Free online Guitar lessons for Kids

One of the most important factors in guitar lessons for kids is finding the right teacher. Guitar teacher Raymond L. shares his secrets for finding a great teacher for your child…

In my opinion one of the first qualities, you, as a parent, have to look for in a guitar teacher is that they inspire your child and help them develop a profound love for this beautiful musical instrument.

If your guitar teacher does not inspire your child, very likely they won’t be able to motivate your child or awaken in them a passion for the guitar, which is so essential to assure a progressive and sound development in your child’s musical and technical abilities.

As a parent, you should ask yourself these questions to see if a guitar teacher is right for your child:

1. Does the guitar teacher know how to stimulate a positive attitude in my child?
2. What systems does he or she use to motivate my child?
3. Does the guitar teacher have good teaching skills and experience?

Stimulating a Positive Attitude

It is crucial that your guitar teacher works with your child to create a positive mindset because many students get easily frustrated when they are taking beginner guitar lessons. So the guitar teacher has to help with the anxiety of the student, always making him or her feel at ease.

They should tell your child, from the start, to avoid using the words “hard” or “difficult” in their vocabulary whenever they are experiencing some technical difficulty in playing a piece of music, but rather to substitute the word “challenging” for other words that have a more negative connotation.

Your guitar teacher should encourage your child to never say, “I can’t”, but to say instead, “I will”.

It is also essential for your guitar teacher to get to know your child’s interests: for example what kind of music they love in order to be prepared and able to teach your child those songs, or the type of music that most inspires them.

Your guitar teacher has to establish long-term, intermediate- and short-term goals together with your child, by brainstorming with them and incorporate those goals in the curriculum.

Your guitar teacher should never foster the feeling in your child that they are being punished, for example, making them repeat a song or a passage too many times. On the contrary, they should reinforce the child’s self-confidence by accompanying them, while repeating the song or music section, just enough to keep their interest and help them continue learning.

Motivation

When your child achieves one of their goals and is able to play their first song, riff, or piece of music satisfactorily, they will get what we call in psychology, “intrinsic motivation”.