Games To Teach Children Guitar
Kids just love games and competing against adults and if you set yourself up as the evil "Collector of Points" then you can trick them into increasing their skill levels on the guitar while they think that they are just beating up on you
Guitar Teaching Games
Theres nothing kids like better than staying up late and consuming their own body weight in chocolate unless its getting the better of an adult
Children's literature is awash with tales of the little darlings running rings around us. From Roald Dahl's "Matilda" to the philosopher stoning Harry Potter there appears to be nothing that our younger citizens like better than to make full grown people look a bit stupid.
I could go off on one here about how we dont need kids to help us look daft but then that would be a very different article indeed and you are probably here because you are interested in finding the best method for teaching kids to play the guitar
The method described here is tried and tested and is used by professional guitar teachers the world over so I'd best get on with investigating the use of games in guitar teaching but before I do you could take a quick look at a series of five lessons (with loads of freebies to download from each page) that will guarantee that a child will become able to "really" make speedy progress with a guitar
The First Five Kids Guitar Lessons
Follow the links below to go to each of the first five lessons each of which which come with a FREE PDF lesson plan that you can download today
Kids Guitar Lesson 1
(teach children the first two guitar chords they should know)
Kids Guitar Lesson 2
(two more chords)
Kids Guitar Lesson 3
("Rock Guitar!")
Kids Guitar Lesson 4
("Play That Funky Music")
Kids Guitar Lesson 5
("where do you go from here?")
Kid's Guitar Games'
Guitar Game For Kids: "Simon Says"
A great way to trick students into getting better is to engage them in a game of "Simon Says". All your students will be doing is concentrated practice. They will be developing the ability to move ever more quickly between the shapes but they won't really be thinking about that at all. They will just be focussed on trying to beat you!
This is a valuable and productive activity to engage in when teaching guitar to groups of children and it can be easily be adapted to work with even a single child in a homeschooling guitar lesson.
The game is a simple adaptation of the old children's favourite "Simon Says" where you would say (for example) "Simon Says E minor" before counting in 1-2-3-4- (they strum the chord once where "5" would be).
If you dont use the phrase "Simon Says" then no matter which chord you tell them to strum they are not supposed to play it. If any child in the group strums the chord and you have not prefixed the count in with "Simon Says" then you are free to fine the whole group an arbitrary number of points (I tend to work in millions which is great for fuelling their outrage)
For "Simon Says" (and not for the rest of the lesson I would hasten to add) I usually adopt a "cartoon bad guy" persona. The kids seem to love it almost as much as I do. The one that works for me seems to come out as a cross between Dick Dastardly from Whacky Races and the kind of English Victorian villain about town whose idea of a good time is evicting widows and orphans into the snow. Its all down to personal choice and you could draw inspiration from a cast of characters that includes Monty Burns, Cruella De Ville and any number of the pantomime villains who seem to pass for politicians these days.
$25.00
You will get 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)
The game of 'Simon Says" provides a great fun way of getting kids to become familiar with the most useful guitar chords and the element of competition introduced seems to have the effect of concentrating the mind. It is perfectly possible to get great results from a group using this simple game and the chords on the "First Guitar Chords" sheet for an entire lesson. They are learning to move between chord shapes (you can shorten the count in to "3-4" to speed the changes up if required)
You may also like to follow the link below that takes a look at the bigger picture relating to how to develop good practice regimes with younger students and how the whole thing can be likened to "throwing mud at a wall"
How Kids Guitar Lessons Work
If you look at the "big picture" that underpins what we do when teaching kids to play guitar you will see that in the early (and intermediate) stages we seek to do little more than have our students master eight chord shapes and change between them "in time". This normally takes place over a period of weeks and months. The lessons should be geared towards having our students move between these shapes more rapidly and with less in the way of hesitation. If all they did was move between chord shapes and strum each chord once then it would not be too long before boredom set in There are two ways to effectively achieve our objectives without boring our students to the point that they don't want to play any more.
Certificates of acheivement to reward progress
Follow the link above to find out more about our certificates of acheivement that provide a simple and really effective way to let your younger guitar students know that they are making real progress
If you arrived on this page from a search engine it might be a good idea to take a look at our page that provides an introduction to How to teach Children Guitar: An Overview
Or you could just..........
Take a look at the video below (which even makes sense with the sound muted) The video looks at a series of lessons geared towards getting kids off to a flying start on guitar
The Deluxe Package:
Download all of our products for just $25.00
The Kids Guitar Teaching Materials
More than forty sheets to download and use in your guitar teaching today. This material is designed to run alongside the "Backing Tracks and Handouts Package . All of the material that you need in order to teach kids to play guitar. Chord Charts, One finger (reduced) chord diagrams. An opportunity to start any young would be guitar player off the right way!
The Backing Tracks and Handouts Package
35 Backing Tracks and more than 70 Handouts. An invaluable aid designed to help you to teach both rhythm and lead guitar to younger and older students alike Great for helping to develop a good dense of timing
The Guitar Teacher's Toolkit
100 printable sheets dealing with Open Chords-Bar Chords-Scales- Modes- Blank Fretboard and Chord Grids Teaching Diary and Business Card Designs
Plus 100 Giant (letter sized) Chord Grids
laminate them in order to help you to teach group guitar lessons, distribute them to your students or just stick on your teaching studio wall? The "Coolest Wallpaper on the planet?"
And a freebie from us to you!
The Bass Guitar Teacher's Toolkit
Over 60 Handouts for anyone who already teaches (or who wishes to teach) bass guitar covering Scales, Chords, Fingering Exercises etc
Over 400 Sheets and 35 Backing tracks to Download and use TODAY!
Everything you need to start or improve a guitar teaching business! It's all there!
Only $25.00
HOW TO DOWNLOAD
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