Well you might be shocked, because he may not speak English well but music is the universal language. My 11 year old started playing this year and this is what I started him on the first two months. The chords that Mondo mentioned but I started him with a G chord with the pinkie on the G string 3rd fret high E as this is the way I play on 90% of the time and it shifts to a Cadd9 very easy then a D chord and have him jam on those three chords and the only shift that will give a bit of a problem is the D at first but all 3 chords have the ring finger on the D or third fret of the B. Then when they are about to crack lol. You switch it to D-Cadd9-G and back to D. BAM Sweet child O mine and you see a big smile. Then Smoke on the water on the D and G strings but no pick so they play the intro right and get used to using fingers. Very slowly the intro to Crazy Train. Break it into two parts,once he has the first part sown show him the second and make sure he keeps his fingers over the notesand does not lift them too high. Iron Man next since you are just using fifths this you can teach the whole song minus solos. And now he is on Sunshine of your love. And then finish off by teaching the notes of the E and A string and have him write then Eto octave on paper ,same with the A string. Believe me this is enough to keep em busy for a while and there getting a taste of a lot of things and make sure you make him listen to the recordings so he gets the feel and sense of time, Dont be shocked if he knows all these songs. I mean that he could sing them .Good Luck and most important have Patience.

I wouldn't be shocked if he knew those songs, I was talking mainly about the parents. They've been in America long enough that I'm sure he's heard those songs somewhere, I just hope he likes them.

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I guess that you need to really have some good guitar teachers to help you out on your concern here. Good thing that there is this discussion forum to help you out on all the concerns regarding this one!

how about pentatonic scale? might be a way to teach linking notes and riffs.

One sure fire bet as far as music and Russia goes...The Beatles are still like Gods. So a safe plan would be to get a cheap Beatles songbook as a back-up if all else fails teach him how to play Revolution Hey Jude or Back in the USSR. The best results I have always had with teaching someone has come when they can learn to play a song..might take a few lessons but once that happens the rest is a lot less like work and a lot more like fun. More fun= more learning (and its a two way street the best teacher is always a good student) Remember what its all about...communication. Good Luck

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Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancin'

Talk to him!

And remember: music is a universal language. Plus, many of the greatest composers and performers throughout history came from Russia. Music is in their blood!

And most of all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU



Nutter

after almost 30 years of playing (wow, i'm getting old) i barely consider myself a decent player, let alone a teacher. but....i did teach a couple of buddies and one became the music director at his church. (we were strictly learning metallica riffs when he was learning. thats what he requested).
the advice above is great, as usual. it was easy to teach the metal stuff cause thats what we both enjoyed. my only condition was that they both learn to play the basic chords, not just all power chords.
i have all but given up on my current "student". i've tabbed out some simple country tunes that he requested and even re-srung his guitar. i've played each song with him so he could get the visual part as well. his problem is that he seldom, if ever, practices on his own. that is frustrating foe me. these days i play more than ever. at least 2 hours each day after work. i seldom skip a day and i'm playing with more confidence than ever.
practice, practice, practice.
i know you will do your best neighbor. i hope your student takes it seriously and learns the guitar.
oops. long post.

There's your starting point!!!! Find out what he likes music wise. I always find out about my students' musical taste first and then where they want to take guitar.

I, personally, would do that first before making any lessons. You mentioned that his parents said he wanted to ind out if he liked it first. In that case, I would tell his parents to buy/borrow a method book that you have found useful and go through it first before seeking lessons. Tell them to get him to speak to you about anything in the book he doesn't understand and offer advice initially.

I taught two young guys a few years back who were sons of a family friend who knew I had been struggling to get some more students. They decided they were going to 'help' and bought the lads cheap classical guitars and religiously took them round to mine every week to have me teach them whilst their mother gossipped with mine...............

Within a fortnight it was obvious that these kids had no interest in guitar so I told their mother who would not listen until I had to tell them that I needed to stop the lessons. The kids' didn't practice, listen, enjoy playing at all. They just sat there completely uninterested. It was the most stressful lessons I ever gave........I have had disinterested kids try to learn guitar before but when it is people you know.............

I agree with an earlier post that your natural concern will make you a good teacher but just make sure you are happy to give it a try and don't beat yourself up if it becomes too much.

By the way I didn't mean that to sound so negative...........I did consider deleting the post on reading through it but have decided to leave it in as food for thought. Just in my experience, teaching friends, family and neighbours ither goes really well or really badly!

I will end on a more positive by re-iterating Nutters comment.................talk to the guy frst!

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speak slowly I'm a drummer too!!

And I proudly lack a stick or a kazoo up my arse...........

For a first lesson I would teach him about the guitar itself, all the part names, how to tune, etc. Then the 12 notes. Next teach him, Every Boy Goes Down At Evening. Last would be the E maj chord form, how it relates to the root note on the low E and how moving it up and down the neck makes it a different chord. Make sure he brings a notebook.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Wow, I didn't even realize this was my thread when it came back up (it's about one and a half years old). The kid never ended up taking lessons from me. It was probably just something which was mentioned in a conversation between our Moms and it basically got forgotten. Probably for the best, because he's gotten into a lot of serious trouble.

But it was kind of amusing to see my posts again, I was pretty clueless. Now I've been teaching as a substitute quite a bit at work and I've gotten to give several kids their first lessons and I have plenty of teachers to bounce questions and ideas about teaching off of. It's actually a lot of fun now, and it's nice that it pays well too.

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What's up. spambot?

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Well, not a bot, but certainly someone with something to sell. Which explains his revival of this thread. Always pays to check the date on threads - thought this one looked familiar!

Way to go, TGS.

Cheers - C

PS: we don't see mondo500, Mr Bill or Straycat113 around the Forum anymore, do we? Shame: good guys.

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