Kids Guitar Lesson 1

Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

Jean Welles Worship Guitar TM Class for KIDS Volume One With

Jean Welles

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

Contents

Introduction  –  4

How to learn with this system  –  4 The Practice Sessions  –  5

Tuning the Guitar  –  6

Tune with the video  –  6 Tune with a piano  –  6 Tune with a guitar tuner  –  6 Tune a guitar to itself  –  7

Lesson One  –  8

Parts of the Guitar  –  8 The rhythm pattern  –  9 The rhythm pattern on the 1st string  –  10 How to read chord charts  –  11 ‘Thank You Father’  –  12 What to play this week  –  13

Lesson Two  –  14

‘Thank You Father’ in Guitar Tab  –  14 What to play this week  –  15

Lesson Three  –  16

‘I Will Trust You’  –  16 I Will Trust You in Guitar Tab  –  What to play this week  –  18

Lesson Four  –  19

Pray Without Ceasing  –  19 What to play this week  –  20

Lesson Five  –  21

‘This Little Light Of Mine’  –  21 What to play this week  –  22

Lesson Six  –  23

‘This Little Light Of Mine’ - with Thumb Strum  –  23 What to play this week  –  24

Lesson Seven  –  25

‘How Do I Love My Neighbor?’  –  25 What to play this week  –  26

Lesson Eight   –  27

‘How Do I Love My Neighbor?’ - with Goodies   –  27 What to play this week  –  28

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

Lesson Nine  –  29

‘I Worship You Lord’  –  30 What to play this week  –  31

Practice Charts  –  32

Instructions for Using the Practice Charts  –  32

Practice Chart For _(kid’s name)__  –  33 In Closing  –  34

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

Introduction

How to learn with this system Welcome to ‘Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids.’ This program is geared for kids age 5 and older. The lessons are focused on developing musical skills while helping kids worship our awesome God. Music is made by combining pitch and rhythm. Since so many people have a difficult time developing a good sense of rhythm, I’m using a metronome for the first few lessons to help students develop an ‘inner clock.’ In lesson one, note values are introduced with a special rhythm pattern. Arm swinging, then playing the pattern on an open string helps students learn the rhythm. This rhythm pattern is used in the first song. Each song empathizes specific Christian values. The first song is about being thankful in all things. Students are encouraged to make up their own verses. Abigail, the young student in the DVD, made up the verses about being thankful for puppies and kittens. Her father was present during the filming and I asked him to name a few things that he was thankful for. Abigail, helping him, said, “Your kids.” Every good gift is from God and it’s appropriate to have a thankful heart for all God has provided for us. Kids learn best with lots of encouragement. When they make mistakes I don’t suggest saying “That’s wrong.” I would suggest instead saying “Are you sure that’s right?” or “That’s close.” As a music student and teacher of many years I can tell you that it’s much easier to learn in an environment where you are treated as someone special. Students learn quicker in an atmosphere of praise. Some children can watch the DVD and learn by themselves, but most will need some input from others. Some possible alternatives could be to have a few friends learning together with the DVD or even an adult or two learning at the same time.

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

The Practice Sessions To help kids learn these lessons, I’m including a practice session in the DVD for each lessons. They all begin with prayer. Everything in life is easier when we bring it to God in prayer! I’ve found it’s not difficult to help a child play the guitar, but sometimes they don’t want to practice. Here are some suggestions that can help. Practice with them. I suggest around 10 minutes a day and it can be viewed as ‘play time’ together. Make a chart and have them put a sticker on the days they play. If they play so many days a week, they get a treat. Treats can be things like a balloon or toy. See the sample chart at the end of this book. Feel free to copy it and use it. Ask them to play for you and then enjoy that time. Ask them to play for others. Turn off the TV or restrict viewing times. I have a brother who put their TV in the closet. Didn’t hurt the kids at all. Have them play for you after dinner. Have practice days earn points. With so many points they can get a special event or a ‘surprise.’ Kid’s love surprises. After they know a few chords, you can encourage them to make up their own songs. Words of encouragement and affirmation are always appreciated. Some kids love to play and just pick it up on their own, but most are encouraged by the interaction of others. One benefit of playing a musicical instrument is developing both sides of your brain. Many studies have been done and parents have told me that playing an instrument helped their children excel in other areas. Their grades went up.

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

Tuning the Guitar Tune with the video

On the DVD of this program you can match the guitar strings to the pitches in the video. You’ll probably need help in the beginning.

Tune with a piano

Tune with a guitar tuner

Tuners are easy to use. Some even play the pitches of each string. Most tuners simply tell you when the string is in tune by watching the needle. When it’s in the middle, the string is tuned. Using guitar tuners is the easiest way to tune your guitar.

