Teaching a 6 year old

davester1234 · #1 10-06-2006, 05:53 PM

Hey guys,
Saturday I'll begin teaching a 6 year old guitar. I've never taught a child that young. The lesson will be half hour, acoustic guitar. He's obviously never played before.

Does any one have any suggestions on what I might do/how I might approach this?

Anything would help!

jemplayer55 · #2 10-06-2006, 06:16 PM

Jeez..... good luck. Lets hope he or she comes with a 1/4 scale guitar first.

To be honest I'm not sure you'll teach them much..... that's if you can even keep their attention focused for 1/2 an hour.

**elcid** · #3 10-06-2006, 06:16 PM

Alot of the guys I teach with use a book called "Guitar for the Small Fry" when teaching very young children. I think it only costs like $5.

andy7jem · #4 10-06-2006, 06:33 PM

Try starting with some sweeping, string skipping and learn some difficult chords

Gotta start 'em young

ONLY kidding

Good luck though

rya · #5 10-06-2006, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andy7jem

Try starting with some sweeping, string skipping and learn some difficult chords

Gotta start 'em young

ONLY kidding

Good luck though

dont forget tapping and pinch harmonics!

Aftershock · #6 10-06-2006, 07:02 PM

Bring a Taser gun with you!

jemplayer55 · #7 10-06-2006, 07:26 PM

Here..... try this one too, it's geared for ages 5 to 9 "Alfred Alfred's Kid s Guitar Course 1" and comes with a CD too.

Man you'll be pulling your hair out! You are charging extra aren't you? You guitar playing babysitter....

But who knows, the kid might turn out to be one of those child prodigy's!!!???

C.Thep · #8 10-06-2006, 10:07 PM

Maybe ask child's parents if it is okay to give the child candy as a reward.

sometimes candy or rewards help keeping a child focused

gu1tar · #9 10-07-2006, 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andy7jem

Try starting with some sweeping, string skipping and learn some difficult chords

Gotta start 'em young

ONLY kidding

Good luck though

Come on now, the guy's looking for actual advice and this is what you give him?

I mean I was thinking teach him Van Halen's Eruption the first day to broaden his horizons.

Seriously though, I would consider finding out a song(s) he likes and teach him a small piece of that along with whatever method (Alfred, etc.) you teach him so that it's not just boring chords or scales. But he may be yearning to shred with the big boys, you won't know until you meet him.

newbieguitarmaker · #10 10-07-2006, 01:02 AM

teach the some power chords and thats all he needs for todays music industry lol. no jk, im not sure how to teach that well so dont listen to my ideas if i come up with any lol

davester1234 · #11 10-07-2006, 01:22 AM

you guys are funny! maybe I'll teach him the chorus of Touching Tongues. I'll bring my whammy pedal.

This is not going to be easy. His mom contacted me, and apparently he's carrying his mini acoustic around with him 24 hours a day...he really wants to play so I agreed to teach him. If he wasn't so driven, I would never have done it.

LOL what have I got myself into?

Distantshore · #12 10-07-2006, 03:44 AM

At least its his idea to play, and hes not being forced into it. Might make him more receptive to learning!
Good Luck!

Dylan7620 · #13 10-07-2006, 04:43 AM

the first song my teacher taught me was "hes got the whole world in his hands" lol, cheesy i know, but its just "hes got the *D* world in his hands, hes got the *A* whole world...." two chords just alternating. maybe start with those chords?

andy7jem · #14 10-07-2006, 07:04 AM

I wasn't trying to hijack the thread or anything, but i can't imagine getting any 6 year old to focus long enough, but hopefully it works out ok. Let us know how you get on.