How To Teach Guitar
A step by step guide to effective guitar teaching
Thousands of guitar teachers all over the world use the system, method and materials that you can download from the teachwombat website
Although we have a whole load of music theory based material designed for teachers working with intermediate and more advanced guitar players the reality is that the majority of our customers are beginners or children starting from scratch on the guitar
The early sections of this page will look at teaching a beginner how to play guitar
Folks new to guitar teaching often can't believe how simple it actually is! Here's how it works........
The First Six Guitar Lessons
Guitar Lessons 1-5
During the first five lessons your students will.....
Learn to move between the eight guitar chords that any beginner should learn to play first
You can download five free lesson plans from this page to help get you started
The First Lesson
The lesson will use the guitar teaching resources shown above as well as the chord shapes and sequence in the graphic below
To the left of the image above you can see the guitar lesson plan while the graphic in the centre shows the chords and chord sequence
To the right of the image is a printable practice plan that a teacher can fill in as required and give the student at the end of the lesson
Download a free lesson plan
Download guitar lesson plan 1
Hear the backing track for this lesson
Click to hear the backing track
Teach Guitar with Free Lesson Plans
There are four more lesson plans for you to download on this page
Download guitar lesson plan 2
Download guitar lesson plan 3
Download guitar lesson plan 4
Download guitar lesson plan 5
The result of the first five lessons will be that a student will be able to change between the eight chords that any beginner should learn first and strum them in time to musical backing
Lesson 6 onwards
From lesson six onwards they will......
Build on progress by introducing songs, single note exercises and basic music theory
Review progress and plan future learning
Go to lesson 6 to download the lesson plan
GUITAR TEACHING METHOD
A five step plan for teaching guitar.....
STEP 1:
Teach the first eight chord shapes that all beginners need to know
STEP 2:
Help students to move between chords in time to music
STEP 3:
Use well chosen single note riffs and figures
STEP 4:
Introduce a few guitar technique exercises
STEP 5:
Review progress and plan for future improvement
The next section is an outline of the early lessons
The First Six Guitar Lessons
Follow the links below to find out more about each lesson...
Guitar Lesson 1
Learning to form and move between the chords of G and Em
Guitar Lesson 2
Two new chords (Cand D) and a backing trackthat uses all four chords used to this point
Guitar Lesson 3
A first rock guitar lesson using a chord they already know (G) and a new shape (A)
Guitar Lesson 4
Introducing the final three chords (Am Dm and E) that a beginner needs to master first
Guitar Lesson 5
Recap and planning session
Guitar Lesson 6
Introducing the "three pillars of guitar teaching wisdom"
Lesson six is a really important one!
go to Guitar Lesson 6
Guitar Lesson 6 is not so much a lesson as the jumping off point for a student to make the move from being an absolute beginner who has been working towards forming and strumming simple chord shapes to someone who has a plan that will help turn them into a well rounded and competent musician
How to teach guitar intermediate and advanced guitar players
Download everything that you need to teach beginner, intermediate and advanced guitar
The materials will allow you to teach guitar to players at all stages of their musical journey and the links below will tell you more about specific details of the process
The download itself contains over 450 PDFs covering topics including stuff like music theory for guitar teachers and a bunch of blank guitar neck and chord diagrams that will allow you to custom prepare your own handouts/chord sheets for favourite lessons
There are also 100 Giant Guitar Chord Grids to print and use to decorate your teaching studio wall
We also have a load of printable Bass Guitar Teaching Resources, a set of
Jazz Guitar Teaching Materials,some songwriting tuition stuff and even some Ukulele Teaching Materials
As well as all of the fun stuff the download includes a bunch of documents designed to help with the "boring admin side of a guitar teaching business" (follow the links above to find out more)
$25.00
What's in the download?
If you are planning to teach younger guitar players we've got you covered for that too.....
How To Teach Children Guitar
Guitar teacher's resources made with the younger guitar player in mind
teaching children guitar requires a slightly different approach to working with adult students
Older learners are more likely to "put in the grunt work" by applying themselves to technical exercises etc in the hope and expectation that they will be rewarded with a better technique or increased capability further down the line
Kids (quite rightly) want fun and they want it now and their lessons in the early stages should be made up of activities that "trick" them into developing a solid technique on the guitar while thinking that they are just having a whole load of fun
Download some free "child friendly" guitar lesson plans
If you are particularly interested in teaching younger guitar players you should check out our...
