My New Career as a Guitar Teacher!

ScreamingDave

Well, not quite, but my new music project is teaching my 64 year-old mate to play guitar.  

Choosing gear was the easy and exciting bit, now I’ve realised how much ground I have to cover, and how very much he doesn’t know.  He’s a great music fan, but said he hasn’t tried before because he was scared he wouldn’t be able to do it.  

So, for instance, he didn’t know that notes only went up to G, and that the next A is an octave higher than the previous A.  In fact he had no idea about octaves. 

But, it’s intriguing, because it’s causing me to consider aspects of guitar that I’ve previously taken as read, because he asks, “why?”  Like, why is the interval between the second and third strings in standard tuning only four semitones, not five. Well, of course if the intervals between strings were all five semitones then the first string would have to be tuned to F so you wouldn’t have the nice, neat two octaves across the neck, but why between the second and third? I have no idea and I’m sure I’ll get an answer here …..

Then I have to plan lessons.  I feel I have to get him playing something that sounds musical right from the off, so I think I’m going to get him playing the intro riff to Smoke on the Water on a single string and teach him a D chord in lesson one, then see where we get to

So, after my rambling intro, has anyone else done something similar?  How did it go? Any advice?

maltingsaudio

You’ve got the right approach for the first few lessons.  I don’t teach but have been in your position many times,, and the important thing for the beginner is instant gratification: This is what you do to play that, if you want to know why I’ll explain once you can do it!

Musical_Mystery_Tour

Teaching someone a complex task or skill, is not as easy as many people think it will be; there are several elements to the task, and contrary to what many people think, being brilliant at the task yourself, is not the most important thing. What is the most important thing, is being able to convey what you do know, in a way which will make sense and have the student feeling comfortable with learning it.

Having worked as a trainer for years, I can honestly say that I'd rather be taught by someone who knew eighty percent of a subject rather than all of it, but could communicate that eighty percent well, as opposed to someone who knew a hundred percent of the subject but was useless at communicating any of it.

So, the thing to do, is of course plan out a scheme for your lessons, but in doing so, run over exactly what you will cover and what language you will use to convey that (try playing the things you will say over in your head prior to the lesson). The golden rule here is to use language which your student will be comfortable with, and since in this case it is one of your mates, that should come pretty naturally. If they swear a lot, you can say 'doing it this way is shit' or whatever, if they are more reserved, use that kind of tone yourself. And don't overwhelm them by covering too much, teach a little and then give them time to practice it.

Concentrate on good technique early. Thumb in the back of the centre of the neck, guitar neck angled up with a footstool or strap. Both of which mean less aches and easier clean finger positioning. Don't rush them, but encourage practice by giving them a task to complete before their next lesson, based on what you covered in the one you've just finished. Be sure to offer lots of praise if they manage it; that goes a long way.

Now, onto the other thing you mentioned; if a student ever asks you something you don't know the answer to, you don't have to get flustered or try to blag it, be honest and say something along the lines of: 'You know I've never reallly known why that is, let's find out together, shall we?'. In this way, you turn what could have been embarrassing or had you stumbling, into an opportunity for an impromtu bit of learning. If that doesn't fit your style however, you can use the old teacher trick of blagging it by saying, 'well funnily enough, that's what we're covering in the next lesson' which lets the teacher go and find out in time for that next lesson. And if you think none of the teachers you've had never did something like this with you, you're probably wrong!

A good example of that is you saying he did not know about octaves. Technically that's not true; he might not have known that's what they were called, but everyone switches octaves up or down naturally when singing something that is out of their normal vocal range. For example: I Was Born Under a Wanderin' Star, or the intro to The Lion Sleeps Tonite. Almost everyone will just naturally switch up or down for those, since having listened to music for years, they just naturally know how it works even if they don't know the tecnicalities of what it is they are doing. You can demonstrate that by using another song which everyone knows - Do-Re-Mi - from The Sound of Music. As cheesy as it is, it does teach you the tone and fret intervals of a scale if you pick it out on one string of a guitar. Then if you have the student pick it out across the strings instead, they will get the concept of economical fretboard movement.

