Hi Strum,
I was teaching guitar for about 2-3 years but recently stopped doing it because I got too busy with other things.
For the first lesson with a student I would try to guage their level of playing first to find out how advanced they were and I would ask them what they wanted to learn, what kind of styles of music they liked, etc.
I am of the belief that you can't do a cookie cutter approach to teaching guitar. Not everyone has the same goals, abilities, or interests musically. Some people only want to learn how to accompany their own singing, and other people want to become shred players, etc.
For the more serious players I would try to find out what they already knew, then I would start working on some basics to shore up a few things first. I also tried to use songs as a way to reinforce the theoretical aspects that I was trying to teach. For the people that want to become serious players I would emphasize:
- learning a larger chord vocabulary of movable shapes with root on 6-string, root on 5th-string and root on 4th string.
- getting to know the note names across the neck of the guitar (starting with the 6th string and working our way to the other strings over a period of weeks)
- learning some scales in all 5 positions (I would usually start with the Blues scale over a period of several weeks)
- learning some basic chord progressions that could be used for practicing chords or for soloing
Here are a list of songs that I would draw on for various things:
Wipeout (a good first song, they would learn the main melody and also an open-chord accompaniment. This would usually take a few weeks to master both parts. I would use the accompaniment part to teach them some basic ways to strum and mute, etc)
Silent Night (learning both a melody part and a finger-picked accompaniment)
Wild Thing (open chords only, used to get them familiar with basic strumming and muting)
Day Tripper (good song to use for introducing barre chords along with a cool guitar riff, most students loved this one)
Dock of the Bay (great tune to use for students learning barre chords)
Good Riddance (from Greenday) This is a great song to use for pracitcing open chords and strumming techniques
Dust in the Wind - great for working on the right hand, finger picking patterns, and learning how to get independance with the right hand thumb, etc.
Blackbird - for learning finger picking
Other more advanced tunes:
Sunshine of Your Love (great tune for learning some blues scale licks, bends, phrasing, etc.)
Europa (great tune for demonstrating the use of the Natural Minor scale, and Santana's great playing style and phrasing)
Johnny B. Goode (great for learning some great Chuck Berry licks plus sting bending, of how to mix the Blues scale and Major scale licks together, etc.)
-- Jim
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