Guitar Lessons for Kids

A guitar can be a wonderful musical instrument to gift your child, especially if he or she happens to have discovered a newfound interest in music. An acoustic guitar is a perfect gift for beginners to guitar-playing. Once your child has understood and practiced the basics of guitar using an acoustic guitar, he or she can later move on to other guitar types such as an electric guitar or a bass guitar. On that note, let us have a look at some basic acoustic guitar lessons for kids.

Beginner Guitar Lessons for Kids
Let us begin with how to tune an acoustic guitar before we move on to strumming patterns, chords, playing leads, reading guitar tabs, etc.

Tuning an Acoustic Guitar
You can tune a guitar in multiple ways - by ear, using the reference of another musical instrument such as a keyboard, by using a digital tuner, etc. The simplest way for kids would be to use a digital guitar tuner. It is a pocket-sized device that you need to attach to the end of the guitar neck (between the tuner knobs). Almost all of them are powered by a simple CR 2032 battery. After you turn on the tuner, play the 'e' string i.e. the thinnest string on the guitar. Starting from the thinnest string and moving towards the thickest one, the six guitar strings are named e, B, G, D, A and E respectively. Play each string and observe the light on the tuner. A green light indicates that the string is accurately tuned. Slightly adjust the string tuners until the light turns green. Repeat this procedure for each of the strings.

Playing an Octave
Let us have a look at how to play an octave on the B string. When you play the B string in an open position, it naturally produces the B note. Now here's how to play an octave beginning with B. First play the B note using an open string (B note), then play it in the second fret (C# note), then the fourth fret (D# note), followed by the fifth fret (E note). Next comes the seventh fret (F# note), then the ninth (G# note), followed by the eleventh fret (A# note). Finally, the twelfth fret (B note) finishes off the B octave. Play this octave a few times in an ascending as well as descending order. It will help you to get an understanding of the different musical notes as well as the sound of each note.

Chords and Strumming Patterns
Playing chords is something that you should look at, once you are well-versed with a little bit of lead playing. As a beginner to chord playing, you should ideally begin with a couple of strumming patterns involving the C, A minor, F and G chords. They are simple enough for you to attempt as a beginner and will also help in improving your fingering. Strumming patterns are normally described in the form of 'down-up' strokes. Here are a couple of easy strumming patterns that you can begin with.

Pattern #1
Here the basic strumming pattern will be |down| |down down down| with '| |' being an indication of the stroke timing. Play this basic strumming pattern for the chords C, A minor, F and G (in the same order). You can get hold of the finger positions for these chords through any common guitar handbook or through the Internet.

Pattern #2
In this case, we will modify the above strumming pattern to |down up| |down down down|. The involved chords and their sequence remains the same as above. As you play this particular pattern, observe the difference in the sound produced, as compared to the sound produced when playing the earlier pattern. Observing and understanding these small nuances is extremely important if you wish to progress towards becoming an expert guitarist.

These were a few basic guitar lessons for kids. Keep on practicing until your hand and your fingers get acquainted with the different finger positions and strumming patterns. Once you gain a little bit of confidence and skill, you can then consider moving on to some advanced guitar lessons.