Using effective guitar lesson plans for beginners
Whether you're just starting to teach guitar or have been teaching for years, it's important you use guitar lesson plans specifically designed for each type of student. The guitar lesson plans you use for beginners need to be very different in design and content to the guitar lesson plans for kids or adult students.
Using effective guitar lesson plans not only makes your job as a guitar teacher far easier, but they help the student learn faster.
Guitar lesson plans for a first lesson
If you're about to teach somebody guitar for the first time, the materials you give them in the first lesson are incredibly important. Read through our guide on giving an effective first guitar lesson so you're prepared to give the best quality lesson you can.
The guide lists four guitar lesson plans for beginners to use in the very first lesson. Let's have a look at them and why they're suitable for a first lesson:
BEG-01 Parts of the guitar
This guitar lesson plan simply explains all the part names on both electric and acoustic guitars. This is an 'easy win' for the student because their confidence will straight away improve once they know the part names. Giving this lesson plan to all your new students is a great way to start.
BEG-05 How to read Standard Notation
Whether you decide to teach the student Standard Notation or not, it's worthwhile giving the student this resource as they can use it as a reference if they ever need it.
BEG-04 How to read Guitar TAB
With so many Guitar TABs available you will want to give this resource to all your beginner students. Your student will be excited once they realize how easy it is to learn Guitar TAB. If you can get your student to walk out of the first lesson knowing exactly how to read Guitar TAB, they will be happy and will look forward to the next lesson with you.
BEG-06 1234 Finger Warm-up (non-members can download this guitar lesson plan)
When teaching beginners, it's crucial that you start them off using the correct technique. This guitar lesson plan walks the student through some basic finger warm up exercises. It makes sure they learn to play one note at a time properly. Before you start teaching chords or songs, make sure your student can play these exercises perfectly.
What makes an effective guitar lesson plan
Let's have a look at an effective guitar lesson plan and why it's so effective:
This guitar lesson plan (the left page) introduces the guitar slide to students. It's broken down in to three sections:
- Explanation of the guitar slide
- How to use the guitar slide and what to play
- Examples of simple licks using the guitar slide
What makes this plan so effective is it gives you control over how you teach the material. It has been designed to allow you to explain the guitar slide however you like, then can use the licks and fretboard diagram to get the student started.
The page on the right is the Teacher's Guide which contains a breakdown on one possible way you could give a lesson based on this resource. This is extremely useful for new teachers as it covers all the important points you need to follow to make sure your student learns the material properly.
Access all the guitar lesson plans for beginners you will ever need
The great thing about teaching beginners is that once you get used to the materials and the Teacher's Guides, you will become a pro at teaching beginners. By always using the same guitar lesson plans, you will develop your teaching skills and become a very consistent teacher.
For all the guitar lesson plans for beginners you will ever need, check out our wide range available in the Lesson Materials Section here. Notice that along with guitar lesson plans, there are worksheets available to give your students challenging tasks to try out in between lessons with you.