and so I like to work on several variations of a song instead and show ways that you can vary it to make your music more interesting and fun to play.
I also like to make sure that students feel comfortable playing with other people, so students learn how to play chords and keep rhythm in a bluegrass setting. We will discuss how to follow a chord progression, strumming patterns, and other techniques for playing back up.