Easy Guitar Lesson
Beginner 6-12+ years - Twinkle Lesson
In this easy guitar lesson, we explore ear training, basic melody playing, and spatial dynamics.
By far the easiest way for a new student to play a melody is to use a single string (the first string). When young learners (and sometimes adult) accomplishes this task, their faces light up. It builds immediate confidence. They instantly know a song.
It is rare that any student cannot succeed with the following material. It is up to a good guide to steer this process. Teaching ultimately comes down to timing and the content of what is delivered.
Eartraining
It is good start start this lesson with an eartraining exercise (depending on age and musicality of student based on your assessment).
The teacher says, "If all of the tones to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star are on this string using opens and closed tones (demonstrate open/closed), and the first 2 tones are open-open, can you find the rest of the melody?"
Hint: 'the tones are up here somewhere' (point at the fretboard).
Draw on blank paper:
0 0
Wait for response...field questions, and write numbers as student locates them, or give as hints. Don't let student hang for too long. Encourage them to sing it aloud. Don't interfere.
You eventually end up with...
0 0 7 7 9 9 7
5 5 4 4 2 2 0
7 7 5 5 4 4 2
7 7 5 5 4 4 2
0 0 7 7 9 9 7
5 5 4 4 2 2 0
Download pdfs of Twinkle
Allow the student to finger (fret) it with whatever they naturally use. Also allow whatever motor surface they gravitate towards (pick, thumb, or index, or even a combination).
Later, in another easy guitar lesson, we will instill (demonstrate) shifting and position using this same tune. Once they know it and can play it in time, we can superimpose concepts and logic to how they play it.
Each student is different, so allow the student to stumble and succeed on their own. Again, timing is paramount.
