5 Secrets Of Teaching Guitar To Kid Guitar Students
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The better you are at teaching guitar to kids…
…the more fun your guitar teaching career becomes.
Not to mention:
This also makes it much easier to make a lot of money teaching guitar.
Here is why:
When you are good at teaching guitar to kids…
…your kid guitar students can potentially keep taking lessons with you for a long time (many years).
And if you are really good...
... then, someday *their* kid guitar students will come to you for lessons.
(I'm not kidding. This actually has happened to some guitar teachers I mentored.)
Plus:
The longer your guitar students stay with you...
...the better they become as guitar players and the less work you have to do to fill holes in your schedule.
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
Here are 5 secrets few guitar teachers know about teaching guitar to kids:
How To Teach Guitar To Kids Tip #1. Your Guitar Students MUST Have Fun
Your #1 job is to keep your kid students *wanting* to come back to their next lesson.
If your kid guitar students are not having fun – it won’t be long before their parents pull them out of lessons.
And that’s not good for anybody, because your kid guitar students miss out on a lot of learning…
…and you miss out on the income you could have made from teaching guitar to kids.
How do you do this?
Simple: think of what kid guitar students already find fun to do outside of guitar lessons.
Hint: One BIG thing is: playing games.
So, here is your guitar teaching assignment.
Sit down and brainstorm all the ways you can make your guitar lessons feel more like a game for your kid guitar students instead of like “school” or “work”.
What fun challenges can you create that motivate kids to practice what you’re teaching them?
How can you create and promote healthy competition among your guitar students?
Answers to these questions give you an endless stream of ideas on how to run your guitar lessons when you are teaching guitar to kids.
And as you are thinking, keep in mind that:
Most kid guitar students are all about instant gratification. Very few want to work on something for months with little to show for it. (More on this below.)
Plus: kid guitar students also value recognition.
Meaning: they like to feel like they are #1 and they love to win.
Look for ways to structure your guitar lessons with these understandings in mind and you’ll be light years ahead of 99.99% of other guitar teachers.
Want to see even more examples of how to give you guitar students instant victories (whether you teach guitar to kids or have adult guitar students)?
Watch this video:
That said, if you are struggling to think of ideas based on the examples in this article, you’ll benefit a lot from guitar teacher training.
Also:
The easiest way to make guitar lessons fun when teaching guitar to kids is to follow…
How To Teach Guitar To Kids Tip #2. Teach Your Kid Guitar Students In Groups
When you teach group lessons the right way, they are way more fun than private lessons.
Teaching guitar in group guitar lessons gives you plenty of chances to turn guitar lessons into a fun game where all your students feel engaged & recognized.
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They see that they are not the only ones making mistakes when learning something new.
They don’t feel silly for asking questions.
They quickly make friends with your other kid guitar students.
All this helps them become better guitar players faster.
Plus: playing in groups helps your kid guitar students develop real-life guitar playing skills and feel like true musicians.
Things like: ability to overcome stage fright (they never learn this in private lessons), playing in time, and playing with other musicians.
Question: “But Tom Hess, I think teaching guitar in private lessons is better because each of my guitar students gets my full attention!”
Answer: Yes, they do… except, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Because your undivided attention atrophies any personal responsibility your students have for their own learning.
When you are teaching guitar in groups, your guitar students (both kid guitar students and adults) have to be proactive and ask questions when they are stuck, take notes, pay attention and think for themselves. (Even though you are there to help them along the way.)
This trains them to do a better job when they practice guitar at home. And that means, your guitar students become better players faster and make you – their guitar teacher - look awesome.
Not to mention: your kid guitar students are already used to learning in groups. They learn in groups in schools. They learn and train in groups in sports. They play in groups with their friends. Why should teaching guitar lessons be any different?
How To Teach Guitar To Kids Tip #3. Get Your Kid Guitar Students Playing Music ASAP
Few guitar students (and even fewer kids) want to work on a skill for months with nothing to show for it.
So, as you are teaching guitar, get your kid students playing simple versions of song and melodies they (and their parents) can recognize. This not only helps your kid guitar students have fun, but also impresses their parents.
The secret to doing this?
Train your kid guitar students to change chords smoothly.
Tip: you can start with very simple guitar chords (that don’t even use all 6 strings).
Switching between these (simple) chords is a huge milestone and a massive boost for your kid guitar students’ confidence.
Watch this video to see the best ways to get your guitar students (kids and adults) to practice difficult chord changes as you’re teaching guitar to them:
How To Teach Guitar To Kids Tip #4. Get Good At Teaching Guitar Using The Geometric ApproachTM
The Geometric ApproachTM helps your guitar students develop their skills more quickly and have a lot more fun in the process. This is better than the linear approach (where your students stay on one topic for a long time before moving on).
When you design your guitar lesson strategy for your kid guitar students, think about all skills they’ll need to get their guitar playing off the ground and have fun along the way.
And while you are teaching guitar to kids, make sure that all (or at least most of) the necessary skills are improving at the same time. (Instead of one at a time.)
This ensures your kid guitar students have fun every step of the way and your guitar teaching job becomes much easier and more rewarding.
Watch this video to see a demonstration of the Geometric ApproachTM:
How To Teach Guitar To Kids Tip #5. Get The Parents On Your Side
The more your students’ parents see their child improve and have fun, the more committed they’ll be to keep them in lessons with you.
Here are the best ways to do this:
1. Talk to the parents of your kid guitar students before they start lessons. Explain to them how guitar lessons (and specifically – guitar lessons with you) will help their child as they get older.
This not only helps parents decide to sign up their child for guitar lessons with you…
… it also helps them prioritize guitar lessons over other activities their child could be involved in (like sports).
2. Show the parents of your kid guitar students proof of how well their child is doing. All parents love seeing other people praise their children. This makes them feel proud and even more certain they made the right decision to enroll their child into guitar lessons with you.
Now that you know 5 big secrets of teaching guitar to kids, what’s next?
The next step is to get good at keeping your guitar students with you for a long time (years). When this happens, your job as a guitar teacher becomes easier and your guitar students become much better guitar players. I can show you how to keep your guitar students much longer in my free eGuide called: “How To Keep Your Guitar Students Taking Lessons With You For Years”.
Download it today and discover the guitar teaching secrets most guitar teachers will never know.
Want to teach guitar for a living? Learn how by getting guitar teacher training.
