Need some serious help from you peeps.

[zeegler]

I agreed to teach my son's friend to play guitar. He's 8 years old, and small for his age. I have no clue how to go about teaching someone to play guitar. What the hell do I do now?

[fett]

For now, just tune the guitar to some open chord. He'll get something out of it.

[Bengal]

What would I do? I'd say I'm in over my head and recommend a good teacher. You never know, this kid could be the next coming of Vai and if not handled right, he could be turned off guitar forever...

That's probably not the senerio this will play out but if you are trying to nurture a small spark this kid may have for guitar, nothing will douse that flame like bad lessons. Maybe pay for the lessons since you did promise to teach him...

Just a thought...

[guitarsjb]

Google online beginner guitar lessons. That should give you some kind of starting point.

[Newc]

Start with Major chords. He'll have to learn those before he can learn a song, because the chords of the songs he wants to learn will have names he'll have to know.

[black cherry]

If he's small for his age, why not start him on a 3/4 scale guitar? It'll be easier for him to fret and he won't have to struggle trying to get a note out in the first place

[sonicsamurai]

start with the notes of the major scale and build up simple melodies. c major - no sharps or flats yet, then a minor. then begin some basic chords, open chords, 5th chords, simple struming patterns, then talk about some basic chord progressions, eg 1-4-5 , and teach some very basic songs, like kill the king by megadeth (all on the open e the main riff) alrite now, whole lotta love, purple haze etc, then start on the caged system, moving chorda around the neck in different positions, the do modes.

[horns666]

Very Simple ..The first thing I showed my kid was the essential plam muted open E chug. Along with two string power and one finger bar chords..that's it.

Shortly after, I showed him how to do pinch harmonics. With that, I created a monster that is kicking my ass and that's no lie!

Fuck all the major/minor bs for now..make it fun first. Let him get his chug along ever so heavily and he will take off. Listen to what he's doing and just keep him on the right track.

My kid is alot like me of course. He just records his riffs on a boom box and strings them together for original songs..

Encourage him , but don't push..he has to have the desire to play..as we all know.

[Argos]

What would I do? I'd say I'm in over my head and recommend a good teacher. You never know, this kid could be the next coming of Vai and if not handled right, he could be turned off guitar forever...

That's probably not the senerio this will play out but if you are trying to nurture a small spark this kid may have for guitar, nothing will douse that flame like bad lessons. Maybe pay for the lessons since you did promise to teach him...

Just a thought...

+1

Amateurs have no place in teaching anyone.

[atomic charvel guy]

get him something that doesn't tear his hands to ribbons, that always turns a lot of people off in the beginning.

[necrotechno]

Ask him what kind of music he likes and start with a song. He'll be more inspired to stick with it if he sees results quickly, even if he doesn't understand the underlying structure of what he learns at first.

Oh, and Rondo has some decent 24" scale strats for $90. Much better than the Squier 22-1/4" scale POS which cost more.

[442w30]

Write down the names of the strings make him name them when he comes over.

Teach him to use a tuner

Teach him the c scale all the way through the first three frets on all 6 strings

Teach him songs like "hot cross buns" and three blind mice.

Then bust out a mel bay book, show him how an amp works, a couple of chords and how distortion works.

That'll be good enough to get through a month or three.

If he makes it through that, get him to a pro teacher or if he really takes off, you could show him some blues jam or something.

[NextInLine]

I'm not a professional I don't have a license or something but I've been teaching like 2+ years.

First thing I do to my students is to tell them what they "shouldn't" do. I mean how they shouldn't hold the guitar and the pick and how they shouldn't finger a fret. I'm not teaching them the "true way of holding the pick" or etc. but I'm giving basic ideas about what they shouldn't do, what would prevent them from getting better or playing a technique etc.

Then try to tell him what his aim in guitar playing should be. I tell my students it's all about giving the feeling you want to by playing the guitar and that is by playing clean with a good metronome, stressing the notes when necessary like a professional. Tell him he has to care for every detail, tell him there's good playing and bad playing of the same thing while both can be mistake free and that he should play good. This should make him really care for the details.

Then start with basic fingering, most probably without using the pinky and without using the lower frets because his hands should be small. 7th to 12th frets are most suitable for that.

Next give him a brief explanation of what alternate picking is and that if he learns to alternate pick he won't have to focus on both hands while playing.

He will probably have difficulty in muting the strings, you'll hear lots of open strings while he's playing ,especially during string changes. Tell him to try to mute them with his left & right hand. Whatever string he's playing on, the basic idea is to mute the lower strings with the right hand and mute the higher strings with the left hand.

And then finally I'd teach him palm muting the open E and power chords. He can have some fun that way. After that point if he likes the idea of playing well and getting better on guitar he'll try to find some professional help or start practising hard himself

Hope that helps and to mention again I'm not a licensed teacher

[zeegler]

To the 2 guys who said he should get proper lessons:

Get a clue guys. I'm giving him lessons for free. If his parents could afford lessons, they wouldn't have asked me to do it. It's either me or nothing, so get off your high horses.

To everyone else, thanks for your opinions.

[El_Kabong]

I'm sorry, 442w30. Mel Bay's mother is doing some nasty stuff in hell for the books her son wrote. There are thousands of ways to start a student off. Mel Bay turned me off. Only Opie could get into those books.

Zeegs, I have an MA in teaching. Do what feels comfortable for you and the lad. If you are not having fun, he won't either. It should be enjoyable and natural with no pressure with a young boy who may be looking for another outlet as he may be getting body checked to death on the street on a daily basis. What works for me may not work for you. In this situation you only have a few tries before both give up, so... don't 'try' at all. Huh??!?!?

I would guess that you like kids, as you said yes to teaching. Find out what he likes when you meet him. At 8, I was into the Beatles, Cheap Trick and KI$$. The pick slide from the into to ,'Detroit, Rock City', kept me going for hours alone. Just be yourself. Good luck.

I know this sounds like non advice, but put 5 of us in a room and ask each of us to teach a child standard tuning and each will do it a different way, with a different sense of urgency, humor and patience.

What motivates him to learn/ What motivates you to teach? Go with it.