posted
My 9 year old has been "ROCKING IT" on guitar hero and now wants to play a real guitar.
Now, I don't want to spend a fortune on some wanky 'tutor' who plays whatever the guitar equiv of Chopsticks, but neither do I want to get her a tab from Poundland.
What would you suggest would be the best way for a 9 year old to learn the guitar, bearing in mind she has the attention span of a gnat.
Thanks you musical gods you!
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posted
Well you've kind of eliminated both 'tutor' and 'self-taught' there. If you don't want to use either of those than it's going to be tricky - the only option left is to download the knowledge straight into her brain like in the Matrix.
Probably the best route is combination of tutoring and playing at home. Maybe get her like, a lesson a fortnight for a month or two so she learns the basics, but at the same time download tablature of a couple of easy songs so she feels like she's making progress. Something like Louie Louie can be picked up in a matter of minutes by a complete beginner and being able to wring a tune out of a guitar early on makes it a bit easier to find the willpower to practice.
On the other hand, most people I know seem to be largely self-taught so maybe just a guitar and a couple of sheets of tablature and let her work it out. If discipline's a problem, though, she may not have the patience to do it that way, and she'll probably pick up a few bad habits that interfere a bit further down the line.
Obviously there's big differences to learning Guitar Hero and learning real guitar, and a major one is that GH is instantly exciting and engaging, whereas real guitar takes more time to get to the reward. On the other hand, tabalture makes it very easy to learn a few cool riffs, which is great for your self esteem when you're starting out. I recently discovered PowerTab, which plays the notes as it goes through the tablature and is the easiest way of learning songs ever.
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I am not Misc or NWOD. However, the best way is to get a book that teaches chords and ties them into popular songs.
I had one from the 60s or something that taught about 3 chords and then taught you a song that you can play with those chords.
It would then teach another chord and another song you can play with that.
It's very important to learn chords to be able to progress at guitar, but if you're just learning chords with no tying it into the songs then it is going to be impossible for a nine year old to remember them or to keep inspired to play the guitar. However, if they can be playing a song they know within 20 minutes of picking up the guitar and book then it is a huge confidence boost and a massive motivation to keep playing.
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quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Well you've kind of eliminated both 'tutor' and 'self-taught' there. If you don't want to use either of those than it's going to be tricky - the only option left is to download the knowledge straight into her brain like in the Matrix.
That would be good, except I used my allotment on learning how to tie my shoes last week!
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Probably the best route is combination of tutoring and playing at home. Maybe get her like, a lesson a fortnight for a month or two so she learns the basics, but at the same time download tablature of a couple of easy songs so she feels like she's making progress.
I figured this would be the best way it's just that I grew up with a lot of kids who had music lessons and they went ALL the time (at least it seemed that way when it interfered with a party or summat) but they were always shit on the instrument so I thought I'd see what others thought.
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: On the other hand, most people I know seem to be largely self-taught so maybe just a guitar and a couple of sheets of tablature and let her work it out. If discipline's a problem, though, she may not have the patience to do it that way, and she'll probably pick up a few bad habits that interfere a bit further down the line.
Everything I know is pretty much self-taught... I have issues with authority so any sort of tuition is out, and I can't be arsed to read a book so I learn by tinkering. She's not that type of person so I either beat her with a belt until she LEARNS or I go to others outside what I know.
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Obviously there's big differences to learning Guitar Hero and learning real guitar, and a major one is that GH is instantly exciting and engaging, whereas real guitar takes more time to get to the reward.
I *know* that! I didn't think she could rock out to RATM on Easy and then pick up a real axe and rock the show! It has piqued her interest though and despite what my persona here is, I am keen to help develop her interests and likes... *sniffle* To.Be.The.Dad.I.Didn't.Have...*sob*
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: On the other hand, tabalture makes it very easy to learn a few cool riffs, which is great for your self esteem when you're starting out. I recently discovered PowerTab, which plays the notes as it goes through the tablature and is the easiest way of learning songs ever.
Cheers mate, I shall look it up... She's very "sensitive" so the self-esteem will be a good thing.
quote:Originally posted by Cherry In Hove: I am not Misc or NWOD. However,
It's ok... I love you anyway.
quote:Originally posted by Cherry In Hove: I had one from the 60s or something that taught about 3 chords and then taught you a song that you can play with those chords.
It would then teach another chord and another song you can play with that.
You don't happen to know the name/type do you? Putting in 60's guitar book into Google just gives me loads of stuff on Hendrix.
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quote:Originally posted by sabian: You don't happen to know the name/type do you? Putting in 60's guitar book into Google just gives me loads of stuff on Hendrix.
Sorry, I tried googling it as well but couldn't find it. I do still have it at home I believe so I'll look it up for you when I get home.
