Any guitar teachers out there? Book suggestion for aiding in teaching a kid.

Locrian99

Locrian99

Well-known member
So my son come to me the other day out of no where and said dad I want a guitar, and want you to teach me how to play. So I had no choice and had to go buy him a guitar little squier mini I picked up used for 75$ from guitar center and finally found a use for that gift card I've been sitting on (win win). Anyways while I'm a solid enough player in my eyes, and can read music, know theory decently etc. I've got no clue where to start with lessons. I remember I got my first guitar and first thing I did was learn the bass line to dazed and confused and think I played just that for a month finally I think my parents got me lessons so I'd learn something new lol.

Anyways hoping there might be someone on here that has a suggestion for a good kids book to kind of offer a course curriculum if you will while we go down this road. He's 6, so it being aimed young is good. But I'm not too worried about him having to read the words since I'll be going through it with him.

Any suggestions would be great thanks! Right now I'm planning on seeing what I can find on kindle unlimited and searching around online, a book with audio etc though could be nice.
 
Well, normally I suggest an acoustic guitar for beginners, because you can get the correct sound without dials. Hard enough to learn music without dials, trying to get the correct sound from an amp can be a challenge, HOWEVER, since you can turn the dials for him.....

Is that mini-squier a 3/4 scale? Or is he a large 6 year old?

Keyboards are easiest to learn music on, simply because you can select songs in the key of C and it's pretty much linear from low to high. I've taught a lot of people how to play, and two went on tour to open for Pat Benetar, but I have no book.....
 
RetiredUnit1 said:
Well, normally I suggest an acoustic guitar for beginners, because you can get the correct sound without dials. Hard enough to learn music without dials, trying to get the correct sound from an amp can be a challenge, HOWEVER, since you can turn the dials for him.....

Is that mini-squier a 3/4 scale? Or is he a large 6 year old?

Keyboards are easiest to learn music on, simply because you can select songs in the key of C and it's pretty much linear from low to high. I've taught a lot of people how to play, and two went on tour to open for Pat Benetar, but I have no book.....
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It's a 3/4... Theres a lot of resources out there I was dinking around with an app that I found, I'm a little old school when it comes to books I like things printed on dead trees. Just feels must more tangible to me. There's quite a few aimed at his age group even, I just figured if someone had a suggestion on here with experience with one might keep me from buying 4-5 books before I found one that seemed like a decent fit, though I assume many are quite similar.
 
First off, what does he want to learn?

I swear if my piano teacher had taught me a boogie-woogie bass pattern when I was 7 or 9, instead of "Twankle Twanker Boring As $%^&* Starrrhg", I'd be a better musician today (and be able to play piano).

So I say teach him to play fun things, first and foremost — It's a language alright so get him speaking first then worry about grammar and vocabulary building and formal stuff later. Most of us speak our mother tongue well-before any language-related classes, in fact I don't know any 2to3-year-olds who are worried about subject verb predicate or number agreement or dangling participles...
 
I think it depends what he wants to do. When I first started I wanted to play a lot of the songs I was listening to at the time. TBH it was mostly punk so heavy on the power chords. Simple tab searches helped to solve that, but eventually (3 months or so) I wasn’t going anywhere. My parents asked me if I wanted lessons and I said yes. My very first lesson was learning the basic open chords (as are most first lessons besides the name of the strings, how to hold it, etc). At the end of the first lesson my teacher told me to find a song I wanted to learn and he would teach it to me. Naturally I ran straight home and started listening to a lot the albums I had at the time and settled on an MXPX tune that was popular at the time. I brought the CD in and he taught me the song after 1 or 2 listens.

My point is I learned how to play by aspiring to play the songs I listened to and my teacher guided me through the next steps. My journey quickly evolved into pentatonic scales and learning to play a lot of the greats such as Led Zeppelin, Clapton, etc. My teen years were a lot of riff playing mostly, but it was still a lot of fun.

That being said, I’ve started my learning journey again by picking up the bass. Sure, YouTube is great and all but I wanted to walk before I can run (I’m at the stage of borderline power walking, lol) and pulled the trigger on a Hal Leonard Bass Method book. Unfortunately with some books, they’re boring for me. I don’t want to play twinkle twinkle. I want to play some Rush! So, what am I doing? I’m learning both! This makes my practice sessions much more engaging other than learning how to read music. I go through a page or two a day and learn a new riff from some of the tunes I listen to.

