Thoughts on Guitar Pedagogy and Andragogy (Part 1)

Teaching children and adults are two very different things, much like the difference between preparing French cuisine and a Chinese banquet. No doubt there are certain basics to be observed in the teaching of both the child and the adult (eg. respect for the learner, clear simple explanations etc.), there are certain issues that I personally feel must be addressed in regard to teaching these two category of guitar students.

Guitar Pedagogy (Strategies for teaching guitar to children):

1) Doing more musical exercises and less explanation. Children are generally not so interested as to why you must generate the strength from your knuckle to play a rest stroke. Noo... they just want to play a simple Yankee Doodle tune and be happy. So start with that first.

2) Slow progression of musical exercises. I've seen children attempt solo guitar (use of thumb and fingers simultaneously) after the fifth lesson. They might spend up to one year only play single melody notes in the first position, consolidating their musical learning.

3) Give rewards or treats. Children love rewards for their effort. Candies, stickers or little stationary gifts work wonders for their self esteem and urge them to be more involved in their learning.

4) Praise and encouragement. Eliminate the scolding and more reasoning as to why they should practise. The more you scold them, the more they detest your lessons.

5) Handholding for the first few months of lesson. You probably have to constantly adjust their fingers constantly due to their lack of physical strength and tenacity.

6) Encourage parents to sit in during lessons and help them during practise time. This is probably the most effective way to train a musical genius. Children really progress rapidly with their parents' involvement.

7) Invent guitar games for them. Turn sightreading into a mini quiz and challenge them on scale playing. Children love anything with a tinge of fun element.

I will share about guitar andragogy on my next blog post. Cheers!