This book was one that I believe my dad used to teach himself guitar in the 60s or 70s so it is highly unlikely it will still be in print. (It came with a bendy vinly record for tuning the guitar!)
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posted
Lessons are cheap and will be good for her to practice every week. Playing the guitar to a decent standard is only something that will ever come with practice and the lessons will help ensure the practice become a regular thing. Those other dudes are right: a good book with basic chords is a good pickup point as well because it allows you to start playing quickly and easily. It can be vastly unrewarding until you get good. If the tutor is as decent one then they'll teach her very important things: hand exercises, best practices, scales and musical theory. If she can grind through the initial tedium she'll be rocking out in no time. It's the initial time it takes to get 'good' that puts people off. That's why I'm such a shit bassist.
posted
And the perfect accompaniment: the rumba table.
This is like one of Dang's fantastic madcap ideas, except that this guy has actually gone and done it. And he looks so happy with what he's doing (watch the video).
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Sorry, didn't get a chance to reply to this before. The Masketeers have been noodling about with guitars for a little while now. They've got a couple of social-uncles who've shown them a chord or two and they've got a (pretty laid-back) weekly school guitar teacher. We found they've taken to playing through not pushing them and making playing as fun as possible. They started with a crummy electric that was just lying around. We bought them a cheap acoustic from Hank's in Denmark St when hey started their lessons at school. They stuck with it and practiced, albeit infrequently, so we bought them an electro-acoustic (only a cheap one), but the big surge in interest came when we recently bought them a Vox DA5 practice amp. They hardly put their guitars down now. They've got a big kick out of learning simple riffs like Smoke on the Water, Turning Japanese, Stairway; and they're learning blues chords from a Basic Blues Chord book. They like being able to play bits of music they can recognise and can hear fitting into 'real music'. The big booster was the amp, though. If you can afford to fork out for a starter amp that makes their stumbling strumming sound like Rock-Godliness you're onto a winner.
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Unfortanatly, I live in a converted Victorian next door to a QC and upstairs from a drunkerd ex-BBC bint in her 70s so an amp would probably earn me dad-cred but also earn me some time with Bubba too.
That said, I am half tempted to get this for shits and giggles. I emailed some teacher in Hammersmith as it's a stone's throw but he hasn't replied to me yet so I may have to go on the hunt again.
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For any of you Axe-players... If you get a sec, could you give this (linked from the site Blackie gave, cheers!) a look?
£70 a year (thank god for a destroyed US economy!) seems pretty good to me if the lessons actually work but since I don't play I don't know if it's just some chump with a Slash fixation and a PayPal account.
Thanks!
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quote:Originally posted by sabian: Unfortanatly, I live in a converted Victorian next door to a QC and upstairs from a drunkerd ex-BBC bint in her 70s so an amp would probably earn me dad-cred but also earn me some time with Bubba too.
Ah...
Well, the amp we've got has 3 power settings, at the lowest setting you can still get the benefit of the power and overdrive of full volume, but without the actual earsplitting noise. You can get away with practice levels not much above TV-noise.
Failing that, on a more practical level, get her a decent acoustic and pay £20 or so for a decent tuner (you can get a great one that clips on the headstock, I forget what it's called, I'll check and post it up here, if you like?) and invest in some decent strings. You might want to attempt to keep the guitar in tune for her by tuning it when she's in bed or before she practices. One thing I've found that pisses off kids and puts them off practicing is having to spend fifteen minutes tuning a guitar every time they pick it up, or trying to play on an out of tune guitar.
This seems to be one of the big money-things, I've found. The more you spend on a guitar = the less you have to retune it = the easier it is to pick it up and play it = the more fun it is to play = the easier you learn.
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Christ, I must be drunker than I thought. I forgot something else... The electro-acoustic we got the boys was 7/8ths size and has a really narrow body. It makes it about 800% easier for them to hold and play. Kids might find it fiddly scaling up a bit when they move up to a full-size guitar, but, hey... A mate of mine, Dave (Bee-Dave) in fact, is a quite special guitarist. He suggests teaching guitar in an almost tortuous auto-da-fe style method. With a full-size classical Spanish guitar, with a deep body, a broad deep neck, with the strings about a yard from the fretboard and frets made from razor-sharp Toledo steel. His thinking is, if kids learn to play a guitar like that, properly, they'll be able to play any other fucking guitar, any fucking way they please, any fucking time or place they like.
posted
I don't know how old your kids are but if they're into practising their favourite songs you NEED to get them a copy of guitar pro.
It basically gives them the tab, with all the instruments done in midi (assuming some kind soul has made the song) and the ability to play the song at any speed, play along with it, etc. It's amazing, wish I'd had it when I'd been learning as a young un.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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