I am going to teach my friend to play guitar...

I have always, always tried to teach someone the following as a first lesson:

1) Guitar terminology - So they know a bit about the intrument

2) 12 Bar Blues with E, A and D (Rather than B7), and a bassline to play along with it, something along the lines of:

-0--0-3-4-0--0-5-3- etc on the Low E.

Introduces a few chords, and picking notes.

3) A Beatles song - Everyone needs to rock out to a Beatles song. Its easy to sound good after all!

From there, I would recommend teaching songs that they will know and are fun to play which introduce perhaps a new chord of technique. Personally I would steer well away from 'F' for quite a few lessons. Good songs to teach a novice are 'Everybody Hurts' by REM and 'Come as you are' by Nirvana, although each can be simplified.

Its highly dependant on the person, but I'm sure someone who is a more experienced teacher will have better advice.
 
At the age of 12 my dad showed me E A and B and said you can play a million songs with those 3 chords and earn money.
I'm still doing it now.
 
cleanbluesky said:
Can someone spec me what I should teach her in stages?
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If you really want to devlop a good understanding of how to teach guitar do what im doing now.

Restring a spare guitar in reverse as left handed and try to teach your hands their new respective parts. Your brain knows what the shape looks like, but your fingers wont go there.

Really reminds you what its like to be new
 
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cleanbluesky said:
I've gone past the a few basic lessons with her, and we are onto learning a few simple song... where should I go from there?
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Oasis - Live Forever
Nirvana - Smells like Teeeeeeen Spirit

Blink 182 - All the small things
 
teach her songs rather than blues scales, forget anything close to blues exists for now, just teach her simple guitar classics like Teen Spirit, Enter Sandman...

Also start her off with simple techniques like hammer-on's, pull-off's, slides e.t.c.
 
See, I would say teach her songs that revolve around open chords to being with. Then later barres. I wouldn't dive right in with songs full of power chords. They might be easy, but its not really putting what you've been teaching into practice.
 
churned said:
Enter Sandman...

Also start her off with simple techniques like hammer-on's, pull-off's, slides e.t.c.
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What? I just could not disagree with you more. Someone learning to play the guitar will want to rock. They don't want to be bogged down by technique. Despite maybe as something 'cool' to learn within a song, I wouldn't be steering any true novice towards these techniques.

Toryglen-boy said:
A harmonic minor all the way up the neck, and advanced picking techniques
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Again, assuming this person has never played the guitar before, just why? What is even the point in suggesting something clearly above their level of playing? :confused:
 
Nitefly said:
What? I just could not disagree with you more. Someone learning to play the guitar will want to rock.
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Which is why they need a teacher so they don't try runs before they can cake-walk as it were.

Nitefly said:
They don't want to be bogged down by technique. ...I wouldn't be steering any true novice towards these
techniques.
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You should teach technique from the very start. It's much harder to undo bad technique later on and good technique from the start yields greater benefits in the long run anyway.
 
phykell said:
You should teach technique from the very start. It's much harder to undo bad technique later on and good technique from the start yields greater benefits in the long run anyway.
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Complete agree on all acounts. With my example in the second post I would ensure alternate picking was key. Its incredible important to stop bad technique developing.

But 'advance picking techniques' is completely and utterly unnecessary at this level. Why run before you can walk? Maybe I have just misinterpreted the post.
 
Nitefly said:
Complete agree on all acounts. With my example in the second post I would ensure alternate picking was key. Its incredible important to stop bad technique developing.

But 'advance picking techniques' is completely and utterly unnecessary at this level. Why run before you can walk? Maybe I have just misinterpreted the post.
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I disagree.

Guitars are a personal thing and each guitarist plays his or her guitar differently. For instance, some might say using your thumb is bad technique, but SRV made it an art. 'Bad technique' does not necessarily make you a worse player. If anything, it makes you more unique.

Personally, i never learnt to alternate pick for four years. A couple of months ago, i worked hard at it it and picked it up in a week.

Nothing cannot be undone.

And don't bother with scales at least for a couple more lessons. From trying to teach myself left handed my fretting hand simply does not have the stretch/strength/coordination to pull it off properly and i already know the scales by heart! Concentrate on chord shapes and left hand/right hand synchronisation. Through in some different strumming patterns
 
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CBS, I teach guitar for a living, here's what I usually do.

