Learning to Play the Guitar Step by Step for Children and Their Parents
The thesis of this book is children need help gaining the physical skill and conceptual understanding of music making. Who is better invested than you: their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles? If you are one of the 85% of adults who did not have music training, you may feel ill-equipped to help them. Do not be discouraged; this book will help you by giving you a carefully paced step-by-step approach to learning the guitar. It is specifically written to help you and your child succeed. Additionally, there are links to practice recordings to further assist you in the process.
The goal of this book is to make the learning experience enjoyable for you and your children in 24 carefully paced learning steps. I have taken care to vary the musical styles represented in the book, to provide opportunities to learn to improvise, to play alone and with each other! Each step begins with stated goals; each step ends with a Playtime Checklist. The checklist details what to focus on, how to break things down into small achievable goals, and how long to invest in each playtime activity. The timeframe of the daily playtime averages about 30 minutes a day.
This book does not replace the need for securing a qualified and experienced teacher. It is preferable you find a teacher who has extensive classical training and is open-minded to the philosophy and learning approach presented in this book. A thoughtful music teacher considers the needs of the student over any prescribed lesson plan. Such a teacher may favor changing the order of the steps, skipping and returning to material as needed, even introducing added material. Having said that, this book reflects over 40 years of personal experience as a music teacher of children and adults.
~ Best wishes, PJZ