About my son playing guitar...

[pack-rat]

He's 8 and really motivated to learn after taking 1 year of piano.
Made me feel proud at his recital on the week-end. Did awesome with no mistakes.
Before the concert he was saying to me he wanted to slam the piano cover down and kick the bench over and yell (in a deep voice) "YEA !" It was pretty funny to hear him joke like that.
We saw this 10 year old play a piece from Harry Potter (Harry's Wonderous World) so perfectly and full of dynamics it was increadible to hear !
It moved my son to continue learning music.

So he want's to learn not only piano but guitar and drums.
Guitar I don't mind but drums at this stage is out of the question ( no room or $$$ for even Roland V drums at this point)

I was thinking of getting a 1/2 classical guitar and forget learning chords but learn the notes. I think learning the chords would be too difficult for him and he would just get frustrated.

Anyone teach guitar ? Any recomendations on how I should teach ?
I am self taught and just learned riffs to my fav songs as a teenager and just learned bits and pieces over time on my own.

 

[skabassist13]

i would suggest you teach him to play easy songs that he likes, but make sure to focus on technique and form. choose easy songs that he enjoys so that he will feel a sense of accomplishment and joy for what he has learned. also show him what a power chord is. you can make alot of music with just power chords. along with teaching him form and technique try teaching him notes as well and maybe simple patterns. dont try to rush him into being a guitar god. let him do it at his own pace, no one likes knowledged shoved down their throat. givev him something to learn and show him how to do it then let him havev at it. you must make sure to always have him play with proper form. ALWAYS. my teacher stresses that form is evevrything. you might know everything there is to know but if it sounds like **** becuase you play sloppy whats the point. also tell him to internalize the music. get him to be able to hum it in tune before he even touches the guitar. once he has it internalized tell him to slow it down and play it properly then once he gets it perfectly at a slow pace let him speed it up. i find that guitar pro works great for this. www.mysongbook.com has tons of songs and once you save them into guitar pro you can use the speed feature and slow it down to the point where your kid can play it. there thats basicly 3 months of lessons 1 day every other week. have fun and make sure he enjoys playing. dont force it.

 

[skabassist13]

also, if you trust him enough, let him play one of your mm's every now and then. just about everyone likes to play a high quality guitar. it will probably make him feel really good to hamer out one of his favorite songs on his dad's mm. i know it would for me.

 

[koogie2k]

Hey Pack...nothing makes a parent more proud than seeing their child or children perform in front of a crowd flawlessly. My daughter is into ju-jitsu (I teach it) and makes me proud all the time at tournaments. It is wonderful watching kids perform in itself mistakes and all. They are sooo into it. We could all learn from them as well!

I have taught and I will offer some advice. Classical guitars are wonderful, however, I think the neck may be too big for hands if he is typical 8 year old size. But I never picked up a 1/2 classical, they could be smaller. It will challenge him. It will be good to get him learning where the notes are on the neck. Maybe start him on note only children's songs. Site reading would be ideal, however, not the rule. An electric would be easier for chords and what not. Put one in his hands and see how he feels with it. If the classical is too big, put an electric in his hands. In my experience, the electrics or small neck acoustics work better. Play along with him. He will love it. My 2 pennies.

 

[peter71]

Hey Pack, you are my idol! I think it is great that you are spending quality time with your kid. That is a great thing man and probably one of the most important things you will ever do. I used to work with kids, and you would be surprised how many kids grow up not knowing that their parents are aware of them, let alone helping them to acheive a goal.

Bravo!

As far as teaching, I think everyone has made some great points, but I would add one thing. With all of my students, I usually try and figure out what they are interested in. Not music style wise, but goal wise. Now your son is only 8 years old, so he doesn't have to give you a five year plan, but if his immediate goal with the guitar is to be the next Vai, then start with reading music, proper form and technique, and learning as much theory as he can handle. Remember, you can teach up to kids, they are amazing if you let them be.

On the other hand, not everyone wants to be Vai. Some kids and adults just want to play a few songs by the camp fire, play at church or impress girls by playing the latest Dave Matthews rif or Jack Johnson or something. Remember, that is ok! Do what it will take to get them excited about the instrument. Trust me, I quit piano when I was a kid because I could care less about learning old folk songs. I wanted to learn Steely Dan or Genesis or Yes or something. If they start to get a little success, and start to play songs they know, they will get frustrated at how little they know and want to learn theory and scales and stuff. It will be a little harder then, because there is a potential for bad habits, but it is better than burning them out on the instrument altogether and them never playing.

So that is my advice, for what it is worth. Oh, and don't forget to always remind them that everyone sounds like crap when they first start. No one picked up the guitar and started playing amazing stuff. Even Les Paul had to learn the hard way.

Anyway, that is all.

 

[jongitarz]

I just have to say one more time that skabassist13 is wise beyond his years, and he has great insight on this thread...I don't know you, but I'm proud of you. Keep it up young brother!

Jon

 

[OrangeChannel]

SkaBass....I couldn't have put it together any better....that;s awesome. Keep it up dude! Pack....good luck, you might have the next geetar prodigy there.