Do they have a certain band/artist they really enjoy? If yes, then they probably have a song by said artist that they'd really love to be able to play, if they do then make a note of this and have this as some kind of goal.

I always like to have the student learn to play at least something as early as possible, at least within the first 2 lessons, this will immediately give them a sense of achivement, it sounds like you've done this, so great. It's also a bonus if the song theyfirst learn incorporates the fundamentals: picking, strumming, fretting single notes, fretting chords.

The type of techniques they want to acquire immediately are fretting hand strength, left and right hand co-ordination, and some kind of way to pick the strings (this will depend on the style of music they're playing), regarding the last one - if they're specifically wanting to learn something like fingerstyle guitar then obviously work on the fingers specifically, but general good practise is to ensure they can use a pick, and be able to pick both down and upwards ('alternate picking'..).

Now, relating back to this song they will hopefully have as a goal, what techniques do they have to be able to master to be able to pull it off? Does the song (or parts of the song you've decided to work on first) make use of specific technques, such as hammer-ons and pull-offs? (commonly referred to as legato) If so then devise some exercises to work on these techniques.

It's important to keep what the student wants in mind, they're probably comign to you to play guitar because they enjoy listening to music and want to be able to play it (it sounds obvious..) so try and keep a mixture of what the student wants to do, and what is necessary for them to practise to enable them to play the songs they have in mind.

Then there's the whole theory side of things, which is another kettle of fish, does your student want to be able to compose their own music or play along with other musicians?
 
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Clinkz said:
I disagree.

Guitars are a personal thing and each guitarist plays his or her guitar differently. For instance, some might say using your thumb is bad technique, but SRV made it an art.

Clinkz said:
'Bad technique' does not necessarily make you a worse player. If anything, it makes you more unique.
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That makes no sense to me. Good technique is the key to becoming really good and it follows that poor technique will always hold you back. The idea of being "unique" is a nice thought I guess but once you get good enough, you'll develop your own style anyway, without needing to arguably handicap your playing right from the start. There are exceptions of course, but I imagine they are few and far between and the general rule is that a good technique will allow you to achieve greater results, faster. It's not just that though, good technique allows you to play for longer periods of time without tiring or losing your rhythm making you a better musician especially if you're playing as part of a band.

Clinkz said:
Personally, i never learnt to alternate pick for four years. A couple of months ago, i worked hard at it it and picked it up in a week.
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That may have been due to your natural talent but that doesn't mean everyone will be able to do that.

Clinkz said:
Nothing cannot be undone.
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I never said it couldn't but I did say it's much harder to undo poor technique at a later stage.

Clinkz said:
And don't bother with scales at least for a couple more lessons. From trying to teach myself left handed my fretting hand simply does not have the stretch/strength/coordination to pull it off properly and i already know the scales by heart! Concentrate on chord shapes and left hand/right hand synchronisation. Through in some different strumming patterns
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Scales are suitable for beginners right up to the most advanced players. You can adapt your scales to play in thirds and fifths, and in different rhythms and a warm up session should almost invariably contain scales and arpeggios. I can't emphasis scales enough because they yield so much benefit in the long run. As for absolute beginners, I think the most basic scale is a great idea because it shows what octaves are and much more besides. If your student goes away on the first lesson knowing the main notes, understanding that a scale is a complete octave and that a scale can be major, minor, etc. that's a great start for anyone. Personally, I should imagine it's quite mind-blowing to understand those basic elements.
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Andelusion said:
...so try and keep a mixture of what the student wants to do, and what is necessary for them to practise to enable them to play the songs they have in mind.
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Agreed.

Andelusion said:
Then there's the whole theory side of things, which is another kettle of fish, does your student want to be able to compose their own music or play along with other musicians?
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There's a third option - I don't want to compose or play with others but I still rely heavily on theory. It's the difference between being able to pick up some sheet music and work through it myself or listen to how someone else plays it and try to emulate them. I don't play be ear at all so I much prefer the former, as the latter is more appropriate for listening to interpretation. I am a pianist rather than guitarist though but obviously I have a good understanding of the guitar too :)
 
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