Free Kid's Guitar Lesson Plans'
Or just go to our pages that look at a series of first children's guitar lessons designed to help younger learners really play (rather than "play with") a guitar)
Kids Guitar Lesson 1
Kids Guitar Lesson 2
Kids Guitar Lesson 3
Kids Guitar Lesson 4
Kids Guitar Lesson 5
The earliest stages of guitar playing for both children and older learners is taken up with becoming able to move smoothly between eight basic chords
What happens after a student (of whatever age) can change smoothly between the beginners chords?
Regardless of the age of your students you can follow process outlined below that basically describes what the best guitar teachers have been doing for decades There is no need to "reinvent the wheel". Once a student can move whilst strumming in time between the eight basic chords (normally after a couple of months of lessons although everybody progresses at their own pace) then they are ready to expand their capabilities and work on other areas of guitar playing.This is how that process works.............
Five stage process for effective guitar teaching...
Stage 1: Help your guitar students to change between the eight best beginners chord shapes in time to music
We have a whole load of backing tracks with handouts and chord charts to help you to make this as easy and stress free as possible
Stage 2: Work on well chosen single note riffs and phrases
As a guitar teacher you need to work on the styles of music that you (and your students!) want to hear and to help you do this we have a whole load of customisable blank neck and chord/tab sheets
Stage 3: Bring in power chords and basic music theory
While they are learning to move comfortably between the eight chords that any beginner needs to learn first music theory is of no real use to your student but as soon as they are ready to look at moving power and bar chords around the neck they need to know what notes are called and where they are located
Stage 4: Introduce bar Chords and single note lines that use the pentatonic minor scale
Music theory should be useful and a great way to introduce students to it is by identifying the names of notes on the 5th and 6th strings that can be used to hang bar chords from
Stage 5: Move onto more advanced chords and further develop knowledge of practical music theory
After a student has mastered moving between the eight important beginner friendly chords in time to music lessons can be directed towards the genres and styles of music that they are interested in which will help to maintain their enthusiasm (and your bank balance)
How to teach guitar: Music theory for intermediate and advanced students
Before we look in detail at a series of guitar lessons you may like to look at some of the resources in the download that will help you teach music theory to guitarists or check out some materials designed to assist a teacher who wishes to look at teaching the basics of Jazz Guitar
Teaching guitar to more advanced guitar players
The download also features a whole load of materials that are invaluable to guitar teachers who want to know how to teach more advanced guitar players
Or you could check out some materials designed to assist a teacher who wishes to look at teaching the basics of Jazz GuitarMusic theory is an often misunderstood and neglected subject when it comes to guitar teaching Teach it too early and it is irrelevant to a beginner who is and should be occupied by the aquisition of motor skill and the mastery of basic techniques Teach it too late to a player who can already function on a guitar (even though they have no real understanding of what they are actually doing) and it can seem like music theory is a subject that they can "bypass" (they shouldn't)
Download absolutely everything you see and hear on this website for only $25.00
$25.00
Rather than divide the materials into a series of teaching packs and sell them separately for $25.00 each (as I have been advised to do on numerous occasions by people who know much more about this online marketing malarkey than I do) I would much rather just bundle all of the resources together in a single download and have folks feel like they got a bargain rather than decide between options and run the risk of choosing the wrong one
To help you to get started and to see the quality of our tried and tested materials you may like to ........
Playing In Time To A Band
Help them to play "In Time" from the very start!
