Beginning guitar lessons

C

coplinger

New member
I recently agreed to give guitar lessons to the 15 year old daughter of a friend. Being that I don't read music and have never taken a guitar lesson, let alone taught one, what do you think the fundemental things a beginner should learn first are? I'm figuring on starting with how to tune the guitar, then some basic chords and scales. From there, I think I'll tailor it towards the specific songs/type of songs she wants to learn & let her guide the direction the lessons take. Its been so long since I was a beginner, I don't really remember in what order I learned things. Anyone have any advice? Those of you who have taken lessons at that age: what did you like about them? What did you hate about them?
 
One thing that will keep her interested is to work on songs she already knows and likes. Find the easiest songs by her favorite bands. That will give a sense of accomplishment early on and demystify things a bit.

Of course a few basic chords are necessary first.

Have fun!
 
One thing that will keep her interested is to work on songs she already knows and likes. Find the easiest songs by her favorite bands. That will give a sense of accomplishment early on and demystify things a bit. Of course a few basic chords are necessary
first. Have fun!
 
I would suggest at least one good finger exercise that will build finger strength as well as coordination. My favorite little warm-up exercise is starting at the first fret, top string, and do hammer-ons with each finger (first fret: index finger, second fret: middle finger, etc. ) down the six strings. Then move to the second fret and repeat. Do this to the twelth fret. I hope that makes sense. I'd tab it out but the font on this board always makes tab messy.

I read about that exercise in a guitar mag about 15 years ago when I first started playing. Randy Rhodes said he had all his students do that exercise so I figured it was good enough for me. I think it has been invaluable in increasing and maintaining my finger strength.

Cheers!
 
Teach her some basic chords (C, G, etc.), then when her finger dexterity develops, teach her the 3 major bar chords that you can use all over the neck (major, minor, dominant 7th). Then she can improvise, and write her own songs.

I definitely agree with her learning songs from her favorite bands. Teach her how to read tab, and if it's not too expensive, subscribe her to Guitarone so that she can download the songs and play along with the tabs.

Teach her some basic fingerpicking (stairway to heaven, not Kottke or anything), and get her started on alternate picking.


Eventually, teach her the pentatonic scale, modes, arpeggios, tapping, etc. (if she wants to learn that stuff).

Exersizes are great for weekly learning.
 
Great thread, at least for me. After 47 years of guitar playing I don't know doodley about teaching. I have a 13 year old daughter that has been showing interest lately and I gave her the five basic chord shapes and asked her to memorize them but I think it bored her and she's gone back to writing short stories on the internet.

Maybe the previous suggestion of learning a song she likes. Crap, I hate Sum 41 and Linkin Park.
 
I have actually taught 4 friend's sons and daughters(12-15). Where I always start is just the basic blues in E and A. It's simple, open string, 2 fingers and sounds like a song. It teaches then finger coordination and keeping a beat. I can play some lead over it and it shows them where scales fit in. Then I show them the scales and allow them to play some lead over it. They love the fact that they can sound like a guitar player right from the begining.

From there I teach them some chords and songs.
House of the rising sun
Wish you were here
Smoke on the water
I want to change the world
Yes, these are old fart songs, but they all like them. You can even throw in some Greenday (time of your life).

The biggest thing that I find is that they have a hard time with is just keeping a beat and learning to play with others. To address this I run a couple of drum beats (5-10 minutes worth) from my AW16 on to some tracks of a CD and that really helps them through this.

Remember, it's most important that they can play something that sounds like a song as soon as possible. That's fun.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. These are all good suggestions. I especially like the finger exercise-thanks Scottgman.
 
I haven't taught, but when I was taking guitar lessons in adult ed (10 people or more in the class), I was fortunate enough to be able to spend about an hour a day practicing. So when the next class came, I was ready to take another step. Some people couldn't get much practice time in at all, and when the next class came, some were seeing last week's stuff for only the second time. (The teacher exposed us to scales, but I didn't practice those at all. I was interested in playing chords, so that's what I practiced.) As teacher, you have to present the material in an organized and methodical fashion, but IMO learning happens during practice. So pay close attention to practice and progress, and be cautious about doling out too much new material. I agree with other contributors, that wherever possible, relate the material covered to actual songs, preferebly songs that are in sync with the student's interests. (Juststartingout's way of demonstrating scales may have given me motivation for tackling them sooner rather than later.)

Students have a problem remembering what was covered in their lesson when they open the book two days later. (At least this student does.) So consider setting up practice tapes for your student, that can remind them how the stuff should sound.
 
OK, so I had her pick three Sum 41 songs and I went with 'In Too Deep' to start with cause it was mostly E and A. Then, the band has the audacity to put extra chord changes in as the song goes on. Took like an hour to transcribe the thing.
 
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