How to Teach Someone How to Play the Acoustic Guitar
- 1). Teach your student how to use a guitar tuner as well as how to tune each guitar string. Doing so will also teach the student how to identify when a string is out of tune.
- 2). Teach the student to hold the guitar correctly. The guitar should be held so the student can comfortably strum the strings and reach the fretboard easily. If the guitar is not held in the proper manner, the student may experience muscular fatigue.
- 3). Have the student strum the guitar strings using either a guitar pic or their fingers. This will get the student comfortable with sounding the guitar and will begin to teach muscle memory so the student will learn the proper pressure and speed to strum the strings.
- 4). Teach basic guitar chords. Many songs can be played on the guitar using only a few chords. Teaching a student basic chord progression and how to transition between chords, will allow them to play many songs. Find a beginners song book for guitar for ideas on what chords you should teach first.
- 5). Use a metronome to improve timing. Set the metronome to a slow tempo so as not to frustrate your student. A tempo between 60 and 80 beats per minute is a good pace for beginners to play at.
- 6). Schedule daily practice sessions and weekly lessons. Make sure each practice session surrounds practicing what was learned in the previous lesson and each weekly lesson expands on guitar playing and guitar theory.
