Guitar Teaching Tips to beginners..

[y2stevo]

Could you guys who teach guitar give me some tips and/or advice on Teaching guitar.For now i know of a few beginners who want lessons and may start in a few weeks.
I was hoping that those of you who have the experience of teaching guitar could give me some rules of thumb, and mabye tried nad trusted starting points etc etc..

Thanks alot

y2stevo

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: Guitar Teaching Tips to beginners..

I start with open chords, and introduce a song using power chords. We work with those and then introduce barre chords, F major and B major. By that point, they can play a good amount of music. Then introduce the chromatic scale and teach songs using basic barre chords. Then just move on from there, scales, theory, chord composition. Good luck.

[gordon_39422]

Re: Guitar Teaching Tips to beginners..

I start with the C major Scale in ALL positions... Then the next lesson, we review and start with chord construction from the scale degrees... Then the next lesson we build on the scale with diatonic harmonization and learn the I,IV, and V of the key and begin playing a blues style song in C Major.... Where I go from there depends on the goals we discuss during the first lesson.... I also have an open session once every 2 weeks where all my students have the opportunity to play together, and I coach tehm on being musicians with other musicians... Some of my students have started a band, and are moving along quite well for their ages....

Any more questions, I'll be glad to offer some advice...

Take Care,
Allen

PS - one thing for sure, make certain that you have a lesson plan that is at least 1 lesson ahead of your fastest student... They may surpsirse you and show up knowing the info on your plan and you will have to wing it... Not the most professional method of teaching... - A.G.

[tone4days]

Re: Guitar Teaching Tips to beginners..

be sure to listen to their hopes / goals and tailor the instruction to their needs ...

i think teaching an absolute beginner how to tune the instrument is important .. also, how to change strings ...

make sure they do not have any poor habits in hand/arm position, etc ... teach them how to do finger exercises to build individual finger strength / reach and dexterity/independence ...

do some ear training too .. help them be able to identify if a second pitch is "higher than" or "lower than" or "the same as" a first pitch ... have them figure out the melody to 'twinkle twinkle' or 'mary had a little lamb' by themselves ... help them at first but let them do most of the work ...

teach them to use a metronome (slow to start) to begin building good rhythmic time ...

so much to do!! .. thank goodness we have a lifetime to learn this silly log with strings

t4d

[y2stevo]

Re: Guitar Teaching Tips to beginners..

Thanks alot guy.. Been a great help so far

[felipe_alonso_ruiz]

Re: Guitar Teaching Tips to beginners..

First of all remember that being a good teacher is not keeping secrets, and teaching them the best way they can learn, so they dont get in the mistakes u did. Im 17, and been teaching since i was 15, if u are teaching a beginner, u should work on chords, rythym, and some dexterity exercises, dont confuse him with scales, make him play his favourite songs with chords, RYTHYM IS THE KEY OF MUSIC, IT ALL BEGAN WITH RYTHMIC STUFF NOT NOTES OR HARMONY. After he gets a sense of music, and gets those fingers working on chromatic-dexterity exercises, teach him scales, and basic music reading if īthe student is gonna take music serious.
GOOD LUCK

[ericmeyer4]

Re: Guitar Teaching Tips to beginners..

Have them learn the very very boring basics...

This is the headstock its for...
These are tuners they are...

This is the 1st string, 2nd, ect.

This is how you tune them.

This is how you fret, hold a pick, hold the guitar, sit, ect

This is your first string its notes are... Here are there positions... Here is what they look like on sheet music.

Start in the very very begining. Everything people have suggested here is great info, but you have to assume that your new students know nothing.

Move at each induividuals pace, but you have to push them.

If you have never taught before I suggest having each them getting a book the same book for each of them and one for you as well and use that as a guide. It helps take the guess work out of teaching. And it gives them homework. Make out a lesson plan and homework assignments. Go through the book and black out the parts that make it easy. I do this to my brothers book. I was giving him a lesson and I asked him, "Are you reading the notes or are you reading the numbers above the notes to tell you where to place your fingers?" He replied, "Both". So I took a pen and blacked out the numbers. Later that night he told me thanks for making him learn it correctly the first time. Teach them to read from sheet music and tabs. Encourage them to want to be the best guitar player and musician they can. Most importantly make it fun!

deffinatly use a metranome when going over exercises.

Like I said use the book as a guide. Spice up the book with learning a chord as well.

Maybe somthing like this. a lesson 1 day a week for 30 min.

Week 1- parts of the guitar and what they do. How to hold the guitar, pick, sit, fret, ect. How to tune. The names of the 6 strings. What do they want to acomplish. Have them make a list of short term and long term goals. Like dailey, in a week, month, year, whatever. Who do they like to listen to, favorite music. Get to know them and try to instill confidence and trust in them.

Week 2- Tune up. Review week 1. The 1st string and its notes. Have them learn it from sheet music. Exercises on the 1st string. Home work.

Week 3. Tune up Review week 2. Repeat week 1 but with the 2nd string. Exercises for the 2nds string and the 1st string.

Week 4....

Just move at there pace and spice it up. Homework could be the chormatic scale or a Chord, but show them it first and make sure they have an idea about it before they leave. It also needs to be what you are working on for that session too.

Learning where the C major scale all over the neck is important but not at first. Teach them the most primitive basics and everything else will come a lot easier.

Oh and use a metranome!

everything mentioned in this thread is good advice, (I may be using some of this in my teaching as well thanks for the tips btw.) but they need the primitive basics first.

Keep it fun and plan ahead.

Good Luck!!!!

edm