 

[NorM]

Why can't you people get together and write a manual on raising children. You are all fantastic. I don't have any kids but I remember that someone once asked Steve Morse the same question. Most of all have fun. Learn one of your childs songs that they like on the radio. Then show it to them. (Be thankful Steve doesn't get a lot of radio play)

 

[dochep]

Thought I'd throw in two cents. I've had 3 of my kids who wanted to play. The oldest, who's now 31, just wanted to learn riffs and figure them out on his own. Happy to say he's now an accomplished bass player. With the younger ones (now 16 and 10) they both wanted to play more chord stuff. The hard part was that the 16 year old (daughter) wanted to play Jewell and the 10 year old (son) wanted to play Blink and Puddle of Mud. I started both of them out on 3/4 axes. My daughter used a Taylor baby and my son has a Squire mini Strat. I open tuned the guitars to E so that they could play songs from the first day. All they had to learn was the chromatic scale up the neck and could pick up a songbook and feel really successful from the git go. I think this approach has been pretty successful--after 6 months, my daughter retuned to standard and began learning chords and scales. My son isn't their yet--instead he brought his guitar to me and said he wanted it like Tom Delonge, so we took out the singles, made a new pickguard, and put in a humbucker and single volume. He does his own version of 1 finger power chords!

Hope this helps. I agree with the other folks that it's vital to build in success and involvement or they might lose interest.

 

[musikarero]

What kept me interested when I first started playing was learning songs that I liked. There was a guy up the street where I lived that was selling his guitar and I bugged my dad until he bought it for me. The guy was nice enough to show me first a few cord progressions like G to D to C and then when I got pretty good at fingering the chords, he started showing me simple songs that I wanted to learn. This really helped because I think if I was learning stuff I didn't like I probably wouldn't have continued to play. This was back in the mid 70's and I can still remember sitting on the couch and playing for my dad stuff I was learning. The guitar was a Electra Les Paul copy and I'm pretty sure my dad didn't care too much for the Kiss and Ted Nugent tunes I was learning but he was proud of me just the same...LOL! Anyway my suggestion would be to start your son out learning very simple progressions and then ask him what song he'd like to play. It worked for me...

 

[kbaim]

Not much else to add here as others have pretty much covered just about everything to keep one interested and excited.

I would add that the first thing to teach (or do every time you pick up the guitar) is to tune the thing. For a few bucks now investing in a tuner makes a lot of sense. It's hard enough to make chords sound good when you're first learning them, let alone having strings slightly (or way) out of tune.

Switching between chords needs to be developed early on too. We take it for granted now, but man, anyone remember what a bitch getting to F was and then fretting it cleanly. It seemed impossible in those early years. How the heck were you supposed to bar the first AND second string with one finger???

When you show a new chord, make sure they can get to it from others they know.

Some guitarists play only with a pick, others use fingers. Give them exposure to both.
KEITH

 

[NorM]

I wrote this in a lunchreport but maybe it applies here. This is what happened and worked for me.

I got my first guitar when I was 17. I had learned some licks when I was in boarding school the previous year. When I told my Dad that I wanted to play guitar he said, "Fine, pick out the one you want and I'll pay for half of it." So I saved up a couple hundred dollars (making Pizza) and ended up with a beautiful antique sunburst 12-string acoustic. With the herringbone binding and all, I didn't realize what a nice guitar I had bought. I played the snot out of that guitar but always kept it in great shape. I played sax in jr. high school so I had a basic understanding of music theory and I could read music. I took four guitar lessons and learned mode theory for guitar. I think I turned out OK. Both Keith and Darrell have heard me play before. Go ask them. Dad retired a couple of years ago and mentioned he might like to learn to play guitar. So I said "Well Dad, you paid for half of the 12-string. Take this one back home with you and get your money's worth out of it."

* Norm Smiles -thinking about how much he loves his Father *

 

[pack-rat]

I think it is great that you are spending quality time with your kid. That is a great thing man and probably one of the most important things you will ever do. I used to work with kids, and you would be surprised how many kids grow up not knowing that their parents are aware of them, let alone helping them to acheive a goal.

I was one of those kids. I sure don't want my kids to go through what I went through.

Thanks for the input bros.

It was his first year piano. He can sight read pretty good.

I really like the idea about the Squire mini and learning to tune.
Learning to tune really helps to learn pitch

I am not a pushy kind of guy and I really hate it when i see parents at their kid's hockey games getting stuck into their kids.
With my son it is a thin line at the moment with being not pushy but he can get lazy as well and i have to encourage him to practice as well but not rag on him to the point that he gets discouraged, if you know what i mean.

I think i may have to tie in the piano theory somehow so he can make the conection easier at first.

It is really cool here in where we live. The school system pays for his piano/music lessons. It is a three year program called Music for Young Children. They learn basic theory, piano a bit of voice and history of the main composers and there is money left over for other things for him and a parent must be at the class. The class he is in only had 2 other kids.

 

[skabassist13]

thanks for the compliments guys. it feels nice to be appreciated. i was just passing on the knowledge i had for the betterment of music in general. people help me all the time, so i think if i can help someone ill repay the favor from when someone helped me. it goes in a big circle. some helps you, you help someone, they help someone else, etc., etc. the world becomes a better place. im only 16 and have been playing bass for 5 years, i self taught myself but then i decided to get serious so i got a teacher. ive gotten so much better in 3 months than i did in the first 4 and a half years. i play bass, but i do have a les pual custom knock off i noodle around on, and if there wasnt a bass i would certainly be saving my pennies for an mm. well i still am, but currently the one im going after has 4 strings. maybe one day.......

 

[pack-rat]

...if i can help someone ill repay the favor from when someone helped me. it goes in a big circle. some helps you, you help someone, they help someone else, etc., etc. the world becomes a better place.

I hear ya bro.

I was past 16 (much to my shame) when I figured that out.