Your Guitar Sage Kids/Teens: Jumpstart Guitar Lessons

Welcome! I am so excited that you are here. ANYTHING that you desire to do on the guitar, you CAN do! Will it be challenging? Yes, but in a super fun way. Let's do this!

Before we begin, I suggest creating a folder in which you can put the attachments from this course as you need them. We want to be sure that they are readily available.

What do we need to start?

• Guitar: Acoustic or Electric

• Guitar tuner

• Assorted guitar picks

• "Gig bag" or guitar case for transporting your instrument

• Capo

• Guitar Stand

For the immediate moment, we will need only a guitar and a pick. However, further into the course, we will need more of these items.

Please see the attached PDF about guitar sizes. Either nylon string or steel string is good for beginners. Nylon is a little quieter and much easier on the fingertips. That is what I started with and what I would recommend. But if you do go with a nylon string to start, you will probably want to purchase a steel string later as they are better for strumming. Also, having a nylon string guitar in addition to a steel string later is great for other styles of music.

There are many places to get these items, and you do NOT need to spend much money on a first guitar. As long as it’s a six-string guitar with decent reviews, that covers everything.

There are three basic ways to hold the guitar.

1. Folk: Guitar resting on dominant leg

2. Classical: Guitar resting on non-dominant leg

3. Guitar strap

Practice: As much as you are able, get comfortable holding the guitar. If you watch TV, sit with the guitar and get comfortable with it just being in your presence and getting used to how it should feel. The more you do this the less uncomfortable and foreign it will seem when we start playing it.

Practice:

1. Carry the pick with you EVERYwhere!

2. Understand the basic idea of the pick rest. I will be showing you EXACTLY how to do this in an upcoming video.

   1. Remember that the pick should rest on the string below the string(s) that you just picked. Start with single strings, then progress to 2 string sets, 3 string sets and so on.

The pick rest will help you control your pick. Since we are going to be picking the strings for the rest of our guitar lives, it’s really important that we get super good at this.

Bring that guitar pick (in your hand) around with you EVERYwhere. Fiddle with it. Practice on the seam of your pants or the side of a table or desk. When you are walking around, you should have that pick in your hand holding it the way that we have learned. This will help you get REALLY comfortable with it before we start practicing with it.

In this video you will learn the basic fretting technique that will be the cornerstone for all fretting.

1. Play directly on your fingertips (make sure nails on “fret” hand are always trimmed.
2. Play right behind the fret (this is for leverage). Remember the see-saw example.
3. Play with ALL your fingers (each finger plays a specific fret)
4. It is best to leave some space between the palm of you hand and the guitar neck.

This will give you much needed leverage to play on your fingertips. Sometimes dropping the shoulder can be helpful as well. So curling that knuckle is really going to assist us later when we are playing chords. If that last knuckle is NOT curling, it will make playing chords difficult later.

Note: It WILL feel awkward at first, like walking on your tip toes. BUT, with practice, I promise you will get it!

To continue with even more videos, go to: https://www.yourguitarsage.com/jumpstart