Teaching a 4 year old

waynepunkdude

I got my little girl a little half sized electric and yesterday I taught her 3 Blind Mice but I found it hard to explain things and to be honest not be a very good teacher, are there any recommended Youtube videos or would it be worth getting her an actual tutor?

Cheers 

munckee

You could start with justin sandercoe online which are free guitar lessons starting from no experience.  Whether he is geared up to maintain the interest of a 4 year old I don't know.

stimpsonslostson

My 7 year old is getting to grips with fretting & playing basic tunes. 
She's had a uke since she was 3 but it's only recently that she's actually wanted to play it rather than use it as a prop while she sings. 

guitars4you

At that age there is nothing wrong with teaching the fundamental 'nursery rhyme' songs - She will know them, so a good base to start from

How you actually teach , then I'm not sure - Some use numbers on the frets/strings and support this on the music itself - Some use colours - ie Top E can be red, or 0 and F can be blue or 1 etc etc

SNAKEBITE

guitars4you said:

At that age there is nothing wrong with teaching the fundamental 'nursery rhyme' songs - She will know them, so a good base to start from

How you actually teach , then I'm not sure - Some use numbers on the frets/strings and support this on the music itself - Some use colours - ie Top E can be red, or 0 and F can be blue or 1 etc etc

Would this work for a 47 year old?

guitars4you

SNAKEBITE said:

guitars4you said:

At that age there is nothing wrong with teaching the fundamental 'nursery rhyme' songs - She will know them, so a good base to start from

How you actually teach , then I'm not sure - Some use numbers on the frets/strings and support this on the music itself - Some use colours - ie Top E can be red, or 0 and F can be blue or 1 etc etc

Would this work for a 47 year old?

I've actually seen it many times on various guitars brought in for a re-string/set-up etc, so some believe in it and yes they weren't 4 year olds

kt66

I'd try to teach some scales and just let them muck about If they're asking to learn a certain song then that's different.
I'd drop a line to "anyonecanplayguitar" great player, teacher, taste and I think would have some good suggestions. 

DB1

kt66 said:

I'd try to teach some scales and just let them muck about If they're asking to learn a certain song then that's different.
I'd drop a line to "anyonecanplayguitar" great player, teacher, taste and I think would have some good suggestions. 

Is that Adrian that you're referring to? If so, he's superb and I think he does beginner's courses on YouTube

jdgm

Don't put any pressure on her....please excuse me, I'm sure you wouldn't!

Iamnobody

This may or may not help.

http://www.guitartots.co.uk

What is quite scary is that after reading this thread earlier (I’m following it carefully as my 7 year old daughter is just showing an interest in guitar) I went on Facebook later tonight (which I rarely do) and the site linked above was a sponsored post. 

gibby

Hi, I'm a full time guitar teacher (young kids to retired adults) and I find the best years to get children lessons are at 6+yrs. Prior to that age, the "vast majority" of young children's co-ordination is not fully developed sufficiently to have formal lesson and it's almost impossible to pick anything up from "youtube" and similar online sites without some basic formal training. Suggest letting your child "bash" away at the guitar in her own way and see if she can make up simple tunes (eg play "twinkle" along 1 string). What I really recommend for youngsters, is simply getting them to listen to a simple tune and see if they can clap along to the beat; so many pupils (especially adults) struggle because they can't follow a tempo/rhythm.  

Lestratcaster

Private tutor here and 4 years old is way too young to learn to play as well for similar reasons to above. In fact the youngest I start with is around 8-10 years old when they've physically developed enough to hold the guitar properly and actually be ready for concentrating for about 30 minutes. But stick to single note stuff if they can, 1 string melodies etc.

neilg

Something I've heared mentioned before is to tune the guitar to an open chord.

Michael84

Honestly...I'd put music videos on and let her dance and air-play with it. Hopefully 10 years later she'd show some interest to start learning seriously