It’s Never Too Late to Study Guitar from a Pro

Today I gave a one hour introductory guitar lesson to a student in Danville CA who is 66 years young and has been playing for many years. We played 6 string acoustic guitars with bronze strings and the student loves fast pace fiddle songs such as “Wildwood Flower”.  

He has the melody down but is having difficulty playing chords. So, I assigned him the “naming notes” exercise on all strings starting with low E string open, F1(F on 1^st fret),G3,A5,B7,C8,D10 AND E12 which is one octave higher. He then moved on to the other strings (A, D, G, B, High-E). I then gave him a left hand finger stretch on all 6 strings and a chord exercise with roots based on string 6, 5 or top 4 strings. A-major, A-major-9, A-minor, A-minor-9 and A-minor-7.

I pointed out that rhythm guitar is much more difficult because you are constantly varying which strings you are playing to create the chord you want (3, 4, 5 or all 6 strings) and changing the number of chords per measure and the rhythm.

To get the most out of his lessons, I recommend bi-monthly 1-hour guitar lessons at his home in Danville instead of weekly half-hour lessons so he can get into a learning-groove which will help assimilate the material more quickly.

After two weeks we will work on rhythm using a metronome and lead patterns for soloing, as well as putting the melody on string 1 or 2 and playing chords and melody at same time. My student was very excited and looking forward to his next lesson. His confidence will build as he jams with his professional guitar teacher and after 6 months, he will start to see an increase in his speed (tempo) playing chords and soloing.

Guitar & Banjo Lessons
Alamo – Danville – East Bay Area
(925) 695-7060