Guitar Lessons for Children | First Lesson is One Dollar
This content was created for Curtis Music Academy
Starting right where we left off last week, we’ll start with the black notes and I’ll say, did you notice starting at the very top of the guitar with the high notes, that the patterns are in groups of threes and twos and will go all the way down the guitar, alternating between three black notes to two black notes. Lastly, there is usually just one black note at the end of the guitar. This is important to communicate for students looking for guitar lessons for children. And if you’re listening and you know anything about the guitar, there is just one black note. And I always point that out and say, if the guitar extended on forever, this would actually be three black notes. So the pattern does continue, even though there is that one incomplete group of black notes. So we spend a lot of time there. So I might say, can you play all of the three black note patterns starting at the top of the guitar?
And they’ll just go three black notes, three black notes, three black notes, three volcanoes. I might say. Do that with your left hand, do that with your right hand, and then we do the patterns of two black notes all the way down, all the way up. And depending on how long or how well they’re getting it, we might stay there for a while, too. And then I have really cute little fuzzy pipe cleaners that have rolled into balls and the red ones are rolled into balls and then the blue ones are actually made into little sticks. Anyone that is looking for guitar lessons for children would really enjoy this. And so the red balls go in between the two black notes and then the blue sticks go on the three black notes.
And this is really key because then they can really differentiate and distinguish what the two black notes are and what the three black notes are. I just want to make those groups as opposite as possible. It’s two or it’s three. And so usually the older kids have no problem with this. The younger kids might need to go through that several weeks in a row. And when we’re doing this, I say this is kind of like decorating a guitar or decorating a Christmas tree. And they kind of laugh about that because now we’re decorating a guitar. And so it’s just kind of goofy and kind of funny. And so then at that point, we might play the two Black Keys again. We might play the three Black Keys again.
And this is the part where we open up the Purple Book. And The Purple Book is the beginning book for young students in the Faber curriculum. And so the very first song is called Two Black Ends, and the second song is called To Blackbird’s. If you’re interested in taking guitar lessons for children, this is a great way to start off. Both guitar and guitar are great instruments to go through at the beginning. These songs are really funny. That’s one thing I really love about the Faber curriculum. The kids just get a kick out of the drawings on the page. They get a kick out of the song lyrics and they get a kick out of just some of the activities in the book. And so the book is really great for growing and for learning at a young age. So the song to Black Ends, it’s placed on the two black keys of the guitar, going down, starting in the middle, going down.
The cool thing is it actually tells you what fingers to use, fingers, two fingers three. And then the numbers, two and three are in a box. So that means together. So you play finger two and then you play finger three and then you play them together. Then you move down the guitar, do the same thing you have down the guitar and do the same thing. And again, one that’s tight. And so that’s just getting them used to guitar lessons for children. Again, the two black notes playing them and not playing the three black notes. Again, it’s almost like it’s one or the other. It’s almost like they’re opposites. So then the song to Blackbird’s is the opposite in that it goes up the guitar.
So it starts in the middle of the guitar and on the two block notes and it goes up and so it’s fingers two, three, and then the numbers, two, three in a box together. So two, three together you go up an octave, two, three. When you’re ready to continue with your pursuit for guitar lessons for children, you can work through many things. Together, you go up an octave to three together and again two, three together. And so I always tell them this is actually like reading a book at school. And I might ask them, have you ever read a story book in school or have you ever had anyone read a book to you? And all of the kids say yes, because at some point someone has read a book to them. And I tell them that reading music is exactly like reading a book. You start on the left side of the page and you read straight across.
And at this point, too, I like to read the song lyrics. So the song lyrics for two black audiences to black ants digging down to their hole in the ground. And it’s just so surprising how much the kids love reading the lyrics to the songs in the Purple Book. It’s almost like a story to them. Especially when you’re starting off with guitar lessons for children. And so they just really appreciate that. And at that point, usually the one hour music lesson is done. And so we just wrap up there. I make a copy of those pages so that the kids can go home and play all that they’ve learned for that week. And usually at that point, we pick up there and continue on through the Purple Book. Thank you for joining me for this podcast. I will see you next time.