I would want to try to get my brother into playing guitar.

He want to learn to play but he looses his interest after maybe 15-30 minutes. And he's an absolute newbie at instruments.

So what should I do to keep him interested?

Start out with some songs and stuff like that?

I already taught him the intro to Iron Man and he seemed happy when he could pull it off by himself, on 1 string

And well yeah as I said, he wants to learn but he looses his interest very fast and says things like "I'm to bad"

Any help appreciated

This post has been edited by Red: Jul 13 2009, 11:26 PM

1. Is he truly interested or does he agree to try in order to please you (I'm assuming you are his elder).

2. Constant encouragement and positive reinforcement!

3. Start as simple as possible, some things that are already be natural to you may not be natural for him. It's a very easy mistake for us to make when we attempt to teach others that something as simple as strumming or picking a single note is NOT natural for a true beginner.

He is truly interested, or at least it isn't because he wants to please me

And I'm telling him things like that he got guitar playing in him and avoiding to point out small mistakes he does.

And on the last, I am starting as simple as I can but I don't have many ideas about what I should teach him, so any tip would be great

Thanks for the answer.

Hi maybe try to teach him the simple powerchord shape.
I had to play Pentatonics up and down all the time in the beginning with my guitar teacher and lost motivation too.

I think if he learns to play some powerchords he could try to play the smoke on the water intro.
Hmm...but maybe he is the 21344235435 new guitar player on earth hwo learns this in the beginning...
Anyways its a great motovation if you can crank up the distortion and play something that sounds like real rock music in the beginning.

greetings...


This post has been edited by Moonchild: Jul 13 2009, 11:35 PM

I will try some powerchords with him tomorrow, and I think you are right about the distortion too maybe he wants to become a rockstar when I'm done with him

Power chords and some simple chords first,
teach him to play some easy melody,
it should work on single string as well.
Then leave it to him to see how it goes,
if he bites it nicely then you're set to go.
If not, try few more times and make him stop saying
how bad he is.

I have been doing this melody thing with him, and he already knows a few chords.
But he isn't very great at changing between chords.

So is that something I should help him with before I leave him alone or should I just teach him how to hold the chords?

This post has been edited by Red: Jul 13 2009, 11:59 PM

Well yeah, blending chords together is real pain for beginner,
I'm sure you can remember how you dealt with it!
Spend some time with him, help him with smoother transition with chords, simply chords.
Once he manage that it'll be easier for him to
mess around with more complex chords including bare ones.

Perhaps start with chords that are an easier transition. E, Amin for example (or E and A sus2!) aren't too demanding early on?

Thanks a lot guys

But I think that he would think it was funnier if he learned some song by chords and not just to change between them, so any tip on easy chord songs that is fun to play?

Oh that was a pain and still sometimes is
Maybe ha can try G, Emin, C, Amin (Redemption Song - Bob Marley)
It´s an easy progression and sounds cool...

Knocking on Heavens door: G, D, Am and G, D, C (a bit more challenging because he have to change all the fingers)

I think one of the important things beside the technique is to keep the motivation up with easy but good sounding small stuff...



This post has been edited by Moonchild: Jul 14 2009, 01:03 AM

Uriah Heep - Lady in Black

this one has only Am and G. One of the most famous tunes of all times in just 2 chords. You can then play the vocal melody on another guitar and that might sound interesting for him.

Pink Floyd - Breathe (Emin, A) ... wow, did I really not click post like an hour ago?

AC/DC songs are really easy to learn chords and rhythm when you’re just starting. Worked for me.

When my brother wanted me to get into guitar, he taught me Neil Young, Heart of Gold. Em, D, G and C...I think. I was making music right away.

I think that fingerpicking house of the rising sun isn't too demanding, it was probably one of the first things I learned. Take one chord on a day and he'll have it figured out in one week.

The beatles... Some kiss riffs are very easy yet good sounding, maybe a rolling stones song? Some of their songs are very easy.

-edit- house of the rising sun is very good because it sounds good at almost any speed.

This post has been edited by Oxac: Jul 14 2009, 09:02 AM

I think I will go with some AC/DC with him, as he likes that kind of music

And House of the Rising Sun would also work I think, don't get how I could forget about that one.

Will look into all of the songs you guys listed also to see if It's something for him.

Thanks a lot

Maybe this is not what you want to hear, but trying to push him to play might make him walk away from it. When my little brother was about 7 I wanted him to play guitar and started trying to teach him, and he was the same as your brother, got bored fast.

I tried for a while , but then I decided to let him be, years passed, maybe like 3, and one day while I am playing my guitar he asks. "Bro I really want to learn now, teach me how to play"

I gave him a few exercises, basic chords and off he went, he developed his own style and technique, and his own taste for music as well.

Here he is playing like a madman:


And again, having fun with me playing technical difficulties


This post has been edited by Jose Mena: Jul 14 2009, 02:46 PM

Ahhh, that's awesome, Jose!

Wow Jose, your brother plays great. Well done