How to Structure Sessions That Your Child Will Love
Think you might have a future rock star on your hands?
If your child is showing interest in learning how to play guitar, right now is the best time to get started honing their skills with formal lessons.
The guitar is an instrument that requires a lot of time and focus to master.However, as a parent, you already know that boring music lessons won’t hold your child’s attention long enough for your dream to become a reality.
Using the right session structure is important to help your child learn how to play skillfully no matter which type of guitar they choose to devote their time to mastering.
Explore Guitar Music Theory
It's important for students to get their hands on the guitar right away and start playing! Along with that, it’s important for them to understand the theory of playing music as well as the instrument itself.
A great guitar teacher will always spend time going over the history of the guitar and the different kinds of music that guitars can produce like classical, rock, blues and even folk. The instructor will also explain the differences between the various types of guitars that your child can learn how to play such as the bass guitar, the electric guitar and the acoustic guitar.
During the theoretical portion of each lesson, your child will also learn about scales, chords and rhythms so that they not only know how to read and play guitar music, but eventually develop the skills necessary to write their own music and melodies.
This is the time to get them excited about the instrument and lay a solid foundation on which they can build a strong future in learning the language of music and the art of playing the guitar.
Focus on Practical Playing Skills
Once your child grasps the basics of the guitar, it’s time for them to get into the really fun stuff and connect theory to playing!
In this part of the lesson your child learns the practical aspects of playing the guitar, like how to hold the instrument properly and precise finger placement for comfortable and effective picking and strumming.
They’ll also learn how to tune a guitar as well as how to play scales, chords and eventually, complete songs while reading from select sheet music.
Experienced music teachers know that an important aspect of learning how to play guitar is being flexible with the player’s physical orientation. Unlike the piano, where you sit to play or stand in one spot, the guitar offers much more freedom of movement. This makes it important for your child to learn how to master the art of playing the guitar while standing and moving around.
After all, they can’t truly rock out unless they feel totally free!
Devote Time for Personal Attention
Young music students need lots of personal attention from their instructor in order to get the most from each guitar lesson.
Time devoted to peer focused lessons is an important part of your child learning how to play the guitar effectively. During these sessions, the instructor gets to track and monitor your child’s progress carefully and provide valuable feedback and encouragement to help them improve their playing skills as quickly as possible. Lessons with a peer offer a variety of learning opportunities, adds a splash of fun and calms those stage jitters.
And most importantly, during these guitar lessons, your child gets the opportunity to ask any questions they have and to get any additional tips, tricks and pointers to help them make continuous progress while learning how to play the guitar.
Have Fun with Group Activities
To keep your child interested in learning how to play the guitar and motivated throughout each lesson, having fun is a must!
Having an awesome instructor who knows how to make learning fun is a great place to start, but to really amp up the fun factor, musical group activities should always come into play (pun totally intended).
Whenever kids gather in a group setting with a common goal of sharpening their instrument playing skills, shenanigans are bound to happen. Mix in several kids playing a variety of instruments, and you practically have a mini rock concert!
At Elevate Rock School, we use a unique combination of buddy lessons and live band sessions for kids to take your child from complete beginner to a guitarist that can play sheet music and rocks out regularly in their very own class band – while loving every minute of it!
If you’re ready to develop your child’s interest and skills in guitar playing, sign up for a FREE lesson and tour to find out more about our program and unconventional teaching style.