Here is an excerpt of the interview:
Q1. Share us your journey as a Guitarist and what inspired you to become a Guitar Trainer?
Ans. It was back in school that I remember getting so much interested in Guitar. We used to have church sessions and a priest used to play guitar while Christian worships. My dad later gifted me a guitar which I used to practice like mad for hours. To be precise I have practice for 10 hours straight locking myself in my room. Then I took up guitar lessons for 1 and half years from a local tutor here in Ahmedabad. I didn’t realize when I started playing good and people started appreciating my talent. Then I formed metal band and we used to participate in college competitions. After college, I decided to take it as career. So started recording sessions with professionals and then after years I got pretty famous and since 3 years I have been judging the same competitions I used to participate as a teenage. So it has been a great journey from being broke to becoming well-known and earning through music.
Increasing music scene in my city and state, inspired me to become a Guitar Trainer. I wanted more and more people to come to local concerts. But local concert includes music genres like Rock, Metal, Jazz, and Blues. However, Bollywood is famous here, people still wouldn’t go even to free concerts of local artists but pay thousands of rupees to see Bollywood artists. So, to make people aware about the local music scene and helping them achieve their own musical goals, I started teaching Guitar from home then later I took a store and started running it professionally.
Q2. What qualities or skills you think are essential to become a great Guitar Trainer?
Ans. I have my own theory of 3Ps that I believe are important to become a great Guitar Trainer or a Great Businessman or a Great Artist - “Patience, Perseverance and Passion”. You need to be patient when you see new students making mistakes and exploring their own patience level and then correcting them without getting upset and being humble. You must be after one piece at one time. One session for one piece. And passion of course, you need to be passionate to actually wanting your students to play as good or even better than you.
Q3. What are the common challenges new Guitar learners often face?
Ans. Interest in actually playing guitar and not focusing on impressing people. That is the biggest challenge. Also, academically the string pressing, using current technique to hold guitar pick and playing the same piece same way in repeat mode are some of the challenges that new Guitar Learners often face.
Q4. How you came across UrbanPro.com?
Ans. It used to be ThinkVidya when I joined. I was in my early days of teaching students and so was ThinkVidya. I thought it was a great way to connect people from all over India and teach them online. So basically that was the goal but slowly my classes clicked and it started growing and I dint get time to teach all the students. So now situation is I only take the local enquiries through it and trust me it’s a LOT.
Q5. How UrbanPro.com helped you expand your Guitar classes?
Ans. First of all when you type in Joel Mogera or Music Maniac in Google. You will find first link of Urbanpro.com. So, that keeps me attracted and interesting. It would keep you on top above all your competitions. It will provide you hundreds of leads you can choose from. I sometimes get too many enquiries I can’t even handle. And it also has great trustworthy market. So you definitely get genuine leads. It has helped me become more popular on internet.
Q6. Any piece of advice for new Guitar Trainers
Ans. Never hide your techniques from students. The more you share, the more you will learn. Give you hundred percent to every student. Sometimes you will feel bored or tired, tell them honestly that you will teach them or solve their query in next lectures but do not ignore their queries. About the trainer: Joel’s students just love him. He is one of those trainers who passionately listens to his students playing guitar and gives feedback that help them to improve their weak areas and strengthen their strengths. His deep involvement in teaching guitar makes him stand out as a Guitar Trainer among his students. Innovative, creative, and thoughtful, Joel’s students are ready to travel far just to learn Guitar from him. Joel is passionate about Guitar and he loves when he brings his students closer to music. He took few basics classes and mostly learned Guitar on his own.