Reply To: Listening component in guitar class

[nafmeadmin]

I’ll play the original versions of a song we’re working on, so they can hear how the guitar fits in. This works for any genre. For example, we usually do Surfin’ USA pretty early on, and I play the Beach Boys version after we’ve learned to play it for a bit. With certain songs they can listen for the strumming pattern (which they may or may not be able to replicate).

I also love playing the “Axis of Awesome 4 chords” video from youtube (be careful, a bad word near the end) for them once we’ve learned a number of progressions. They can play the progression used for the songs easily in first year once they can play G – C – D – Em. Google “pop-punk progression” and you get a list of the billion pop songs that use the progression. The kids love it because they are songs they recognize, and I find it motivates them to practice more.