How To Set Up Your Child for Success in Beginning Guitar

As a guitar teacher, like any music teacher, I experience a certain amount of student turnover. It was more so when I was a beginning teacher. I saw that a lot of it was due to my disorganization and lack of experience. Today, I have a small amount of students that drop out of lessons. This is due to many reasons, but the most common reason is lack of structure, support and organization provided at home. What typically happens is that the parents have good intentions thinking it's a great idea for the child to take up an instrument. They believe in the benefits of playing a musical instrument and they think that a guitar is a cool choice.  However, if there is no structure working consistently at home, the child is left to fend for themselves and after doing their homework for school, are overbooked with other activities and are distracted by video games and television(more in the last twenty years), and the guitar ends up being last on the list of things to do. As a result, the child ends up showing up to the weekly lesson unprepared and losing every ounce of self confidence they ever had and ultimately losing motivation and quiting.

So in order to avoid a scenario like the one I just described above, I would like to give you my ideas on how to create a structure for your child to thrive on his guitar and be successful.

1.  Create an environment suitable for practicing.
A. It could be in your child's room or wherever you have a quiet space away from distractions.
B. Have a music stand so the guitar can be out of the case with easy access to play.
C. Create a notebook to keep the child's music, notes and assignments from his/her teacher.
D. The parents and child should agree on designated time each day.

For students younger than 12, the teacher, child, and parent need to work together. Every week the teacher should provide your child with explicit directions on what needs to be practiced. I provide my students with a practice sheet which has boxes for each day and what exercise of song should be practiced. Some students like me to write the length of time for each activity. Every week, I go over the sheet with them so we are both clear on what is to be expected of them. I go over the sheet with the parents as well. I also have a space for comments. It is also a good way to be accountable and organized for the child, parent, and me as the teacher.

If these ideas are implemented, the result is the child developes an ability to focus, adapt practicing as daily habit, master the instrument, motivate himself/herself and raise his/her self esteem. He/she can use the same skills for their school work and improve their grades in school.

Playing an instrument can be a life long pleasurable endeavor where there is always something to learn.

For a copy of the practice sheet that I give to my students, feel free to email me a request at garyguitarist@yahoo.com.

If you or anyone you know is interested in learning the guitar, I teach at my studio which is based in Aix-en-Provence; and I also teach via Skype, or Zoom to anyone in the world, as long as they have an internet connection. You can get more information on my website at americanguitar.fr