Teaching acoustic guitar is new experience for me

[Tom Sklenar]

I teach a bass guitar for a couple of years. I have some materials and teaching system for this tuition. I try to improve this system with every new student.

Couple of days ago, my friend ask me, if I can teach his daugher basics of an acoustic guitar. I play acoustic guitar as a second instrument. I am not so good in guitar playing like in bass playing, but I know, that explanation of basic things for acoustic guitar student is no problem fo me. So it looks for me like a great opportunity, which I don´t want to refuse. As one of many things I found some musical sources, easy compositions for beginners, which are taught in musical schools in our country.

I would like to ask you for your experiences. Which compositions or which general musical knowledge do you recommend for acoustic guitar beginners? I think, that it can be very different than in my country.

[MrHarryReems]

What are your students' goals? I think the teaching approach should be tailored to the goals of the student, for the most part.

[catscurlyear]

i`d say show a begginer a tune they know and like but simple enough to be able to play in a day like the old books used to do. hymns are good or stuff like that ,it`s a magical feeling when you play the correct chords and sing the melody together for the first time . good luck

[Freeman Keller]

I am self taught and have had the worst teacher in the world. If I was going to start over I would look for

 

- an instructor that played the same genre that I aspire to. It is silly to try to learn classical music from a bluegrass player.

- I would look for someone with a solid foundation in fundimentals. We have a local instructor who is classically trained but teaches several other types of music - folk, fingerstyle, singer/songwriter stuff. He stresses learning whatever style you want but without learning bad habits.

- I would look for someone with an extremely good sense of rhythm who can teach that. Again, I don't care which style - strumming, finger picking, classical - and as a bass player you probably know that better than me

- I would want some good music theory - why are we playing what we are the way we are doing it. I've been playing guitar for 40 plus years - blues, folkie stuff, fingerstyle - and know a lot of chords and riffs. I read tab really well, standard notation slightly. I recently built a jazz guitar and that forces me to learn all those wonderful jazz chords - 6ths and 9ths and how to move them around the fret board. For the first time in my life I am looking at the fretboard in a totally new way and I'm thinking about how and why chords sound the way I do. I would give anything to go back 35 years...,.

 

I have also learned that to teach something you have to know it better than you can possibly imagine. I taught a few classes at a local college in a subject that I am an "expert" on, yet I was amazed how much time I spent thinking about how I was going to explain to someone else. You will learn a lot as you prepare yourself.

[Samilyn]

What kind of music does your student like? What would he/she want to play? Then find simple 3- or 4-chords songs that the student might like that he/she would want to play. After they learn a basic song or two, all my students wanted to learn more technical aspects, which is where we really got into guitar playing and not just "parroting" or mimicking. Once they're turned on by being able to play that first tune or two, that is is where you introduce the student to scales and the fretboard so they can learn how the musical scales relate to the fretboard (basic reading of notes) and how to form chords and transpose, etc. I was a voracious student once these concepts were introduced to me and I think most students will be as fascinated and wanting to learn as I was.

[Samilyn]

Same to be said for folk tunes and rock classics. Give the student something familiar-yet-easy and watch what happens after the student learns that tune. :-)

[Tom Sklenar]

Thank you very much for your suggestions! All of them are really useful. The way of teaching you describe is very similar to the one, I teach on bass. I mean to begin with some simple stuff, that student likes and after that develop technical aspects of playing by scales, reading notes etc.

I probably described it incomprehensible, because I wanted to know on which types of exercises or compositions do you practice these technical aspects. The best way is to learn songs, which student like and want to play, of course. But according to me the most effective way to practice your technique (both right-hand and left-hand) is by classical music. Therefore I try to combine practising this stuff with student´s favourite songs to develop their progression. What do you mean about that way? Can you recommend me some classical stuff, which is most effective? I have it for bass, as I already mentioned, but not for acoustic guitar.

And one note to the question about my students goals: One of the worst things, which happen to me with new students is when I ask them for their musical goals and they say they have no one and add they "just want to learn playing guitar". Does it ever happen to you?

 

[catscurlyear]

you should be able to determin that depending on where they are in their abilty ,you can then get a beginers book for reading classical fingerstyle ,even though it is hard work i would recomend learning to read ,it makes you realise one guitar can cover the lot. i would still try get books with recognisable tunes, it is instant reward for the pupil in recognizing the tune they have just attempted ,i am not a teacher but i did start to learn how to read and started to teach myself five years ago and i am still learning ,but at my own pace ,even though i have been playing guitar for over 30 years.

[Idunno]

I've been asked (this past Saturday) if I would consider instructing. Hmmm. I'm such a patient, tolerant person...not. I teach technical classes now and the depth of my pain cannot be described. In my time mistakes had consequences. Today's mom demographic thinks they're opportunities for forgiveness. Aw, gee, trophies all around.

 

If I had to teach guitar again - yes, I've already had a decent go of it some time back - I'd have a cap on delinquency. I'd cut loose students who weren't measuring up. No sense suffering them with feigned PC. I had one kid who challenged me to challenge him and it was a righteous cause. I gave him a guitar to make sure he wouldn't be without when we parted company. He was renting a student guitar that he had to surrender at the end of his lesson plan.

 

My lessons were my lessons and not the student's (insert ideas here). No tail wags this dog. Once a person manages to reach a certain level with me he/she can pick and choose on their own thereafter. The kid described above did just that. He plays around town now and has eclipsed me by miles.