My advice? Get a Hal Leonard or other beginner book but also sit down with him and teach him some of the cooler stuff as well. That should keep him interested.
 
Feral Feline said:
First off, what does he want to learn?
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BuddytheReow said:
I think it depends what he wants to do.
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100% this. I taught drums for years and taught guitar for a little bit, and that has always been my goal. When I was 10 I begged my parents for guitar lessons, and they stuck me in classical guitar lessons because "if you can play classical, rock will be easy." The neck was too wide for my 10-year-old fingers, it didn't sound like the guitars my heroes were playing, and no matter how much I practiced I didn't feel cool. I stuck with lessons for 2 years before saying f*$# the guitar and I quit.

The #1 reason kids don't stick with music lessons is because they're not having fun. There will always be fundamentals that everyone has to learn as far as technique and such, but make sure the kid is having fun.

RetiredUnit1 said:
Well, normally I suggest an acoustic guitar for beginners
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I don't. If the kid is passionate about rock and roll and everything he listens to is electric guitars, get him an electric guitar. If he thinks it's cool he's more likely to practice and less likely to lose interest. Now if the kid is into more folksy music that uses more acoustic, absolutely get him an acoustic for starters. Anything you can do to encourage them to practice.

Source: I was the kid that was in love with electric guitar and my parents wouldn't buy me an electric "until you get the hang of guitar." I ended up with negative feelings toward the guitar and my parents, because nothing I could do on the acoustic made it sound the way I wanted to sound.
 
vigilante398 said:
100% this. I taught drums for years and taught guitar for a little bit, and that has always been my goal. When I was 10 I begged my parents for guitar lessons, and they stuck me in classical guitar lessons because "if you can play classical, rock will be easy." The neck was too wide for my 10-year-old fingers, it didn't sound like the guitars my heroes were playing, and no matter how much I practiced I didn't feel cool. I stuck with lessons for 2 years before saying f*$# the guitar and I quit.

The #1 reason kids don't stick with music lessons is because they're not having fun. There will always be fundamentals that everyone has to learn as far as technique and such, but make sure the kid is having fun.


I don't. If the kid is passionate about rock and roll and everything he listens to is electric guitars, get him an electric guitar. If he thinks it's cool he's more likely to practice and less likely to lose interest. Now if the kid is into more folksy music that uses more acoustic, absolutely get him an acoustic for starters. Anything you can do to encourage them to practice.

Source: I was the kid that was in love with electric guitar and my parents wouldn't buy me an electric "until you get the hang of guitar." I ended up with negative feelings toward the guitar and my parents, because nothing I could do on the acoustic made it sound the way I wanted to sound.
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I too was initially forced to buy an acoustic. He wanted an electric guitar like mine, specifically my strat. Thankfully finding a 3/4 LP might have been hard. I picked up a hal Leonard book, and another Hal Leonard book that just has a bunch of little two bars easy riffs in it, a lot of which I forgot about. Biggest thing I need is just something to point me in a direction I think. He’s also 6 so taking it very slowly. My wife thinks I’m crazy for buying him a guitar and trying to teach him at this age. But I figure as long as he’s wanting to do it and I’m not pushing him too hard it can’t hurt anything. He’ll be pretty excited when he starts to learn some Beatles songs. He asked me about learning uncle Remus by frank zappa I kinda chuckled.
 
I started on acoustic, and my dad bought me a Ric 425 with Ric amp after 8 weeks. I would become very frustrated trying to get the correct sound out of my amp and just put it down and play the acoustic. Later I was at Cassells music in San Fernando (where they filmed the "No Stairway" scene for Wayne's World) and heard someone playing the Boss Tone. AHH, I said, at last the sound I couldn't get. My teacher didn't have a clue about pedals, it was 1967 and the first song I learned was "The little waltz", "Repeat after me 123,223,323,423" lmao....

Later I was amazed when I heard it as "Lara's Theme" on Dr. Zhivago.