Developing the ability to play in time to music is the most important skill that a beginner guitar player can develop and the failure to play in time (rather than to learn to form and strum chords (which is actually the "easy part") is the reason why most people who try to learn to play guitar give up
To help make sure your students play in time we have 35 Guitar Teacher's Backing Tracks with Chord/Scale Charts and tuition materials to go with them that are used by thousands of guitar teachers all over the world
The materials are designed to make your guitar teaching more effective and less stressful
Get a free backing track and chord charts
Printable blank guitar necks, chord and tab sheets that allow you to teach guitar the way that you want to
Make Your Own Professional Looking Resources
In addition there are a host of other resources such as Blank Guitar Neck, Tab and Chord Charts to allow you to produce your own resources
Follow the link below to find out more
Develop Your Guitar Student's Creativity From The Start
You don't have to be a great guitar player (yet) to write a great song. The earlier our students get used to the idea that they can be creative almost from the very first stages of playing guitar then the more they are likely to enjoy the whole process. Before they are familiar with the detail of how music theory works they can still derive great benefit from realising that some combinations of chords tend to work better than others and that a whole load of the songs that they know and love have a lot of chord sequences in common
Its not just Teaching Guitar!
Add another string to your teaching bow!
A lot of guitar teachers are branching out and becoming more versatile by teaching ukulele You could join them
The chord shapes (if not the names) should be pretty familiar to anyone who plays guitar and the material here is designed to work with ten of the backing tracks from the download
How To Teach Jazz Guitar
A Great Option For Teachers Of More Advanced Students
The reality is that most guitar teachers don't have much call to teach jazz guitar as the vast majority of students either have limited interest in it or are not yet ready to study the form due to a lack of theoretical knowledge and technical capacity. Having said that its a great way of keeping more advanced students stimulated and also a very effective means by which we can stretch ourselves as educators.
Developments in technology have created a situation where a guitar teacher can really "travel light" and the phone has now become the nerve centre of many guitar teaching operations
Start a guitar teaching business from your Phone
We offer a "one stop shop" for guitar teachers that allows them to download our resources to, and teach guitar from a phone, tablet or PC. With the rapid advance of mobile phone technology it is now common for guitar teachers (with access the appropriate kit such as air printers/bluetooth technology/mp3 storage etc) to turn up for work armed with little more than a guitar and a phone
Alongside the resources aimed at beginners and children there is also a whole load of materials that can be used when teaching intermediate and more advanced guitar players
There are a whole load of resources designed for teaching music theory to guitar players and even stuff aimed at helping a teacher to understand how songwriting works on guitar
Add the material on teaching ukulele alongside the bass guitar teaching resources in addition to stuff geared towards teaching jazz guitar basics and you can see why I feel justified in claiming that the teachwombat download offers rediculously good value for money
Only the most advanced and versatile guitar teachers will use all of the materials but I think it is fair to claim that anyone who teaches guitar will find that the download makes their teaching better and the process easier
Could You Teach Guitar?
If you have a skill on the guitar combined with an ability to talk and communicate with people, without wanting to resort to "hype" the material that you can download today from this site could be all that you need to change the direction of your working life (or at least help you to make some extra money doing something you love).
Our resources are used by guitar teachers all over the world to make it much easier for them to make a living. Use the links below to look at our materials aimed at both beginner and more advanced students as well as some stuff on the often overlooked subject of helping students to come up with their own original songs
Teaching Guitar Lessons In The Right Order
The objective is to help your students to learn and be familiar with the best and most useful eight chord shapes that a beginner can learn
This site does not offer a "revolutionary original patent guitar teaching method" that I came up with that guarantees years of progress in a single session or any of that kind of nonsense The website is based around what the best guitar teachers on the planet have been quietly doing for decades
Follow the link below to go right to a page that gives you "step by step" instructions for a series of guitar lessons aimed at absolute beginners (the most common type of guitar student out there)
Backing Tracks for Intermediate/Advanced Students
We also have a whole range of guitar backing tracks that go beyond the basics to help you to teach more advanced learners that introduce more "involved" chords and help your students to explore a range of styles, grooves and genres
Back to teaching beginners........
You are strongly recommended to take a few minutes to watch video below. It outlines a structured and proven plan for effectively teaching guitar to an absolute beginner and serves to "put flesh onto the bones" of the written and graphic content of this website
To find out more about developing an effective guitar curriculum you could follow this link
All of the resources that you need to start or improve a guitar teaching business
All of the Guitar Teacher's Backing Tracks, chord sheets and guitar student handouts etc designed to allow you to start or improve a guitar teaching business today
($25.00 is probably less than you will be paid for a single lesson)

























