This is something I started a little while ago and will be adding to in the coming weeks as a way to help Guitar instructors be more effective in using “Foundations for Guitar” with their students. Its a work in progress... smi
1. For brand-new students who have never played guitar before I usually start them on pages 19-21 and get them playing open chords at the very beginning. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that the student will have to develop some new motor skills in order to play any chords so I have the student working on these chord shapes while we are going through the sections on music reading and rhythm. In a sense you will have two independent lesson plans going for the first few lessons as you drill the open chord exercises and teach the fundamentals on pages 6-17. The second is that we want the student playing music soon rather than later. There are plenty of “dry” exercises in the book and I try to supplement that information with complete songs that I have arranged to be simple enough for a student to play. Due to copyright issues I cannot publish those arrangements but a few song suggestions for you to use are “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison, “Take it Easy” by the Eagles and “Time of Your Life” by Green Day.
2. Every exercise in the book should be done with a metronome, and the students should have a metronome of their own to practice with! When we introduce reading rhythms to students on pages 17, 22, 54 and elsewhere in the book the student should be able to tap their foot with the metronome, count out loud and clap their hands for the rhythms in the exercises. Physically feeling the (mainly quarter note) pulse throughout a piece of music is vitally important and the best way to get a student feeling time consistently on the instrument is to have them be able to perform the rhythms OFF the instrument first.
3. I start students note reading in the 5th position because it makes it easier to learn the whole neck quicker if we start there. In many of the books I used as a beginning student I was started in the open position and I had a giant blind spot (like many of my early students) knowing the notes from the 4th fret to the 12th fret. If we learn to play in the center of the neck and learn how to find root notes when we learn the movable chord shapes then it will be easier to teach a student to read in the other sections of the neck. As students learn a new set of notes it really helps to have them put their finger on each note in an exercise and recite out loud the note names. Even as they play through an exercise I will have them name the notes as they play them or count out loud. It becomes very easy for a student to lose the identity of each note and reading becomes an exercise in rote repetition if the instructor does not insure that the student is remembering the note names. I have had students in the past be able to read in the entire 5th position and not have any idea what the notes are named. If they are aware of what the notes are then we can move them into other positions quickly…this even helps when learning theory, movable chord shapes or soloing. If they are not aware then they might as well be reading tab…
4. Please have them work through the exercises with the recommended fingerings first! On page 28 we are playing both the “B” and “C” notes with the first finger and the “D” with the 3rd finger on purpose. I want the student getting used to moving their hand in and out of a position WITHOUT looking at what they are playing…try to have them reading from the page and not watching their hands. I know that the page can just as easily be played in the 4th position with the 1st, 2nd and 4th fingers but I am trying to build technique without making a big deal about it. In other places I have recommended fingerings because I am trying to demonstrate how to get from one position to another in the most efficient manner. In the real world we use whatever fingerings work easiest for us but I am trying to demonstrate some ways that work more efficiently than what a 1st year guitar student will come up with off the top of their head.
5. All of the eighth note strumming should be played either strictly alternating or strictly “downstroke” unless otherwise noted. Single note exercises should all be picked alternating with the down pick on the “downbeat” and the up pick on the “upbeat”, mirroring the foots motion. We are trying to build a memory of how it feels to play time correctly. If we reinforce these structures then even when they run into a musical situation that does not follow these rules they will be able to play the time more accurately.
1. For brand-new students who have never played guitar before I usually start them on pages 19-21 and get them playing open chords at the very beginning. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that the student will have to develop some new motor skills in order to play any chords so I have the student working on these chord shapes while we are going through the sections on music reading and rhythm. In a sense you will have two independent lesson plans going for the first few lessons as you drill the open chord exercises and teach the fundamentals on pages 6-17. The second is that we want the student playing music soon rather than later. There are plenty of “dry” exercises in the book and I try to supplement that information with complete songs that I have arranged to be simple enough for a student to play. Due to copyright issues I cannot publish those arrangements but a few song suggestions for you to use are “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison, “Take it Easy” by the Eagles and “Time of Your Life” by Green Day.
2. Every exercise in the book should be done with a metronome, and the students should have a metronome of their own to practice with! When we introduce reading rhythms to students on pages 17, 22, 54 and elsewhere in the book the student should be able to tap their foot with the metronome, count out loud and clap their hands for the rhythms in the exercises. Physically feeling the (mainly quarter note) pulse throughout a piece of music is vitally important and the best way to get a student feeling time consistently on the instrument is to have them be able to perform the rhythms OFF the instrument first.
3. I start students note reading in the 5th position because it makes it easier to learn the whole neck quicker if we start there. In many of the books I used as a beginning student I was started in the open position and I had a giant blind spot (like many of my early students) knowing the notes from the 4th fret to the 12th fret. If we learn to play in the center of the neck and learn how to find root notes when we learn the movable chord shapes then it will be easier to teach a student to read in the other sections of the neck. As students learn a new set of notes it really helps to have them put their finger on each note in an exercise and recite out loud the note names. Even as they play through an exercise I will have them name the notes as they play them or count out loud. It becomes very easy for a student to lose the identity of each note and reading becomes an exercise in rote repetition if the instructor does not insure that the student is remembering the note names. I have had students in the past be able to read in the entire 5th position and not have any idea what the notes are named. If they are aware of what the notes are then we can move them into other positions quickly…this even helps when learning theory, movable chord shapes or soloing. If they are not aware then they might as well be reading tab…
4. Please have them work through the exercises with the recommended fingerings first! On page 28 we are playing both the “B” and “C” notes with the first finger and the “D” with the 3rd finger on purpose. I want the student getting used to moving their hand in and out of a position WITHOUT looking at what they are playing…try to have them reading from the page and not watching their hands. I know that the page can just as easily be played in the 4th position with the 1st, 2nd and 4th fingers but I am trying to build technique without making a big deal about it. In other places I have recommended fingerings because I am trying to demonstrate how to get from one position to another in the most efficient manner. In the real world we use whatever fingerings work easiest for us but I am trying to demonstrate some ways that work more efficiently than what a 1st year guitar student will come up with off the top of their head.
5. All of the eighth note strumming should be played either strictly alternating or strictly “downstroke” unless otherwise noted. Single note exercises should all be picked alternating with the down pick on the “downbeat” and the up pick on the “upbeat”, mirroring the foots motion. We are trying to build a memory of how it feels to play time correctly. If we reinforce these structures then even when they run into a musical situation that does not follow these rules they will be able to play the time more accurately.
Like Mark, I often use Green Day's "Good Riddance" as an early song, but I also ask new students to provide me with a list of their five favorite artists and ten favourite songs. If the opportunity presents itself to use one of these songs early on I'll definitely do so. I also supplement the book with some of my own arrangements and and compositions at this stage.
