Members Picktrade Posted December 4, 2008 Members Share Posted December 4, 2008 ANy guitar teachers out there? I've taught in the past and am thinking of getting into it again, but was wondering if there was a good book out there to use with beginner student. I'd supplement with some of the exercises I've developed, etc.. So can anyone recommend a good book to use as a teaching aid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jasco Posted December 4, 2008 Members Share Posted December 4, 2008 Tough question to give an all encompassing answer. Depends so much on the student. For beginner kids age 8-12 Hal Leonard Book One is OK. Once they get to the age that they want to "rawk!" it can be kind of tough getting them to stick with any beginner's type book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gennation Posted December 4, 2008 Members Share Posted December 4, 2008 If you're teaching reading then yes there are quite a few good books out there to teach right through. The Berklee books, Alfred's, Hal Leonard, etc... If you are teaching theory and concepts you might find you'll use multiple books to show concepts from. Over the decades I've pretty much standardized straight for myself to teach. But I'll still grab a book here and there for reference or if we get side tracked into a good question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members c+t in b Posted December 5, 2008 Members Share Posted December 5, 2008 all the bill leavett berklee books are great for this. the songs that you have to learn are cheese but he did this on purpose. he doesnt favor any particular style in order to help you master the kraft of guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paulojcduarte Posted December 5, 2008 Members Share Posted December 5, 2008 I don't usually use any book, but I came into guitar teaching by accident. Anyway, the teaching degree in sport sciences I was in really was a nice background so I can transfer some skills and teaching pedagogy. About the teaching, I give private lessons and have all kinds of students from cheesy songs and generic guitar to rawk and some Fado (our national country style). I try to go from basic, intermediate, advanced regardless of exercises or songs used, but important factor try to keep em motivated either by teaching the latest catchy radio tunes or go into the style they like. Unless you already a well known guitarrist teaching jazz or rock and can stick to your style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Li Shenron Posted December 8, 2008 Members Share Posted December 8, 2008 Nowadays I think there isn't a single book I'd use for teaching. There are lots of great books out there, but it's much easier to write a book about a specific topic rather than a beginner's book, which tends to end up being "vanilla books" with a little bit of everything and not enough of each topic. Each topic ends up being a tiny amount of samples, and the book looks more like a catalogue of what you can study. Every student wants something different from the guitar. As a teacher, your job is to understand what he wants and what he needs. And only the teacher, with years on experience on his shoulders, can do that, not the book which is a passive object! When the student is intermediate or advanced, then you can suggest books about specific topics for in-depth study (which can be either guided by you or self-taught at that point). There are also introductory books to specific areas, which is kind of mid-way between a vanilla book and a focused book. For example, Stetina's famous Speed Mechanic for Speed Guitar, or most books about improvisation: these books don't talk about "everything" but an "area" or style of playing the guitar, so the scope is more narrow and there is enough meat in the book to build good foundations in that area. IMHO these kind of books can be given to students for example from the 2nd year; to be given to a total beginner they require the beginner to be already very much aware of what kind of guitar he wants to play and be very motivated about it, to the point you feel he won't be interested in trying any other style (at least for a good while). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Picktrade Posted December 8, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 8, 2008 I'm looking for a book to teach the basics to beginners. I plan to supplement with other material. Would it be confusing to a beginner student to teach them how to read music and use standard notation, but also throw in some tablature of some songs they want to learn? I think its important to learn to read music, but how do you balance that with keeping them interested and engaged when all they can learn with standard notation is twinkle little star, etc..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Wein Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 I'm going to give myself a shameless plug...here is my guitar method book on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/061519883X?tag=markweinguita-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=061519883X&adid=06BX4Z3YKXFND7ENW2NK& I have a site with info about it: http://www.foundationsforguitar.com/ And a thread in my forum with instructor notes and helpful info complete with video lessons for the teacher: http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forum/index.php?topic=969.0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Picktrade Posted December 8, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 8, 2008 From what Ive just seen on your website, your book seems to be the kind of resource I'm looking for. You mention on your site the book results from years of teaching and not being able to find a book with everything you wanted. I've been looking through other method books at music stores trying to find one I like, what does your book have that the other method books don't? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Wein Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 From what Ive just seen on your website, your book seems to be the kind of resource I'm looking for. You mention on your site the book results from years of teaching and not being able to find a book with everything you wanted. I've been looking through other method books at music stores trying to find one I like, what does your book have that the other method books don't? Just an organized and fairly complete method. The reality is that there are no secret chords or anything like that. I've just been teaching for 20 years and I've included all of the material that I think is important in a way that I've found to be effective into turning guitar owners into guitar players. I feel that all guitarists should be able to understand how time and rhythms work, they should know how to play chords in time and they should read music at least at a beginner level. One thing that I feel is important though is that an instructor have simple songs that they can teach the student at the same time as they are working through the book to illustrate the lessons. I can't include them in the book for copyright reasons but I have a pretty complete library of songs in our studio that are arranged for the students to be able to pull off at their skill level. In the book I have sample songs but there is no substitution for a student playing music that THEY love and not what is assigned to them. I will also have free audio files on my site in the next few months since my publisher doesn't have an option for me to include a CD with the book... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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