You can download a set of guitar lesson plans from this page that are designed to take a student from a "standing start" (where they have never even picked up a guitar) to a situation where they can move smoothly between the "best" eight chords and strum them in time to Especially Produced Guitar Teacher's Backing Tracks and Chord Charts
This is the plan for a first lesson which introduces learners to the chords of G and Em and then involves them in strumming the chords in time to music
Many beginners learn chords but dont practice moving between them in time to music The reality is "if you can't play in time you can't play guitar" This material encourages your students to react to rhythm and tempo right from the first lesson
Two new chords (C and D) are added into the mix and more advanced strumming patterns are brought into play
There are two baking tracks associated with this session The first features the two new chords of D and C while the second puts all four chords learned up to this point (G Em C and D) into a common and recognisable sequence
The third lesson uses a chord that our students already know (G) and introduces them to another (A) that they have not encountered to this point
The "Rock" feel of the backing track that goes along with this lesson normally goes down well (even with students who have an acoustic guitar)
This fourth lesson plan for a novice guitar player introduces the final three chords (Am, Dm and E) that a beginner should learn from the start The "funky" backing track does all of the heavy lifting here allowing the student to make very simple contributions that contribute to a surprisingly complex and evolved sound
This PDF lesson plan also contains material relating to "what comes next" and explores the notion of introducing new areas of study such as single note studies, music theory and the teaching of more advanced technical concepts such as developing the ability to play power and bar chords
This lesson represents an important staging post in your student's guitar playing journey where future learning is divided into three threads Follow the link below to download the lesson plan that goes into this in much greater detail than is possible here
Guitar Lessons five and six are really where the planning happens
The first part of the project (covered in lesson plans 1-4) was all about helping our student go from a standing start to where they can move between eight chords in time to music
They are not supposed to be moving between those chords sounding professional and totally at ease with the instrument That will come with time as they encounter the chords in various combinations and with other backing tracks from the download
What happens from lesson 5 onwards is that we step back and see where we are with relation to the "bigger picture" If you look at lesson plan 5 you will see that now that they can move between the eight chord shapes our students should be presented with songs (or fracments of songs) that they know and recognise that use the chords learned to this point
If they go home from a lesson able to play "Knocking On Heaven's Door" or "Wild Thing" they are developing a repertoire of songs that reinforce the chords, movements and changes studied during the earliest lessons
This is exactly what you have both been working towards..........."Progress"
Now that they can play a bit its a great time to introduce students to some (very) basic music theory
Lesson six introduces the concept of moveable shapes (power chords) and where ti find/play them on the neck of the guitar
Perhaps the only thing that keeps us in business as guitar teachers in these days when information on playing guitar is all there for free on the internet are the facts that students can ask us questions when they don't immediately get an idea or concept and that as guitar teachers we can see where they may be going wrong (before they know it) and help them to fix it now.
The following material is an examination of the way that you might choose to incorporate some of the teachwombat.com guitar teaching materials into your business.
It looks at a (flexible) programme of guitar lessons geared towards the complete novice (perhaps the single most common type of student faced by guitar teachers).
It is important to realise that students vary quite considerably in terms of how quickly (or slowly) they are able to develop skills or take on board information. It is quite possible (even desirable!) that as a teacher you may feel that a particular guitar student might benefit from being introduced to some of the material from the next session. It is equally likely (and indeed desirable) that you might spend more than one lesson dealing with a particular chord sequence or fingering exercise. Please bear this in mind and regard the following material as guidelines rather than a rigid structure.
I know folks are reluctant to click on videos when they are scrolling through the internet rather than getting on with their "real lives" but this one I put up on youtube a while ago really does give a flavour of how the things Ive been banging on about work out in practice
Some students will adapt to this stuff (discussed above) fairly quickly whilst others will take a little time to get to grips with the fingerings and concepts involved.
It can be good to talk to your pupil about the following notion.
“You don’t learn to play guitar "during" guitar lessons you learn to play "between" guitar lessons”
If an individual was able to play everything presented to them perfectly by the end of the lesson then it can be argued that the material was pitched way too low.
The object of a good lesson is to give the student a desirable (and achievable) outcome that they can work towards between sessions. If you explain this to them and have them understand it then they tend to feel a little less frustrated that they don’t play everything perfectly straight away.
For the students who pick up the changes early it is possible to introduce more involved strumming patterns. It is a good idea at this stage to be careful to restrict the strums to the early part of the first bar of each chord so that the learner will continue to have time to move between the chord shapes.
Towards the end of the sessions give the student a copy of the backing track on CD or you could email the track to them for private study (this usually goes down very well!) and ask them if there is anything that they do not understand about the material covered during the lesson
You can also let your student have printed letter sized sheets containing the relevant BIG GRIDS (the giant guitar chord charts that you can download free from this site). Alternatively you could just email the relevant chords to them as attachments and they can print them for themselves and stick them on the wall at home (saves ink?). Either way your guitar student will be able to practice whilst sitting on their bed rather than having to have bits of paper lying all over the place.
Download and Print 25 free Guitar Student Handouts NOW?
The Download Contains....
We also have a set of ukulele teaching resources recently added that are particularly useful for guitar teachers looking to add another string to their bow
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