Another reason I liked my acoustic is I could TAKE IT PLACES TO SHOW OFF TO GIRLS..... nuff said there, not yet a priority at 6 lol.... :ROFLMAO:



Whatever you do, DON'T TEACH THIS SONG, lol.....
 
The right way is whatever works for the individual student.

RetiredUnit1's post above reminded me of when I started playing bass — I wanted an upright.

My friend, an accomplished Jazzer [EDIT (guitarist)], tried to convince me to just get a Bass Guitar (I had one, never played it).
"You don't want to lug that thing around and up and down the stairs to your flat!" (3rd floor walkup).
"Yeah, I really do," I told him.
"Well then, at least get an electric upright bass; it won't be too difficult to carry around."

I don't mind the EUBs, but I'm glad I ignored his advice.
First off, none of the cool UBPs I liked played a beanpole (Rockabilly/Jazz/Blues).
Secondly, I got invited to play out acoustically with others even before I got to a rudimentary level (where I'm STILL at 😸 ); if I'd followed my friend's advice I would be still playing electric-slab in my bedroom alone instead of at music festivals in a variety of genres and bands — best thing I ever did was take up acoustic bass-bass. Next best thing, taking up the trombone again and relearning to read.

Acoustic can be good, too!

Can't wait to put a pedalboard together just for my trombone!
 
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Feral Feline said:
The right way is whatever works for the individual student.

RetiredUnit1's post above reminded me of when I started playing bass — I wanted an upright.

My friend, an accomplished Jazzer, tried to convince me to just get a Bass Guitar (I had one, never played it).
"You don't want to lug that thing around and up and down the stairs to your flat!" (3rd floor walkup).
"Yeah, I really do," I told him.
"Well then, at least get an electric upright bass; it won't be too difficult to carry around."

I don't mind the EUBs, but I'm glad I ignored his advice.
First off, none of the cool UBPs I liked played a beanpole (Rockabilly/Jazz/Blues).
Secondly, I got invited to play out acoustically with others even before I got to a rudimentary level (where I'm STILL at 😸 ); if I'd followed my friend's advice I would be still playing electric-slab in my bedroom alone instead of at music festivals in a variety of genres and bands — best thing I ever did was take up acoustic bass-bass. Next best thing, taking up the trombone again and relearning to read.

Acoustic can be good, too!

Can't wait to put a pedalboard together just for my trombone!
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Back in high school I played guitar in the jazz band, and for a couple of the jazz choirs in college. I also took concert band in high school though I didn’t really play a concert band instrument. I’d ussually just play some random percussion instrument timpani’s, bells, whatever. There were a few pieces that had upright bass and the parts were always pretty easy. And the school had one that no one else could play so I was always excited when I got to get that thing out. The part has to be pretty simple though or sometimes I’d just kinda hit the root of the chord if I got lost I doubt they could hear it hardly anyways. lol.
 

Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1: Book Only: Schmid, Will, Koch, Greg: 0073999990102: Amazon.com: Books

Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1: Book Only [Schmid, Will, Koch, Greg] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1: Book Only
www.amazon.com

I swallowed my pride and started taking lessons a few months ago and this is the book I am working through with my teacher. I have been playing for 30 years by ear, tabs, videos etc. Now I am working on sight reading, learning the notes on the neck, and theory.

It is humbling but I am enjoying it and wish I had started with this years ago.
 
ITG6 said:

Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1: Book Only: Schmid, Will, Koch, Greg: 0073999990102: Amazon.com: Books

Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1: Book Only [Schmid, Will, Koch, Greg] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1: Book Only
www.amazon.com

I swallowed my pride and started taking lessons a few months ago and this is the book I am working through with my teacher. I have been playing for 30 years by ear, tabs, videos etc. Now I am working on sight reading, learning the notes on the neck, and theory.

It is humbling but I am enjoying it and wish I had started with this years ago.
Click to expand...
I sometimes wish I would’ve learned that way rather than taking jazz lessons early on and all the theory that accompanied that. I have friends that never took lessons and they have a feel in their playing that I find hard to mimic. Sometimes I think I over think things when I’m playing, or find myself playing a in Dorian when a minor pentatonic would do fine and probably end up sounding better. There’s arguments for both styles. As you can see over thinking…
 
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