Teaching children how to play can guitar can be difficult especially if you don’t have much experience dealing with kids.
This guide will help you get started and give you some tips on offering fun and exciting lessons to children.
If you are completely new to teaching guitar I recommend reading my Ultimate Guide To Teaching Guitar first. You need an understanding of the general principles of teaching before reading this article.
Simplify and Build Up
When you are teaching guiar to children it’s very important that you make everything as simple as possible. Even if the end goal is to teach them something quite complex, you should make it very simple to start with and build up towards the end goal.
When a child first starts lessons you should begin with very simple riffs or melodies that you can play on the high E string. Children can find it very difficult to hold down the strings so let them use whichever finger is the strongest to begin with and then work up to using others.
Teaching Children Guitar Chords
I think most guitar teachers start teaching chords too early and this is definitely true with children. You could spend a whole lesson teaching a child one or two chords shapes and by the end they will be frustrated and they still won’t be able to use them in a song.
Obviously, at some point you should teach chords. My advice is just don’t start with them in the first couple of lessons.
There are few ways you can build up to playing full chords though. I start by taking a chord progression and playing the individual notes on open strings. For example, one of my go to beginner chords songs is Wild Thing.
A A DD E E DD
This can be played just using the open strings E, A and D and you can still recognise it as the song. This gives kids the chance to work on the names of the strings, play different strings and rhythm while starting them on the path to playing chords.
You can do this with any song that uses the chords E, A, D, G or B.
Beginner Chord Shapes
There are also kid friendly chord shapes that will help them build up to full chords. There are some examples below.
Find Relevant Music For Kids
Teaching guitar guitar to children is much easier when they are engaged with your lessons. Children will be much more engaged with your lesson if they are playing music they know and like. This can be difficult with young children but nursery rhymes are always a good option.
I’ve found that when you ask children what music they like they never know, so talking to their parents is a good idea. A lot of kids listen to music with their parents so you might be surprised with the bands or songs they like.
I was shocked at how many young children were really into AC/DC. A child might not be able to go straight into playing a full AC/DC song but it is your job as a guitar teacher to find and simplify sections of the song that they could learn.
A good example of this is the AC/DC song TNT. The main riff can be simplified to be on played on one string and even with one finger.
TNT Main Riff Simplified
0 3 5 3 5 3
Variety In Your Lessons
Kids get bored easily, it’s really important that your lessons are full of short activities that help them with different aspects of playing.
Here’s an example of all the activities that could be included in a 30 min lesson for a young beginner guitarist.
- 5 min – Warm up with some basic finger exercises
- 5 to 10 min – Play beginner riffs on the high E string. Once they can play on one string start playing a basic riff on different strings.
- 5 min – Practice clapping different rhythms, once they can copy a rhythm try and strum it on the guitar using open strings.
- 3 min – Practice the names of the strings using a mnemonic sentence. Say a string a name and then ask them to find it as quickly as possible
- 5 min – Play Wild Thing just using the open strings. Find and play the strings first and then ask them to copy the rhythm you play.
- 2 min – Finish by playing the clapping game to practice rhythm.
In this lesson we’ve worked on lead guitar, rhythm, music theory, started them on the path to chords and played a couple of games.
If your lessons have as much variety as this example lessons your students will never get bored.
Using Games To Teach Guitar To Children
In my example lessons I have included a couple of games and kids love these. Whenever you can, you should try and turn playing guitar into a game, no matter how simple the game is.
One of things I do to make chords more fun is say one of the chords at random and then count down from five. My student has to play that shape as quickly as possible and the amount of second they have remaining get turned into points. I know it’s basic but some of my students love doing this every lesson!
If you want to make finger exercises more fun you can do them to a timer and see how many times they can play the exercise in a set time. Kids can be very competitive, even with themselves so having a score that they can try and beat can be really motivate them.
In the example lesson I turned learning the string names into a game by asking them to find and play a string as quickly as they could. You could build on this and turn it into a memory game. Each time add another string name so they have more strings to remember and play.
For example
Round 1 – A
Round 2 – A, G
Round 3 – A, G, B
Round 4 – A, G, B, E etc
The best game I have which I usually use at the end of the lesson is the clapping game. My students love this game and you can use it as a reward at the end of the lesson if they have worked well.
It’s very simple. You clap short rhythms and they have to clap them back. But some of the rhythms are special and they have to do an action.
For example, the rhythms below have a special meaning. You need to go through the rhythms with your students beforehand and say the words in time with the rhythm.
Don’t Clap This One Back
1 2 3 + 4
Your student doesn’t clap when they here this rhythm. If they do they lose a point.
Put Your Hands On Your Head
1 + 2 3 + 4
Quite straightforward, put your hands on your head.
These are just a couple of examples but you can make up your own and make them more complex.
Positive Reinforcement
Motivating kids to play and practice guitar can be difficult but one of the most effective techniques you can use is positive reinforcement. This is rewarding a certain behaviour so your students do it more.
As I mentioned, I use the clapping game as a reward for good behaviour and hard work in my lessons and this definitely encourages my students. But how can you motivate your students to practice outside of the lesson?
In an ideal world you’ll be teaching your student music they love and they’ll go and practice because they want to. However, in the real world this can be a bit more difficult.
One of the techniques you can use is to create a practice planner that your student can follow. On it you can write exactly what they need to practice. This lets your student know what to practice and it will also give your student something that they tick off when they have completed a practice session. Depending on the age of your student you could give their parents some stickers that they could use too. This can be very effective for children.
You should also find opportunities to give your students certificates. These could be a certificate for achieving a task like completing their first song or you could create a level system that they can work through. Both of these positively reinforce progression and will help motivate your students to practice.
Conclusion
When it comes to teaching children, preparation is key. Make sure you have lots of exercises and resources ready and be prepared to have to change your plans during the lesson. Kids can be very unpredictable.
I have a Guitar Teachers Resource and Marketing Pack available that will make teaching children guitar a lot easier.