Today we’re going to give you 7 tips for teaching your child guitar. Learning an instrument is a fantastic way for your child to develop a series of abilities that can be of great use later in life.
Additionally, this is a great opportunity to bond with your child and create lasting memories and give them a gift for life.
Who knows? Your little ones could be added to our list of kids with extraordinary guitar talent, and there is only one way to find out!
Keep in mind that teaching a young child to play the guitar is a bit different than teaching a teen or a 20-year-old. It requires slowly teaching them the basics, picking kid-friendly songs, and having a lot of patience.
Please check out Roadie Coach, as it can be a great tool for your child’s progress. Besides offering personalized feedback, Coach and its app can also be a fun tool for your child.
Without further ado, here are the 7 tips for teaching your child guitar.
Bust Out Your Best Solo
“Why bother learning guitar?” they’ll ask. “Because you can be a goddamn rockstar, kid. Watch this… ” and then you bust out that solo you’ve been working on for the past few weeks. It’s important to provide a solid incentive to learn the instrument, and what better way to do that than with some inspiration?
Start With Teaching Good Form
One of the most important things beginners need to learn is how to hold the guitar and maintain good posture. While that may sound boring to a child, it’s absolutely necessary for them to maintain focus later on. You won’t stand a chance of teaching them anything if their fingers, wrists, and neck are hurting after five minutes.
Move on to Warm-Up Exercises
“Are we ready to play yet, dad?” they’ll now ask. But there’s one more thing you need to cover before you can move on to the rock’n’roll version of Mary Had A Little Lamb (which has a wicked drop at the end, by the way). Show your kid how to properly warm up their fingers before playing so they can build strength in those tiny digits.
Teach Single Notes and Basic Scales
Okay, the moment has finally arrived. Time to jam! Even though you can’t skip theory completely, you shouldn’t dwell on it. That’ll only bore your child to tears and make them question your rockstar status. Teach them some practical single notes and scales so they can feel the music coming from their own hands.
Finish With A Simple Chord Progression
Once they’ve mastered playing single notes without it sounding like a cat being strangled, you can finish off with a simple chord progression. Don’t aim for more than two chords in one sitting. Make sure they become comfortable with moving their fingers between those two chords on the fretboard before piling more chords onto them. And don’t even think about teaching barre chords yet unless you want to hear swear words you didn’t know they knew.
Be very patient
This is perhaps the most important tip on this list. Simply said, you need to be very patient with your child. This is especially true when learning an instrument, as frustration may creep in at some point. You want this to be a positive and enriching experience, not a trauma that has to be sorted out at therapy decades later.
So listen to your kid, and go at her pace without pushing too much. This will make the experience fun for both of you.
Make it fun
Now that you have understood how important being patient is, it’s time to make it fun! Making it fun is vital for your child to like the experience long enough to learn to play. How do you make it fun?
Well, you can talk about the guitar you have and teach her about the different parts. Then take her to a music store and show her other guitar types. Another way is to attend a concert and talk about the music.
You can also let her pick a song or lick that she really wants to learn. In short, there are tons of ways to make the experience fun!
We’re sure that these 7 tips for teaching your child guitar can help you get started with your kid. As far as when it’s a good age to start, some people would say that at 10 years old. However, there are no hard and fast rules. You just need to make sure that your kid isn’t overwhelmed.
If starting with the guitar seems like a daunting task, then why not try an instrument with fewer strings? You can teach them how to play the ukulele first and then let them graduate to the guitar later down the line.
We hope you enjoyed our article. When did you start teaching your child guitar? Share your experience with us in the comment section below.
