The approach I take depends on a number of factors, in particular - experience, age, aspirations and natural ability. Once I'm confident you understand the basics, for example the names of the strings and how the guitar is tuned, then I'll aim to establish the kind of music you want to be able to play.

Lessons last between 30 and 40 mins, with the final few minutes spent writing up what needs to be practiced. It doesn't seem long, but a focused, concentrated session is quite intense and the best way to improve. I do cover the building blocks of musicianship, such as musical notation, timing and theory, but try to compliment this with some 'fun' stuff, such as working up a song or riff. The idea is that students eventually understand the 'theory' behind the music they are playing.

I lift lesson content from a variety of sources, including fairly standard 'singalong' books, to particular theory publications I endured when learning classical guitar. I've also raked though about 20 years of the 'techniques' section within Guitarist magazine, which has always carried a nifty variety of lessons.

The internet has had a real impact on the way people learn guitar (and probably other instruments). The GuitarPort gizmo is a great online teaching support which allows students to play along to a huge number of 'guitar orientated' songs. I can slow the track to half speed and load versions of songs with the guitar part removed so students can play using the 'real' sound. Take a look.