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“Compared with the group music lessons we've tried, I really feel the value in one-on-one guitar lessons. Anthony's patient and encouraging teaching style means that Leo feels challenged, but not overwhelmed. He really feels like he's making progress at his own pace and learning to read music and play some pretty cool songs - so he loves going to guitar lessons with Anthony!”
Linda North, parent of Leo, aged 8

Guitar Lessons for Children

Teaching guitar to kids can be quite a challenge. Initially many children think it would be cool to play guitar but then quickly discover that it’s not as easy as it looks. It requires dedication, concentration and perseverance to make progress from being a complete beginner to be able to competently and strum and smoothly change through the chords of song or co-ordinate the fingers to play melodies and learn the notes on the guitar.

The key for kids progressing on guitar (especially under the age of 10) is their parents. The parent’s role is to help them to practice guitar daily and ensure that they’re playing the exercises set by their guitar teacher. The amount of daily practice time doesn’t have to be long as even 15-20 minutes a day will result in playing improvements. However without this regular practice students won’t progress and will find playing guitar frustrating and chore and eventually give up stopping guitar lessons.

For younger kids progression can be slower than for teenagers and adults due to more limited fine motor skills and shorter attention spans. So for parents it’s important to recognize that most kids won’t be playing Stairway to Heaven or Hotel California after a handful of lessons.

For older kids (10 and up) they generally tend be more independent and should require less supervision with their practice. However the same rules for practice apply to progress on guitar. For older students they should be able to concentrate for longer and be able to practice 30 minutes a day and as a result tend to progress more quickly.

To help students practice I use a few tools to keep them on track. One is a Practice Log where students take note of how many minutes they practice every day. If they can practice 5-6 days a week using the log can help to remind them to do their practice.

Another tool is a practice schedule where the 20 or 30 minute practice time is broken into sections of time focusing on exercises or songs that the student is working on. This is a great tool for kids and parents so they can remember and know exactly what the student should be practicing during the week between lessons.

With the guitar lessons themselves the key is to mix up the necessary (but more difficult or “boring”) elements of learning the guitar with some fun elements. These fun exercises can be easy rock riffs like Smoke On The Water or learning melodies from TV shows and movies that are popular with kids such as Star Wars or The Simpsons. Playing these melodies can help to develop finger co-ordination and finger calluses which are needed to minimise the fingertip pain that all beginners have to go through during the first few weeks of playing.

For older kids and teenagers getting them engaged and motivated through getting them to learns songs from their favourite bands and artists whether it be from Hannah Montana to Metallica.

However to truly progress on the guitar the students will have to spend time working on other important elements such as scales and learning notes on the guitar.