This has become my favorite beginner's book, because when a little boy shouts with excitement, "That song looks fun!" and starts in playing right away a song that calls for a new technique, my heart is melted.Īnother book I like very much as a supplement is Usborne's Very Easy Guitar Tunes. Lots of easy chords and strumming and counting practice before learning to pick individual notes. It's a great repertoire book, but unlike the Progressive books, it does not teach notereading.īut my real favorite both for learning to read the treble clef and beginning chords is Alfred "Kids Guitar Course" Books 1.īook One is the simplest book I have found for young kids, because it starts with the "baby" C chord - just the one-finger on fret 1 string 2 chord, and stays with it for a few pages before venturing on to the baby G7 chord. Then those techniques are introduced in the last song, Watermelon on the Vine. Just before the final song is another instructional page called How to Play Slurs. It covers slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. There are no eighth notes in the first part of the book. Very simple tunes (such as Railroad Bill, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Wabash Cannonball, Wildwood Flower and Shady Grove) complete with treble clef, guitar tabs, chord symbols, and where necessary, picking indications. Then you turn the page, and it's all music. I guess that's where you, the teacher, come in!) (Unfortunately, there is no real discussion of note values. and one very good page about Picking Technique.Mel Bay's Easiest Country Guitar for Children is one of the cleverest guitar books I have seen! It is nicely laid out- it starts with six simple, uncluttered pages each presenting a single topic: Primarily, I appreciate these books because they start with one new note per page - or even per two pages - NO EIGHTH NOTES (the bane of counting for young kids), and NO TABLATURE to seduce kids away from the task of notereading. To teach reading notes (instead of just guitar tabs) to my youngest guitar students, I like the Progressive books for Young Beginners. They move slowly, and have CDs. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of beginner guitar books out there in music land, and I must have over two dozen myself! But here are the ones I've settled on for now: And they should read standard notation too ( You and I both know that if guitar tabs are there, then that's what they're going to be reading, not the treble staff! But they do need the treble clef notes for the rhythm, unless they pick it up by ear.) The music sheets are usually guitar tablature in combination with standard music notation. I use very easy beginner guitar books for my guitar students, plus music sheets I make up, beginner guitar tabs. They should be learning to read tablature They need to move one small step at a time, because in reality they are bringing together so many different skills. You must encourage them along, and if they make good progress, talk their parents into trading in the clunker guitar.)įor older and adult guitar beginners, these issues even themselves out in not too long.īut young kids who are learning how to play guitar need easy steps, even baby steps, adding up to building blocks. They may not sound good even when they get their skill down, if their folks didn't find them the best beginner guitar. ( Of course, I don't really tell my students their playing sounds bad, even if it does. Oh - you didn't know that learning how to play guitar would involve pain and suffering?" Encourage SOUND. Hmm, you'll have to cut your fingernails. "Squeeze the strings! Squeeze them harder! Just ignore the pain.Now strum - ugh! Then there's the PAIN problem - pressing the strings hard enough to eliminate buzz, to make chords sound good. This is true of most instruments, in fact. What's THAT all about? On the piano the notes stay put - Middle C is always just Middle C. Instead, the beginner guitarist must memorize the fact that there is no real separate note called E#, no real Fb.Īnd a note on one string can easily be duplicated on another string. You can play 4th-fret B on the G string, then move next door to the B string and play the same note open. The frets offer no clues of the existence or non-existence of sharps and flats. The beginner guitar player has no such obvious visual aids. On the guitar neck, it is just frets, and more frets. We can see it just by looking - it is self-evident. And between B & C, and between E & F, there are no black notes. On a piano keyboard, we can look and see that between C & D is a black note, called either C sharp or D flat.
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