My main teaching philosophy is to teach students to play the music they enjoy. It sounds like a no-brainer but I have had teachers in the past who only showed me songs that they enjoyed or used method books that teach you "Mary Had A Little Lamb" or "Hot Crossed Buns" (and if you like those songs then we can learn those). All that to say, whatever the student's goal on the instrument, I will take them step by step until they reach it. For a beginning musician, the fundamentals of the instrument are given the highest priority: how to tune your instrument, names of all the notes, essential chords, basic strumming, playing in time, and understanding basic rhythm. For someone who already plays but needs a little help getting out of the rut, we'll spend time fixing bad technical habits, hammering home the fundamentals, expanding their repertoire, and slowly moving outside of the comfort zone to new horizons. With advanced players, listening (ear training), transcribing, song analysis, exploring advanced theory concepts, and focusing on composition and improvisation are most important. With all levels of students, I make playlists that I update after each lesson so they can hear real examples of what we are covering, as well as provide detailed written notes in TAB and standard notation so they can refer to everything we covered and know what to practice. Also, it's fun!