A Fifth Children's Guitar Lesson
This kid's guitar lesson is a very important recap and planning session where they look again at all of the chords that they have learned to date and start to get a plan for future study.
Learning is reinforced and progress to this point is assessed, recognised and rewarded with the certificate of achievement you can see below
An Important Milestone!
About this lesson
This session looks back at the previous four lessons and is geared towards the awarding of a certificate of achievement recognising a childs ability to moove smoothly between eight chords It ties up any "loose ends" (such as forming full rather than "reduced" chord shapes etc) that will inevitably have developed by this point in the proceedings
What we know (and they don't) is that however long it takes to get to this point we don't give them the exam until we're pretty sure they're going to pass it
Don't worry at all if it took more than four lessons to get to this point'
For the sake of simplicity and clarity I have presented this material as a series of four lessons but the reality is that it normally takes more than four sessions to get to this point
Kids forget stuff! They are easily distracted and they are consumed with the idea of having fun right now
This is as it should be and if it takes more than four sessions to get to this first milestone (the presentation of a certificate recognising their ability to remember and move between eight chords in time to music) nobody is doing anything wrong
This session can be where you use the backing tracks again to work on full chord shapes (for the G, Em and C chords) as required rather than the one finger versions of chords
Two "Big Picture" objectives and a summary of the lessons so far
Everything that we have done up to this point All of the chord shapes, all of the counting "1-2-3-4" and all of the working with guitar backing tracks has been in the service of the following two objectives
Objective 1:
Children should be able to form and remember eight chord shapes
Objective 2:
Kids should also be able to change between those chords in time to a band
Take the opportunity to revisit each of the backing tracks again
Ask your student to play along to all of the backing tracks encountered to this point and look for any gaps in knowledge such as forgotten or incorrectly formed chords
The Resources In Action
The G to Em backing track
Alongside the backing track there are chord charts featuring both the reduced and "full" versions of the chords
There are also a bunch of certificates that can be used to recognise effort and achievement that can be used with relation to the chords covered during the first five lessons
The D to C backing track
A chord chart and the option of using either the full or the reduced one finger version of the c chord
The G Em C and D backing track
Again a chord chart and the option of using full or one finger versions of the chords if required
The A to G ("Rock") backing track
Chord chart introducing the new chord of A and either the full or one finger version of the G chord
The Am Dm and E backing track
The final three chord shapes that a beginner needs to learn
Because all of the fingers for the new chord shapes are grouped together fairly closely and therefore there is no stretching required there is no need to use the option of one finger chord shapes for these three chords
Awarding The Certificates
If they can remember the shapes and play along to the tracks (even if they only strum once as each chord changes) then award the "eight chord shapes" certificate shown above and tell them whats going to happen next
The certificates are designed to recognise the efforts of your younger students. When I started using these myself (after many years of teaching younger kids to play guitar) I was stunned to see how popular they were and as a guitar teacher it was great to know that they got tucked safely into guitar cases or school bags to let their parents know just how well thay are doing and what they have achieved. The fact that the certificates also act as a reminder of just why they are paying you and as an encouragement to continue to do so is an added bonus
What happens Next?
When students have reached a point where they can move between the eight chords studied up to this point in time to backing tracks it makes sense to encourage them in three areas
1: Learning New Chord Shapes
2: Getting better at moving between the chords that they already know
3: Learning "Real Songs"
Introducing New Chords
The track below (for which you can see a chord chart in the graphic above) uses a new chord of F where learners are required to hold down two strings with a single finger (the first) the shape is way too difficult for a beginner and it is reasonable to argue that when a child can incorporate the F shape into their repertoire of chord shapes that they have moved beyond the beginner stage
C F and G Chord Progression
Alongside teaching new chords we also want our students to get bettwe at playing the chords that they have encountered to this point
Just Like Jimi!
The backing track below requires that kids play five of the eight chords that they have already studied and makes a noise not a million miles away from a classic rock song by Jimi Hendrix and if you get a child working in the same territory as one of the world's most iconic and influential musicians you must be doing something right :)?
Once they can move smoothly between chords they can start to play songs that they know and love
Learning "Real Songs and Riffs"
Included in the download are a whole load of blank guitar necks ant chord/tab sheets that you can use to help students play the music that they (and you) want to play
You can prepare chord charts etc for songs or tab sheets for tunes/riffs before or even during a guitar lesson with a set of resources that mean that you are always ready or prepared when it comes to getting your message over
Guitar Teaching Games
A really effective way to reinforce knowledge and capabilities is to engage your students in Guitar Teaching Games such as "Simon Says" in which they can be "tricked" into improving while they think that they are just having fun.
This session is a great opportunity to recognise the achievements of your younger students and to award the certificates shown above to let them (and their parents!) know just how hard they have worked and what tangible progress has been made
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
Guitar Teaching Is Like Flinging Mud At A Wall!
A very wise old guitar teacher told me once that teaching was just like throwing mud at a wall (except he did not use the term "mud" but another word for a much less pleasant substance!)
"Some of it sticks to the wall and some of it falls off" he said before adding "The role of a good teacher is to determine what has fallen off the wall, to pick it up and throw it again until it is all up there"
Not too pleasant (particularly when you factor in his original choice of subject) but after all my years of teaching the single best definition of what it is to be an effective guitar teacher
"Guitar Teaching Is About Guitar Learning....
Guitar Teaching is about guitar learning and absolutely nothing else. Teaching is not something you do in isolation If your students do not learn then you have not taught You have only talked. This point in the programme is a good time to remind ourselves of the big picture and to look at why we are doing this and what we want to happen as a result of our lessons
The Deluxe Package:
Download all of our products for just $25.00
HOW TO DOWNLOAD
the teachwombat materials
Buy your teachwombat.com toolkits in complete safety via any major credit card (through paypal) or directly through your paypal account if you have one. If you choose to use a credit card, rest assured that we never see your credit card details as paypal do all of that for us.
When Paypal receive your payment you will be immediately invited to click a
"RETURN TO MERCHANT"button.
You will be taken to a page from where you can download the products that you have paid for NOW!
In the (rare) event that something should go wrong with the order/download process just email me at robh@teachwombat.com
I will check the order and send you the links that will get you to your stuff.
Cheers! Rob!
They take care of the payment side and you can be sure that we never get to see your credit card details