Red Winger

Originally posted by Lee Knight What do you guys think of combining "homework hour" with just 15 minutes of chord work? We work on her homework together every night. Would it be overkill to both pick up the guitar right after homework and just run through those chords for 15 minutes? I think that could work fine. Just be sensitive to "burn-out" issues. If she's just come off an hour of homework, you don't want her to be viewing guitar practice like an extra fifteen minutes of "forced labor." If you make it fun (you help, you play backing chords or pick out the melody to her chords, etc.) and maybe give her a break on nights she's really tired, that would probably work great. In fact....geeez...I might even try that approach a bit with my son (since we have something of the same thing in our house re homework). --Mark

Hey Lee, My son (age 8) asked to start learning how to play at age 7 and has been taking lessons for about a year now from a "former bandmate of a bandmate" of mine. If we're lucky, he practices once or twice a week (Gameboy/Gamecube tend to take priority....) but he still really wants to play. His teacher uses a combination of formal books (Mel Bay) and hand-written music (both tab and standard notation) of popular songs like "Wake Me When September Ends," "Come as You Are," etc. Since my son has taken a liking to Judas Priest songs ( ), he even wrote out the intro parts to "Metal Meltdown" for him to try to learn. At this point (roughly a year later) he reads music pretty well (both notation and tab), knows quite a few chords (the simplified version), knows proper fingerings, etc. but is still definitely a beginner. I think he's doing quite well and, while I recognize that he'd probably be farther along if he practiced more, the key is to realize that he's still a kid and needs to be a kid. He'll get there at his own pace and time if he wants to (and I think he really does). My two cents (based on my experience): If you're going to teach your daughter, just give her lots of space and have a lot of patience. Let her learn at her own pace, not one you think she should have. If you know of a good teacher locally, I think there's a lot of benefit to having your daughter take from an instructor other than you. You can still work with her during practices, play duets with her (which she'll love), etc. Otherwise, I concur with much of what's said above (particularly Tedster's comments). All good thoughts, IMHO. Have fun! Mark