<p>For those of you who play guitar (preferrably acoustic):
I prefer playing fingerstyle, but it's been hard to find good songs that are fingerstyle (i.e. beyond the level of Dust in the Wind), and don't require Spanish rasgueo. Usually I play Michael Hedges songs, and lately I've been working on pieces that would sound much better on a Spanish guitar, and pretty soon I'm going to run out of material. Do you have any artists or songs you would recommend? Michael Hedges remains the only guitarist I actually listen to for guitar music, but I'm sure there are others out there...</p>
<p>And, a second question. Do you remember your first few lessons? A friend of mine has a guitar but her parents won't pay for real lessons so I volunteered to teach her what I can (she said my lessons are worth her taking me out for a drink at Starbucks afterwards, which is a good deal). Do you remember what stretches or drills you did that helped you? What songs you played first? What you would recommend? I'm not sure where to start. It's even more confusing when I realize that she won't want to play what I play, which means me really brushing up on rhythm and lead playing. I don't even own a pick. Ack.
My case was different because I had five years of background as a flutist when I picked up the guitar, so I could read music and memorizing the fingerboard wasn't a big deal. I also had enormous faith in repeating things until my fingers bled - can I teach that?</p>
<p>Hey there. I have played for about 4 years now, acoustic as well ( I play a lot of folkish music and rock stuff). I took lessons for three years, and before i took lessons i learned a little bit on my own- i actually checked out a book called "the idiots guide to guitar" from the library, hehe, to learn some basic chords. I guess you should teach her scales and basic chords? I am not sure what kind of music she is interested in though. Good luck!</p>
<p>Well, a lot of stuff that is played with a pick can be played with fingers. I lost all of my picks a few years ago and never bought any new ones so I played everything with my fingers. I am horrible with a pick now but pretty good with my fingers. They are like 4 picks instead of just one. But assuming you want music written for fingerpicking, so to speak, maybe some classical?</p>
<p>As for the first few lessons, teach her the anatomy of a guitar (what the neck is, what frets are, etc) and if it's an electric what the pickups do, etc. Then teach her some open chords like A, E, D, C, etc and have her work on fingering those and switching between them. Then I'd move into barre chords after she is very good at open switching. I'd only move into leads after she is good with chording.
As for songs to learn, find out what she is into and find some easy songs in that genre that are heavily chord based (and hopefully without a bunch of cool leads she will want to play but can't).
You can't teach work ethic, but she will find out very soon if guitar is something she will want to continue.
As for guitar based music, most rock is guitar based. 80s rock is extremely guitar based. Hair metal solos rock! Check out Shawn Lane ( I LOVE Shawn Lane), Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, and Joe Satriani for guitar instrumental stuff. "Get You Back" by Shawn Lane is one of my all time favorite pieces ever. That is all for you to listen to, by the way, not for her to play as it would be much to hard right now.</p>
<p>Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, and Satriani...for a BEGINNER?!?!??!?!? Yikes!!</p>
<p>Anyway, the advice so far has been good. Don't overlook teaching them how to read music (if they don't know). Sight reading standard notation can be pretty rough on guitar.</p>