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

Tune a guitar to itself You can get the first pitch with a tuning fork, a pitch pipe or simply tune your guitar to itself. 1. Tune The 5th string by plucking the note on the 6th string 5th fret and then matching that with the 5th string open. 2. Tune the 4th string by plucking the note on the 5th string 5th fret and then matching that to the 4th string open. 3. Tune the 3rd string by plucking the note on the 4th string 5th fret and then matching that with the 3rd string open. 4. Tune the 2nd string by plucking the note on the 3rd string 4th fret and then matching that with the 2nd string open. 5. Tune the 1st string by plucking the note on the 2nd string 5th fret and then matching that with the 1st string open. The diagram below shows where on the fretboard you hold down to tune the open strings. For example, there is a ‘5’ on the 6th string, 5th fret to show holding down the 6th string, 5th fret is the same pitch as the Fifth string open. As you can see, you hold down the 5th fret of the string above the one you are tuning, except for the relationship between the 2nd and 3rd strings. You hold down the 4th fret of the 3rd string to get the sound of the 2nd string open.

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

Lesson One Parts of the Guitar

Above is a picture of a guitar. It’s good to know the names of the parts of your guitar. Can you pluck the strings and say each string number out loud?

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

The rhythm pattern In music, the rhythm is seen or represented by notes. The most common notes are whole notes, half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes. They look like this:

˙ h

q e

= whole note, or 4 counts

= quarter note, or 1 count

= half note, or 2 counts

= eighth note, or 1/2 count

The whole note is the largest. It’s lasts for 4 whole counts. The half note and quarter note look very similar. They both have a stem. The half note has an empty circle, like the whole note, with a stem. For the quarter note, the circle is solid black. The quarter note lasts for one count, but the half note is longer, it lasts for 2 counts. The quickest note we’ll look at is an eighth note. It lasts for only 1/2 count, or beat. Two eighth notes are the equivalent to one quarter note. This lesson starts with up and down arms movements on a specific rhythmic pattern. The pattern is below:

4     4 1 2 3 4

     1

&

2

& 3

4

   

    

1

1

2

3

4

&

2 & 3

4

Watch lesson one on your DVD. You will see the up and down arm movements demonstrated. To help you practice, on the DVD you’ll find practice sessions for each lesson. Just watch and play along with the DVD. I’m using a metronome on the DVD. It’s a little gadget that keeps a steady tempo. For the arm movements, the metronome is set at around 80 beats per minute. See if you can swing your arms perfectly with the metronome. Try around 4 sets of the pattern above. Now we’re going to try walking the index and middle fingers on the 1st string with this same rhythm pattern.

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

The rhythm pattern on the 1st string It’s easy to read guitar tab. Guitar tablature has 6 lines that represent the 6 strings on your guitar. The top line is the first string, the highest sounding one. Here is a picture to help you visualize this.

Here is our rhythm on the first string. The upper set of lines is the actual musical note and the bottom is using guitar tablature. It’s often just called guitar tab.

Rhythm Pattern on E        

0







    









    

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

The ‘0’ on the first line of the guitar tab means that you play that string open. Walk the index and middle fingers on the first string. It’s important to alternate your fingers. We are going to learn how to read guitar chord charts next. You can see in the next page how the picture of a guitar matches up with the chord chart.

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

How to read chord charts On page 5 we covered the basic parts of a guitar. A chord chart shows the Nut, frets and strings of your guitar.

The top line is the Nut. The lines underneath the Nut are the frets. The lines going up and down are the strings. As you can see there are 6 strings. The first string is the smallest string. It has the highest pitch. Here are the chord charts for the ‘C’ and ‘G7’ Chords.

C Chord

G7 Chord

(Strum 3 Strings)

(Strum 4 Strings)

XXX XX *Note: Don’t play the strings with the ‘X.’ © Jean Welles - All Rights Reserved

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

‘Thank You Father’ Our first song is a little song I wrote called ‘Thank You Father.’ All through the Bible we are told to come before God with thankfulness. God can help us in everything we do. We can be thankful even when we don’t understand why things happen. We can be thankful knowing that God is Good and will make everything right in the end.

Thank You Father C

  

G7



Thank You Thank You





Fa - ther Fa - ther

C

C

G7

    





thank - you for your Love. thank - you for you Word.

I I

love love





you Lord, you Lord,

by Jean Welles C

     with a thank - ful heart! with a thank - ful heart!

© 2007 Jean Welles

C Chord

G7 Chord

(Strum 3 Strings)

(Strum 4 Strings)

XXX XX *Note: Don’t play the strings with the ‘X.’

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5

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Jean Welles Worship Guitar ClassTM for Kids

What to play this week

Pray First Play the guitar for 5 to 10 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days a week. The arm/rhythm exercise 4 times Walk ‘i’ and ‘m’ on the 1st string with the rhythm. Sing and Play ‘Thank You Father’

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