YOUNG STUDENT
(approx. age 6-12)
I don't have an age cutoff, and generally accept young students. It's important for parents to be realistic about their expectations for a very young student, however.
I've found that young children are sometimes ready for structured lessons and home practice, and sometimes they are not. I like to keep parents informed about a child's progress early on, so that we can all determine the value of continuing with lessons.
With this age group, I usually use music notation. Students learn songs, pieces, and exercises from the book Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method, Grade One.
www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=93200
(note-- with the very youngest students, I recommend having no concrete goals aside from giving a student an introduction to music. I can discuss this at greater length with any parents who have questions about it.)
Students learn basics of reading and playing from standard music notation. This provides an excellent foundation for the student to go in just about any musical direction. In this age group, students are usually not physically developed enough to play chords. When students express an interest, I supplement the Mel Bay book with melodies I write out for students. (These melodies include simplified versions of pop song melodies, Beatles songs, Christmas songs, etc. I have some arrangements like this available. Sometimes students have requests for other songs and I can prepare arrangements for them during class time if the material is appropriate for their skill level.)
Some students are interested in composing their own melodies and songs. I can work with students on this, eventually printing out their work for them. At some point I will post some student melodies on this site.
When younger students start asking me about rock music, I have some exercises that we work on to prepare them for "rock" guitar technique. A lot of rock guitar (particularly chords) is physically beyond students whose hands aren't as big as they're going to be later, but sometimes kids with real dedication can surprise me with what they can do. For this reason, I have material that we can experiment in this "transitional" phase. It takes a while to develop from the Mel Bay single note melody material to being able to play rock music, but by the time a young student has made that transition, he or she has a grounding in fundamentals that most rock guitarists never get.
NOTE: with students in this younger age group, some of the physical challenges of playing guitar can be daunting. The guitar requires left hand fingers to press down hard on a string, and with steel strings (less so than with nylon strings-- please see my info about purchasing a guitar) it can cause fingertips to get sore. I've had some young students who gripe about sore fingers early on, then develop calluses and the problem goes away. Regular practice is needed to develop calluses and fix this soreness problem. Some students don't want to practice because of this soreness, which unfortunately sometimes ensures that they won't develop calluses, and as a result the soreness never goes away.
Sometimes a nylon string guitar is a good idea for a young students-- it minimizes the soreness issue.
TEENAGERS
With teenagers, I take a different approach. Most teen students in my experience are unenthusiastic, even unwilling, to study music fundamentals, note reading, theory, etc. For this reason, I usually don't push any of that material on them unless parents ask me to. In some cases, a student's personality and development suggest to me that they might be amenable to working on fundamentals; in that event I will talk to the student about it and see what they think. (Note: I am very willing to focus on fundamentals with a student, if parents ask me to. I will be happy to discuss these issues with parents and students if desired. I believe a student who learns fundamentals is much, much better off than a student who doesn't-- I just don't like arguing with teenagers!)
With most of my teen students, I show them a few quick basics and then we work on any kind of music that interests them. If I can get them to learn some fundamental stuff along the way, I will do that whenever possible and appropriate.
ADULTS
With adults, it's pretty much anything goes. Some people bring in records and ask me how to play specific parts, solos, etc. Others ask me to show them some blues or country licks. Others ask me to show them some fingerstyle approaches. The list of styles and artists I've worked on with students is absurdly eclectic, including flatpicking, rock both hard and soft, classical, jazz, blues, folk, old, new, etc. The guitarists we've looked at include Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Roy Nichols, Roy Buchanan, Mick Ronson, Angus Young, Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys, Jack White from the White Stripes, Jerry Garcia, and countless more players that I can't remember. I can write guitar music out in notation, tablature, or both. We can talk about music theory, ear training, technique, how to get the best sounds out of your equipment, tuning tips, pretty much anything guitar-related. Any student who is interested in composition or songwriting can work on that with me as well.
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