Recommendations for a beginning guitarist material

[50MkII]

for a 14-15 year old who is just beginning to pick up the guitar, preferably something not as book-oriented. What is out there that will make it easy to start off and spend some time on? Interests in music genre include: classic rock, hard rock, and ind-rock. They will be starting off on a nylon acoustic though that's not as important to the topic.

[IGuitUpIGuitDown]

I started with a horrible warped classical, and learned basic chords. Then tried to learn some simple riffs/songs by The Who. Townshend's a rhythm master, and learning his strumming patterns must have given me a great foundation to play in time, play clean, and be loved by most future drummers that I jammed with.

Once you know some basic chords, and learn some songs, get timing issues down as quickly as you can. I can't tell you how many musicians I've known who simply can't play in time. And I can't play with them, even though I've tried.

[50MkII]

bumping it up

[stevel]

Originally Posted by 50MkII

for a 14-15 year old who is just beginning to pick up the guitar, preferably something not as book-oriented. What is out there that will make it easy to start off and spend some time on? Interests in music genre include: classic rock, hard rock, and ind-rock. They will be starting off on a nylon acoustic though that's not as important to the topic.

There's a HUGE gap between what guitarists SHOULD learn and what they WANT to learn. Often this gap is increased by teachers teaching what they WANT to teach, rather than what they SHOULD be teaching.

However, this is not Utopia and I understand sometime the practicality of getting and keeping students, keeping them happy and interested, and so on makes it necessary to "cut corners".

So without a "formal course of study" (a graded book)

Open position chords.
Rhythm.

Without those, it's pointless.

Too many players want to jump ahead to playing leads, or the rhythm parts to their favorite Paramore song, or whatever.

"Here's a C chord, and here's how we strum it in 4/4".

Start with straight strums - 1-2-3-4.

Then teach them to play "oom-pahs" - bass note on 1 and 3 strums on 2 and 4. (then if you want to get snazzy, teach alternating bass).

Then teach them to strum 8th notes (alternate picking - down up) 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Then teach them "leave out" patterns for example, leave out 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & (leave out bolded strums) and you have a very common accompaniment strum. There are all kinds of variations to these, but start simple - and you go back and explain how a straight 4 strum is really a "leave out" pattern of 8th notes (1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & - see, leave out the bolded ones).

The do arpeggios. No, not the crazy jazz kind. Quarter notes, or 8th notes (which you can start with full 8 notes, then leave out patterns).

C - G - C - E up (low bass note first)

C - E - C - G down (low bass not still first though)

A - C - E - C up and down (low bass note from Am here first, top three strings in this example).

Obviously, you should be including more and more shapes lesson by lesson.

I used to start with Em because it only uses 2 fingers and strums all 6 strings (some beginners can't seem to get the knack of not hitting all 6 all the time).

Em (use 2nd and 3rd fingers though), then
EM, then
Am (same shape), then
C - two fingers can be kept from Am shape - students should be taught not to lift and replace all three fingers, but to keep the two that don't need to move, and move only the ring finger).

I also teach AM with fingers 2-3-4 instead of 1-2-3 or 1-2-2 - again because you can just put the pinky down from an Am shape and the three smallest fingers will fit more easily in a single fret. It also gives the pinky some work to do which with open chords it often lacks.

I usually go back at this point and explain alternate fingerings - 1-2 for Em - because it's easier to get to GM from there (one finger gets to stay). G is a hard reach for a lot of people initially. For this reason, the "modern G" is often a good alternative (3rd fret on both the highest strings)

I find the change from G to C and back is much harder for beginners because all 3 fingers have to move, and "trade places". For this reason the old "cowboy" G7 is OK (especially if you're doing folksy type songs) because the C and G7 just "expand and contract" but the fingers don't have to change frets.

Also I should note that some people play the regular G with fingers 3-2-4 because getting to the G7 is easier (and it connects with my first Em this way) - but this is a hard reach for beginners, especially on a wider classical neck.

I haven't listed D yet, but throw that in wherever. It doesn't really connect easily with other chords (not without sliding or other fancy fingering) so I usually wait to introduce it with "jumping" chords (C to G) rather than "connected" chords (Am - C, Em - C, etc.). If you use the "modern G" and the uber-common-in-pop-music Cadd9, the C and G connect more easily, and a note gets to stay for the D (plus you can introduce Dsus4, etc.).

I usually really try to stick to:

Em, EM, Am, AM, C, G and D at first.

Then go back and introduce Dm, then any playable 7ths, but especially E7 and Em7 (the easiest chord ever), A7, Am7, AMaj7, CMaj7, G7, D7 DMaj7, Dm7 and last but not least, B7 (it helps to relate B7 to a D7 or AMaj7 shape).

By then they're asking why some parts of the shapes are the same across strings and why some change and you explain the different interval between strings 3-2 - this is a great opportunity to introduce some theory of course :-)

I then move into Barre chords by using the EM chord as an example - I have them finger it 3-4-2 (which they've already done with the AM) so their first finger is free and have them lay their first finger over the nut.

Then I explain how to move it up the neck, using their index finger as a movable nut (or capo, which you could use as an example also).

We do 6th string roots, 5th string roots, then 4th string roots.

Then we do "subset" chords - Power chords, 3 note upper string shapes, etc. because it's easier to see how they "came from" the larger shape.

BTW, I never teach the open position F chord - I wait until they can barre the E at the first fret, making the F, and go back and show how the "open" F is really a subset.

Of course, we also do scales (pentatonics), strum (etc.) 3/4, and I try to find easy songs they'll recognize and tab out little parts. Usually the first things I tab are:

E---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
B-0---1---2---1---0---1---2---

etc. - the James Bond thing.

And:

D---------2--4--5--4--2---------
A--0--4-------------------4------

A "boogie bass" - use the pinky, and you can move this to D and E to play 12 bar blues (and of course this pattern can be modified - I also show them how it became Pretty Woman, Day Tripper, etc.)

You can also teach this pattern in C over three strings to do C, F and G (the F pattern needs to be altered because of the 3-2 string interval of course).

I usually do these first because the "over-ring" of the open string is desirable in the JB thing (because muting is too advanced at this point) and the boogie bass thing helps them pick single note lines (I teach it as quarters all down strokes, double-stroke (alt.) 8ths, and 8ths with alternate picking) and since the fingers each mute out the next note, it's easier for them to get a sound they recognize.

I'll also tab out "Chuck Berry" patterns:

--2--4--2--4--
--0--0--0--0--

and

--2--4--5--4--
--0--0--0--0--

Again, can do A D and E for 12 bars.

I do these after the others because they're "chordal" and restricting picking to only two strings is often difficult into they get used to "oom-pah" patterns where they start distinguishing between specific strings and sets of strings in accompaniments.

Then once they can barre things up, I show them that this pattern is also movable, as well as those boogie bass patterns from above.

I've also taught the intro to "My Girl" as an example of how you can do a Major Pentatonic with a position shift and how a pentatonic scale can be repositioned to seem similar to a "barred up" boogie bass pattern and how that is a staple of lead playing...

That should get you started. Don't forget about RHYTHM and learning actual songs though.

Steve

[50MkII]

Good points. Thanks.

Any video, etc. accompaniament that they can go off of or use without the presence of an adult/teacher?

[Infamous]

Originally Posted by 50MkII

Good points. Thanks.

Any video, etc. accompaniament that they can go off of or use without the presence of an adult/teacher?

Man, I'd buy that guy a beer for the very generous reply before asking for more info!

As a beginner myself, thanks Stevel for all the great info!

[50MkII]

Yeah, no kidding. That certainly required some thought and time! A lot of useful points too.