How to Teach Guitar to Kids

• Let the student count independently. Don’t count for her and discourage the parent from counting for her.

• If the child is shy, get the parent to clap along with the child.

• If the student has an appropriate guitar, try playing the exercise by plucking the first string. Use the pick, pluck down.

• The parent points as the child plays and counts out loud.

• The child might struggle, but try to encourage excellence and a good clear sound.

John, in Darlington UK, is teaching Raylan and his mom in Chicago, USA.

• At Gentle Guitar online school our teachers teach these lessons long-distance via Skype to kids all over the world. 

• Originally the method was created for one-on-one instruction in a live face-to-face setting.

• I share the Skype video lesson as an example because I no longer teach face-to-face local lessons.

• I encourage that you use this method to teach face-to-face lessons in your studio, as the method was originally designed for this.

• As you can see, this versatile method also works long-distance on Skype. If you are new to teaching kids, it is much easier to teach when the student (and the parent) is in front of you in person.

• Tracing relaxes the child and gives them a break while you get time to coach the parent and build your relationship with the parent.

• No need for “small-talk” to build your relationship with the student and the child. Fill up the lesson with music related activities while being social and providing plenty of breaks for your student.

• Have color pencils handy. Kids love to make notes colorful, encourage that!

• Make sure the student traces the head of the note, then the stem, then have her color it in.

• Trace a couple notes then move on if you feel the student has had enough of a break and everyone is ready to move on.

• Young kids ages 5 and 6, may really struggle with simple counting and clapping. Be patient!

• Get the child’s attention by having her look at the page in front of her.

• Show your student how to perform a new exercise, then coach her through it step-by-step.

• Learn to count the half note by clapping and counting out loud.

• Perform the exercises counting and clapping.

• When counting and clapping is comfortable, your student can try playing the first string while still counting out loud.

• To focus their attention, ask the child to look down at the page and describe the difference between the quarter note and the half note.

• Demonstrate to the child and the parent how you would like them to perform the exercise, then ask the child to clap and count. You can also have them try it on the guitar, plucking the first string, but only after they've practicing clapping and counting.

• If the child is struggling, involve the parent. Avoid trying to help the child yourself. You need the parent's help to encourage the child later when you are not there.

• Talk to your students in a way that motivates and excites them.

• Older students can skip the clapping, but keep in mind that most students need the extra practice.

• Repeat instructions over and over, kids need to hear things multiple times in order to remember the correct instruction.

• Kids love written activities!

• Explain that learning guitar is a commitment.

• Instruct the student and the parent to form a habit and establish a practicing routine.

• Be careful not to overwhelm the parent. Ask for small commitments at the start, bump up the practice time later.

• Ask for 5min, 5 times a week.

• Ask them to practice at the same time in the same allocated practice space.

• At your next lesson, hold them accountable. Ask them if they set up a set space and time to practice.

• Kids ages 10 and older are fully developed as a functional person.

• Kids in the age group 5 – 8 are still developing. Their development may be sporadic.

• We start introducing music theory and guitar playing very slowly so that we don’t overwhelm the student.

• If the student finds the first lesson too easy, move on to the second lesson, but be careful. Most students need the extra time to absorb the materials and not feel rushed.

• Some 8-year-olds may find this curriculum too easy. If that's the case, try the Gentle Guitar method for ages 9-12+

• Instruct the student and parent team to buy a child-size classical guitar by lesson 4.

• Kids and parents love the Gentle Guitar™ method booklet because it’s easy and engaging for them.

• If the child feels overwhelmed, they won’t come back.

• If you feel this booklet and these lessons are too easy and too slow, keep in mind that you’re teaching young kids. This is just the right pace for a young child.

• Just because you can get a 5 or 6 year-old to perform a chord or to play some notes, doesn’t mean that they should be doing it.

• We all need to have an enjoyable positive experience in order to commit to an extracurricular activity.

• This booklet is proven to offer kids ages 5 to 8 an enjoyable learning experience.

• Use these exercises as is fitting for your student’s age and ability.

• Always do a little bit of each tracing activity. If you feel the child is ready to move on, assign the rest of the tracing for homework.

• Lesson 2 and lesson 3 are very similar. An older student may complete lessons 2 and 3 in one session.

• You need access to a child-size guitar.

• Link to blog post about child guitar sizes: https://www.gentleguitar.com/buying-guitar-for-kids/

• Introduce and establish the 2 ways of counting exercises. Standard 1, 2, 3, 4 counting and Letter-counting E, 2, E, 4 …

• Expect the F note to be a challenge for the child even after a week of practice.

• Don’t be alarmed if the student breaks down in tears, that happens sometimes.

• Use this lesson to talk to the parent about the guitar learning journey and what to expect going forward.

• Both teacher and student grab their guitars.

• One of you turns away.

• Perform the intended notes one by one. This E, this is F, this is G…. and THIS is YOUR note…

• Play one note consistently with steady intervals and asks he child to match the note on their guitar until it matches.

• Be sure to perform this, and the other exercises, as consistently as possible. Kids thrive with structure so try to do things in the same way from week to week.

• Swap roles and have your student play the notes while either you or the parent guesses the correct note. Sometimes you have to play along!

• With this Gentle Guitar™ booklet you can trick a student into thinking that they are moving forward while in reality they are simply reviewing things they’ve already learned in previous weeks.

• 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 year-olds can go through the booklet as it is. You’ll need to tweak and adjust the pace and choose exercises carefully for younger and older students.

• Your goal is to have steady progress and review a lot in order to achieve fluency, but be clever with your words and coaching so that the child doesn’t get too bored!

This is an example of a student song from Method Book 2.

• It’s great for kids to learn to be musically literate and to write notes correctly. This gives them a lot of self-confidence when they can express themselves in songwriting and put down on paper their musical ideas.

• Two ways to practice songwriting: A) Play a few note combinations, then put the notes on the staff. B) Write some random notes on the staff, then see what you got and if you like how it sounds.

• Encourage kids to color-in the song pages. It helps them engage with the song and practice it more.

• When learning a new song: 1) Read the words first. 2) Play the notes with or without counting out loud. 3) Count out loud if you haven’t counted in #2. 4) Try singing the song or saying the words out loud as you play.

• Comunicate as many benefits of music tuition as you can think of. Try to communicate a new music learning benefit at every lesson. When you run out of “benefits”, start repeating. It’s important parents hear this so they can keep encouraging the kids to practice at home.

• Review is the glue!

• Young kids intuitively love to review. When you ask them what they want to play, they will choose to play something silly easy.

THE METHOD

Thank you for coming along on this journey. I hope that this helped you get a better idea about how to teach standard notation to very young kids.

The Gentle Guitar method is available in our shop over at gentleguitar.com (https://www.gentleguitar.com/shop/)

There are 3 more method books presenting lessons 11 - 40.

There are also 2 songbooks (for ages 5-8) and ages 9-12+) presented in 3 versions for each age-group, including learner-notation (with the letter names inside the notes), standard notation and TAB notation.

WHAT's NEXT?

PART 2 of this course is available for Gentle Guitar teachers only. If you would like to receive more training with me, don’t hesitate to write to me at ingahope@gmail.com and request a private video session on Skype. The initial session costs $25 for 30min. During the first session we will determine your goals and how I can help you reach them. I can help you with various parts of your teaching, including how to teach kids but also how to teach online and how to grow your teaching business.