Interesting things to teach in a first guitar class?

[lacatedral]

I mean something interesting to teach to a totally new guitar student who never played a string before, or might know one or two chords.

So, after talking with the student, making him/her aware that the first stage of study will be focused on developing accuracy on the left hand centering in a series of basic chord/shapes and their changes, also integrating left hand excercises and some basic melodies or riffs, I proceed to show the student the chord shapes of E and A.
The A chord is displayed this way: the 1 finger to the A in the third string, the 2 to the E in the fourth string, and the 3 to the C# in the second string. That way, when the student wants to shift from A to D or from A to E the 1 finger from the left hand will always remain in the same string as a reference.

Then I teach a two chord song with E and A, after reviewing each chord separately.

If he/she dominates that soon then I incorporate the D chord. I teach a song with three chords (Three little birds, Bob Marley).

After that I give the student a left hand excercise for independence.

So the homework for the student is:
-Carefully review the E and A chord separately (and D if he/she also played it)
-Practice the shift between those chords.
-Do the left hand excercise.


I was wondering anyone had any "cool stuff" or riff, song, etc... or whatever to teach an absolute new student which he/she might find interesting, and easy. Maybe the riff from Smoke on the water works or something like that.

[1neeto]

A good riff to introduce a student to single notes that alternate the low E and A strings is the main riff of Come As You Are by Nirvana. Super easy, fun, and good practice for picking individual strings. Also the main riff of Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters is easy only in the sense that it’s all open strings. The tricky part is skipping the A and D strings.

Since you’re teaching him the E and A chords, then why not also teach Am since it’s the same shape as E but shifting the shape one string up (down visually). From there you can teach C since it’s a popular and easy transition from Am.

[vindibona1]

Gloria- Shadows of Knight

[JonPR]

For total beginners - who've never touched a guitar before - I don't teach chords at all in the first lesson. I teach some simple melodies, usually on the top 3 strings, usually in key of C major. That's so that they can go home and actually play a piece of music that they (and anyone else) will recognise.

It's much easier for beginners to fret one string at a time than three (as they need to in chords). Of course, a tune requires that they move those fretting fingers around, but again, it's one finger at a time (each finger on its own fret), and good exercise in fretting technique, finger strength and flexibility, and learning the major scale, while actually playing something recognisable. (Chord sequences are not recognisable songs. Unless you're going to sing them at the same time.)

What tunes I choose depends partly on the students (their age and tastes). For adults of any age, it will be Ode to Joy (Beethoven) and/or The Way You Look Tonight (Jerome Kern), Amazing Grace, Lean on Me (Bill Withers) or - if it's the right time of year - a Christmas tune. All really simple melodies that (almost) everyone knows and anyone can grasp in an hour or less (older fingers naturally take longer). For kids it might be Twinkle Twinkle, or (a bit more challenging) the Simpsons Theme. For older kids and teenagers, probably a few rock riffs: Smoke on the Water always goes down well.

Chords in lesson two! Then I'm pretty much in agreement with the OP. The big problem I always find is teaching strumming. With a little experience it seems the simplest thing in the world, and it's easy to forget that actually it's not as technically simple as it seems. Easy to understand the fretting chords cleanly, and changing between them, takes time. But hitting the strings in time to a beat? How hard can that be? Pretty hard for some, it seems.... They always (with few exceptions) get hung up on upstrokes.

[SteveBurt]

Originally Posted by JonPR

For total beginners - who've never touched a guitar before - I don't teach chords at all in the first lesson. I teach some simple melodies, usually on the top 3 strings, usually in key of C major. That's so that they can go home and actually play a piece of music that they (and anyone else) will recognise.

It's much easier for beginners to fret one string at a time than three (as they need to in chords). Of course, a tune requires that they move those fretting fingers around, but again, it's one finger at a time (each finger on its own fret), and good exercise in fretting technique, finger strength and flexibility, and learning the major scale, while actually playing something recognisable. (Chord sequences are not recognisable songs. Unless you're going to sing them at the same time.)

What tunes I choose depends partly on the students (their age and tastes). For adults of any age, it will be Ode to Joy (Beethoven) and/or The Way You Look Tonight (Jerome Kern), Amazing Grace, Lean on Me (Bill Withers) or - if it's the right time of year - a Christmas tune. All really simple melodies that (almost) everyone knows and anyone can grasp in an hour or less (older fingers naturally take longer).

Speaking entirely personally, it took me a *lot* longer than an hour to get a simple tune down pat so it can be played from memory.
It took me a couple of weeks of practising an hour or so a day to get that first tune.
It's a bit quicker now, but it still takes well over an hour to learn something new; I find I keep making mistakes for a long time before it goes into muscle memory.
Maybe I'm just a slow learner.

[TBman]

I'd teach them how to tune the guitar so when they practiced at home they wouldn't get discouraged thinking it was them that sounded "off." Learning is tough enough without playing an out of tune guitar.

[KDepew]

For my brand new students I teach some rhythm exercises first before even playing chords. Something along these lines....
https://youtu.be/uRAVL0PNi0U