Guitar Lesson Checklist
Guitar Lesson Checklist
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_Marchionne]John Marchionne
In my article about guitar lessons appropriately titled “Guitar Lessons” I discussed the rash of inappropriate guitar teachers out there just waiting to rip you off. The bright side was I also discussed how to find a good one, an increasingly more and more difficult task. So read that article first, and then, when you’ve done all that I ask of you and you, think you found a good teacher, star the lessons. Keep in mind that after while, you should check for the following, to assure you’ve made the right choice. Not doing this good cost you months, or even years, of waisted lessons. But first, what is the following? Well it’s a check list of where your child or yourself, should be in respect to the amount of time spent with that teacher. Now of course that’s not to say that this is an exact time line. Lets not forget, we must factor in devotion, talent, and time spent practicing, a huge factor, by the way, but thats another article. Look for “How to practice guitar.”
In the first three to four weeks, there should be a marked improvement in the simple physical ability’s of the student. What I mean by that is the way that the student is able to play note to note. He should be able to move more fluently, but not necessarily proficiently. Simply put it should no longer be a laborious task to move amongst the single notes you know how the play, which brings me to the next item on the list. How many notes should the student know how to play and read? Eight. Eight notes on three strings in the first position. The first position! What’s the first position? Don’t panic. It’s simple. Allow me to explain.
Positions on the guitar are dictated by which fret the first finger falls. Frets are the boxes on the front part of the neck of the guitar. If you position your hand so that your first finger falls on the first fret, (box) then you are in the first position. If it falls on the second fret, then you are in the second position. And so on. Now mind you, it is not necessary to teach all notes. Some of the frets will be skipped at this point. Don’t worry, that is proper form. They will be brought back in to play later. That’s the right way to teach it. You’ll just have to trust me on this barring taking a series of music lessons from me. That’ll cost you. This is free. Don’t worry when junior says that he knows the first and second fret but not the second. That’s actually the way I should be. On the first and second string anyway. So knowledge of eight notes in the first position, on the first three strings. On a guitar, the first three strings are the bottom three strings as you hold the guitar properly in a playing stance. The thinest ones. If your student has been at lessons for about a month he should be somewhere in this range.
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