[rlawton]

I am hesitant to post this as I don’t want to seem critical and I certainly commend you for your willingness to do this. I have learned a great deal from you over the years in the sailing forum so I will post this on the chance that I can help you. Here goes:

1. Start with E major first because it will be easier to do the changes between E, A, and D since you have “anchor fingers” between the chords.

2. I would start with strumming (after tuning, of course) a basic pattern on beats 1 and 4 very slowly to start, just open strings to get the strumming in their right hands.

3. They should learn finger numbers and string numbers as I would yell them out as they’re playing. This would drive me crazy because I also taught piano and the thumb was “1”.

4. I started with “Go Tell Aunt Rhodie” because of the simple chords and it’s easy to sing. I had tabs for the song which I would send to you but I escaped from NY to Florida. Before you think that a more “modern” song would motivate them more, teaching little kids for 12 years taught me that all music has value and is motivating if it’s played with musicality.

5. Don’t discount sites like justinguitar.com. He has many song recommendations and his beginner course is free.

My beginning classes would start with tuning by me (which is an important lesson for them to learn later), then I would introduce the material. Then we would all practice it together followed by individual practice as I circulated helping them individually. You will find kids who learn it easily so I would partner them with others who needed the help. Toward the end of class or if everyone was stuck, I would go back to whole class practice. I always ended my class with “performing” the song without pausing.

Just a few ideas of things that worked for me. I firmly believe that you can only teach who you are so what worked for me and my students might not work for you and yours.

I have lots of tabs and chord charts if you’re interested, though I won’t be home until early March.