Squonk
How do you structure guitar lessons? I have never been to any myself so have no idea.
Total Beginner?
How much time and ho much content per lesson?
I have thought about the obvious
Open string names
- All beginner Open chords
- Bar chords in E and A
- Power chords
- How to locate notes all over the fretboard
- Picking, strumming, finger picking
- Pentatonic scales
- major scales
But what else, do you teach basic riffs, and if so when?
andrewjbryson
If its a total beginner show them basic open chords.
Explain basic time signatures and show them a basic rhythm , even if its you just tapping your foot on 4/4.
Get them to play along on the beat or with a metronome. Once they can play the chord in time to the metronome
try and get them to pick the chord's notes in a chosen sequence.
If they are under the age of 13 they might get a bit bored and distracted by about 45 minutes into the lesson.
So an hour could be slightly long for some people. 45 - 50 minutes is a good amount.
A chromatic scale (1-2-3-4) / (4-3-2-1) / (1-3-2-4) / (1-4-2-3)
could be a cool way to get there fingers working before even showing them any scale.
and t will be easier for them to remember at first.
Squonk
Thanks Andrew
jakjak
I know i'm stating the obvious, but i think its a vital principle which will get them coming back for more.
Spend the first few lessons getting them to play a basic song.
It's probably fair to say playing the guitar is a horrible experience for a beginner to say the least. It' stays horrible right up until that magical moment when they experience the utter delight of a "real" song coming from their moving hands.
I think it makes sense to design the initial learning phase around getting them to that magic moment. Then the rest can follow.
dyllels
I was just about to start a thread about this too ? interested in asking about guitar lessons, nice replies so far ?
What about maybe getting the student to bring a song that they would want to learn and then you can teach it to them.
This only after they know basic chords, strumming etc.
Because there is bound to be even a section of the song that they can play. For example if they want to play 'Hotel California' you don't need to teach them the leads but rather the backing chords. At least then they have something that they can play with to the song. When they improve you could always go back to the song later and teach them more (shows that they are progressing). Then hopefully their ear can get used to how the leads fit in with the chords and so on.
jakjak
In the beginning put emphasis on the sound rather than the science.
Choose any easy song which they like, something which uses 3 chords maximum, and get them strumming each chord 4 times down in the order they appear in the song.
Beginners know nothing, and when they experience the glory of how this chord just sound so cool when played after that chord, they always get a smile on their face.
You could then start getting them to play that same chord progression, but with different strumming patterns. The idea is to give them low effort, high return songs.
They will quickly think they are hot stuff because everything they do sounds so cool.
Then slowly, once they think they are hot stuff, begin to introduce the science part.
The worst thing you can do is to put the science first and the music (sound) second, because really, homework is not fun, and it delays the magic of their first song.