The D chord is an excellent choice for the first one for your friend to learn. It is much eaiser to get a clean tone with no accidentally muted strings on a D chord if the thumb is in the centre of the back of the neck, and so it encourages good technique. It's worth noting that you can also show them that they lift their second finger off, or tilt down the third finger to fret at the third, to get a lot of Sus chord variations which are common in a lot of really recognisable songs, for example, it is possible to play the very recognisable intro to Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love by just doing that with a D chord, and you can do a passable version of The Beatles Dear Prudence with not much more than knowing the D shape. You can play most of Bryan Adam's Summer of 69 with that lifting on and off D sus trick as well.

Whistler

ScreamingDave said:

... has anyone else done something similar?  How did it go? Any advice?

I started teaching by getting my students to buy the textbook I really liked. It meant they has a ready-made programme with an accompanying CD of examples and backing tracks, and all I needed to do was walk them though the book.

As students had questions I started to write additional material which was then available for the next student who had the same question.

That method worked for me but if you are thinking differently then it may not be the best suggestion for you.

ScreamingDave

One thing I’m keen on is having targets, no matter how distant they may seem.  I guess it comes down to the question of what does “being able to play guitar” look like for that student.  In this case we’ve already agreed a target that in 18 months time he will get up and play with my band for one number at my 60th birthday party!

No one else knows this, so he has that vision of surprising everyone to focus on ….

guitars4you

I'm probably against the grain on this - We all know it is not hard to play but it is hard to play well - And many of us might not recall our first few attempts - But I never understand why we want to learn a chord first

a) lets assume we now know open E - on its own what are you going to do with it 

b) why try and get 2/3/4 fingers to work in a position they have never been to before - So my 'theory' is start. with single note melody - Just to get the fingers working and at least play a 'tune'

It could be a riff as per Jack White/White Stripes - But why not something easy like 'whistle while you work' London Bridge is falling down - Hardly rock n roll at its finest, but the point is to play something you know - You'll quickly identify when it is wrong and instant gratification that you've accomplished something 

In short if you can't play London Bridge is falling down, you can't play, Eruption, Voodoo Child, Sultans of swing etc - When you where at school you learn to spell Mum, Dad, Cat, Dog first - Not encyclopaedia - I think the same should apply to the first 2/3/4 lessons - Give you at least a basic idea of getting the fingers successfully working 

The guitar is probably the only instrument were some learn to play a chord before melody - It is only for the purpose of an easy start IMO and getting the fingers working in an easy use format - One finger can play a melody/note very quickly - 2/3/4 fingers playing that E chord can maybe take an hour or more - I still recall struggling on F first time with that barre across E+B 

ScreamingDave

I agree with you, to an extent, which is why I’m going to get him to do the Smoke on the Water riff on single notes.   I’m then going to charge him with going away and working out another riff or tune on his own, just to see how he gets on. 

My experience of my early forays into playing guitar was guitar groups run by teachers after school, and learning “Skip to my Loo” FFS!  That seriously put me off learning and I left it aline until I really got into rock music and desperately needed to seem attractive to girls. So I’m a great believer in trying to get people to play something they love and want to play right from the off. 

But I do get what you’re saying.  It’s a good idea to get him playing a tune he knows.  Maybe the melody from something he knows and likes

skunkwerx

ScreamingDave said:

Well, not quite, but my new music project is teaching my 64 year-old mate to play guitar.  

Choosing gear was the easy and exciting bit, now I’ve realised how much ground I have to cover, and how very much he doesn’t know.  He’s a great music fan, but said he hasn’t tried before because he was scared he wouldn’t be able to do it.  

So, for instance, he didn’t know that notes only went up to G, and that the next A is an octave higher than the previous A.  In fact he had no idea about octaves. 

But, it’s intriguing, because it’s causing me to consider aspects of guitar that I’ve previously taken as read, because he asks, “why?”  Like, why is the interval between the second and third strings in standard tuning only four semitones, not five. Well, of course if the intervals between strings were all five semitones then the first string would have to be tuned to F so you wouldn’t have the nice, neat two octaves across the neck, but why between the second and third? I have no idea and I’m sure I’ll get an answer here …..

Then I have to plan lessons.  I feel I have to get him playing something that sounds musical right from the off, so I think I’m going to get him playing the intro riff to Smoke on the Water on a single string and teach him a D chord in lesson one, then see where we get to

So, after my rambling intro, has anyone else done something similar?  How did it go? Any advice?

