Teaching A Beginner

So I got a GT account to help myself improve. I've been playing for 16 years, off and on, and have recently got the luxury of a couple hours at home after work by myself every day, so I decided to pick it up again. I figured I'd start at the beginning of the Fundamentals courses just in case I'd missed something over the years. I flew through those pretty quickly (and did happen to learn a thing or two) but then my 13 year old daughter decided she wants to learn the guitar. So the other day I started her out on fundamentals #1, with me there to answer questions and help out. I had forgotten how difficult it really is for a beginner, with no musical experience, to learn to play. I taught myself more or less (no lessons, only playing with other friends that were also beginners). So I guess my question is, how long should it take for a true beginner to get through the first fundamentals course? She can play a few fretted notes, but her fingers start to hurt pretty quickly and she's getting frustrated already. I don't want her to give up on it, so I just need some guidance on methods of teaching a true beginner with a low tolerance for pain. Any thoughts or tips?

well, i began 2 weeks ago and am now up to half way through fundamentals 2 without any troubles. i do this about an hour a day if that. good luck to you and your kid. buy her a pink hello kitty stratocaster, she will love it !

Yeah, I've seen those pink strats... I'm thinking for Easter if she makes it that long :)

Originally Posted by: jedftYeah, I've seen those pink strats... I'm thinking for Easter if she makes it that long :)

It might help maintain her interest to get her onto some 3 chord song asap. Theory is dry and not inspiring to someone who wants to make music. (Make vs. Learn. It is only much later in life that I give a crap about theory. That's just me, but it's there.)

If she likes rock, maybe get her doing Every Rose has it's Thorn by Poison, something like that. Best if you can find something in her preferred genre that she actually likes that will be easy to learn.

In my opinion, that will fire her up.

For insiration you might surf for Orianthi ...

Or check out a few names off of this list
http://www.bluesforpeace.com/female-guitarists.htm

Also remind her that most guitarist had to go through the finger pain and it's temporary..

The value of theory goes beyond playing the guitar and at her age she still has a good learning curve.

I like what Razbo says about getting her into an actual piece of music. Then incorperate that with the therory part. To me that makes theory more interesting. At least to me..

What a great way for father daughter bonding...

good luck and keep on pickin'

Cool, let me know how this develops...I've been thinking of teaching guitar in the next year or so and want to teach well, not just play well.

I didn't take the fundamental course on here yet, because I've been working through a lot of various books, dvds, and such for the past few months as a new beginner and I just happened to stumble onto here the past week. But learning chords alone took me a few days to just get one of them down properly, let alone keeping the shape in memory. It was really, really frustrating thinking my fingers were all wrong for it. But its just practice. One morning I woke up, played the C chord without muting anything, and without much effort and it put a big smile on my face. The night before I was ready to give up.

After I got C and G down, the others came much easier. I still can't really change them very fast even after two months. Probably because I'm not putting much effort into learning songs yet, I've been doing nothing but practice and theory. I was totally new as of 12/25/2009 with nothing but a few weeks playing the flute back in 6th grade nearly 25 years ago.

I don't know if this is typical, but that is how it was for me. Few days to get a chord, another week to learn a few more.

You should find out if in her school they offer guitar lessons. They go by pretty slow, but she'll make it through. So far of my school year I've learned: C, G7, E7, B7, Am, E, Em, G, D, D7, Dm, A. It will sure help her a lot.
It also depends on the type of guitar you're having her learn on. I have a steel string guitarand I know my fingers hurt the most with that one then when I use my school's nylon guitars. They're not so hard on your fingers. And you might try getting her to learn Houndog or Eleanor Rigby, those are not very hard, and are fun to play, especially when you mess around with them using different strumming variations.