I'm going to be honest.. I have no idea what half of that means and I've been playing for 15 years lol

Lewy

guitars4you said:

I'm probably against the grain on this - We all know it is not hard to play but it is hard to play well - And many of us might not recall our first few attempts - But I never understand why we want to learn a chord first

a) lets assume we now know open E - on its own what are you going to do with it 

b) why try and get 2/3/4 fingers to work in a position they have never been to before - So my 'theory' is start. with single note melody - Just to get the fingers working and at least play a 'tune'

I do see your point - there's not much point in learning one chord, but as we all know, learning three or four can unlock hundreds of songs and get you making the kind of music you want to make in a matter of weeks. That then sustains enthusiasm, upon which you can build a continued learning pathway. I have no idea of the taste of the student in the OP but I'd bet most people would get more of a kick out of playing the chords to their favourite beatles/stones/whoever song than nailing the melody to Camptown Races.

duotone

When you get on to learning full songs I would recommend JustinGuitar’s books: https://www.justinguitar.com/store/books

I’ve got Beginner Songbook 1 & Vintage Songbook & find them really useful. Just check the songlist to see if it has what you want to learn.

ScreamingDave

duotone said:

When you get on to learning full songs I would recommend JustinGuitar’s books: https://www.justinguitar.com/store/books

I’ve got Beginner Songbook 1 & Vintage Songbook & find them really useful. Just check the songlist to see if it has what you want to learn.

They look great.  Thanks for this. I know what he’s getting for his birthday 

hollywoodrox

I’ve taught a few people the basics unprofessionally , like you say  something easy to start with 
  I usually chose knocking on heavens door or a similar type song in a genre they’re interested in .

  Electric  like you say , the basics of smoke on the water , pentatonic position one 
  And easy intros & stuff like that “run to you “ riff

  When I teach them chords I usually get them playing a song  but only one strum of each chord 
  Which gives them time to recover and get to the next one  in a slow but accurate manner 
  Then the more familiar they get they can try two strums  then before you know it they are changing and adding strum dynamics with ease.  The girl I taught went on to be a regular at as many jam nights a week I could take her to, she also busked regular and took part in national talent competitions . The other chap an ex marine learned Hotel California and other songs he liked .

Well done @ScreamingDave for bringing the joy of music to your friend it truly is a gift

sev112

Unless he is going to be an acoustic guitarist, don’t spend much time on 6 string chords.  Far too difficult to start with .  Try melodies on one, and then 2 strings to get left and right hand starting to co-ordinate together.,  Try double stops on those same strings.  You can get a major double stop and a minor double stop and get loads of “chords” on just the top 2 strings.  Then you can get him or her playing a song with the standard 4 chord pattern to start to get rhythm going

to extend this, repeat parts of the above on the lowest 2, 3 strings 

I also find the piano app on my ipad is useful for explaining things like chords intervals etc 

TeleMaster

guitars4you said:

I'm probably against the grain on this - We all know it is not hard to play but it is hard to play well - And many of us might not recall our first few attempts - But I never understand why we want to learn a chord first

a) lets assume we now know open E - on its own what are you going to do with it 

b) why try and get 2/3/4 fingers to work in a position they have never been to before - So my 'theory' is start. with single note melody - Just to get the fingers working and at least play a 'tune'

It could be a riff as per Jack White/White Stripes - But why not something easy like 'whistle while you work' London Bridge is falling down - Hardly rock n roll at its finest, but the point is to play something you know - You'll quickly identify when it is wrong and instant gratification that you've accomplished something 

I wanted to play songs I knew. If you were going to try and get me to play Three Blind Mice or something I'd have left and gone elsewhere or just learned on my own, as I did with my piano teacher.

It's rock and roll, not Classical FM, I don't need to know nursery rhymes. As many have shown us, once you know a few open chords and a few barre chords and you can write a hit album. Although, I didn't  

BigPaulie

Don't bother. He's too old to start learning something new.

jdgm

ScreamingDave said:

......why is the interval between the second and third strings in standard tuning only four semitones, not five. Well, of course if the intervals between strings were all five semitones then the first string would have to be tuned to F so you wouldn’t have the nice, neat two octaves across the neck, but why between the second and third? I have no idea and I’m sure I’ll get an answer here …..

As I understand it this came about because this way you get the max number of chords within the lowest frets.

(Forum members please correct me if I'm wrong)

I read that years ago in a book. One of these I think:

The Guitar - a guide for students and teachers - M Stimpson, OUP

The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day -  H Turnbull, Bold Strummer (USA)

The Development of the Modern Guitar - J Huber, Bold Strummer

The above are all rather academic with an emphasis on history.  I don't know if they are still in print.

One I can totally recommend is The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. 

Also your local Oxfam shop may have a music book section.

Mattharrier

I'm not a guitar teacher (I can barely play the things), but I work in education, and the biggest skill is working out what someone needs to know, and what they want to know, and then being engaging. If your friend wants to play intricate stuff like Polyphia or Steve Vai, you've got a challenge on your hands. However, if he wants to be able to play a recognisable version of his favourite songs of yesteryear, then keeping things simple is the right way to go.

Blinding him with science won't help him, and it will frustrate both of you. Constantly review what you're teaching him, and don't force him to learn legato techniques if he really doesn't want to do any of that stuff. Likewise, if he keeps asking about tapping, but has no interest in playing music that might use the technique, resist the urge to teach it to him and keep him focused on the basics.

You need to make sure he's engaged in what he's learning, but also that you're not forcing him to learn too quickly (or too slowly, of course), or the wrong things. He might not like the process of learning to play barre chords with a metronome, but it's important; however, tapping might not be a worthwhile investment of time.

Have a look at some of the free online resources to see what sort of structure they use, and what sort of course materials they have, and then adapt that for your own purposes (I presume you're not intending to become an actual guitar teacher - if you are, make sure you're not stealing anyone else's material!).

guitars4you

ScreamingDave said:

I agree with you, to an extent, which is why I’m going to get him to do the Smoke on the Water riff on single notes.   I’m then going to charge him with going away and working out another riff or tune on his own, just to see how he gets on. 

My experience of my early forays into playing guitar was guitar groups run by teachers after school, and learning “Skip to my Loo” FFS!  That seriously put me off learning and I left it aline until I really got into rock music and desperately needed to seem attractive to girls. So I’m a great believer in trying to get people to play something they love and want to play right from the off. 

But I do get what you’re saying.  It’s a good idea to get him playing a tune he knows.  Maybe the melody from something he knows and likes

You are right in trying to get them to play something they like plus can relate to - And agree about giving them some homework as such 

The issue I have is what I call ‘smoke on the water’ or Indeed ‘all right now’  - 100’s of us know the riff but how many could play the whole song tonight in a band, front to back 

TeleMaster

ScreamingDave said:

Why is the interval between the second and third strings in standard tuning only four semitones, not five. Well, of course if the intervals between strings were all five semitones then the first string would have to be tuned to F so you wouldn’t have the nice, neat two octaves across the neck, but why between the second and third? I have no idea and I’m sure I’ll get an answer here …..

I wouldn't describe it in those words. They're all perfect fourths except for the G-B which is a major third. The tuning allowed chords to be played easier and then this became standard, and as far as I know that's it.

guitars4you

TeleMaster said:

guitars4you said:

I'm probably against the grain on this - We all know it is not hard to play but it is hard to play well - And many of us might not recall our first few attempts - But I never understand why we want to learn a chord first

a) lets assume we now know open E - on its own what are you going to do with it 

b) why try and get 2/3/4 fingers to work in a position they have never been to before - So my 'theory' is start. with single note melody - Just to get the fingers working and at least play a 'tune'

It could be a riff as per Jack White/White Stripes - But why not something easy like 'whistle while you work' London Bridge is falling down - Hardly rock n roll at its finest, but the point is to play something you know - You'll quickly identify when it is wrong and instant gratification that you've accomplished something 

I wanted to play songs I knew. If you were going to try and get me to play Three Blind Mice or something I'd have left and gone elsewhere or just learned on my own, as I did with my piano teacher.

It's rock and roll, not Classical FM, I don't need to know nursery rhymes. As many have shown us, once you know a few open chords and a few barre chords and you can write a hit album. Although, I didn't  

Hopefully you are not on those songs for long - But my thought process is if u can’t play the rudimentary parts you’ll probably find yourself self in a rutt quite quickly 

plus as I said takes longer to get all your fingers into a chord shape on your first lesson than learn a simple nursery line and that is my key issue - You can’t get one finger in the right place at first let alone 3/4 fingers and one chord at the end of lesson 1 is pointless on its own 

I’m not a teacher and maybe there is a middle ground but learning E A plus D chords and showing them to a few mates at a house party is totally meaningless - A sax player after the same amount of lessons will be able to play a tune that will be known to all

ScreamingDave

I have a copy of the Guitar Handbook somewhere that I can lend him