I know a young dude (12 years old) who wants to play. The kid loves music, loves the guitar, and has a good head on his shoulders, with good old-fashioned firm handed upbringing and a tight knit family. The problem is, money is pretty tight with his family, and he lives in an area that doesn't offer much in terms of affordable music education.

His uncle, who is like a brother to me (been friends since gradeschool), reached out to me a few days ago about it. I didn't commit to much - just said that I'd show him a couple things - but I've kind of felt like shit about it ever since.

I want this kid to learn the right way, but I'm not sure I've got the experience or even the knowledge to do that. I mean sure, I can make my way through a Mel Bay book and teach some basic technique and shit, but anything beyond that is just the result of me hacking my way through shit for 15 years. On top of that, part of his goal is learning learning some music from his family heritage, which includes traditional spanish/flamenco, as well as mexican/mariachi guitar, which I have absolutely no experience playing.

I don't want to turn the kid away, but I don't want to fuck him up either. And I sure as hell don't want to just point him to a "Play Metallica in 10 Minutes" website. But on the other hand, I don't have the cash to pay for lessons for him.

I'm sure I could get this kid 80-90% thru any beginner series. My concern is about the 10-20% I might miss.

Any of you dudes ever found yourself in a situation like this? And to the teachers - when a new student walks in who's been taking lessons from some hack-job, how hard is it for you to fix what's wrong, or "fill in the gaps" of what's been missed?

After spending the last day researching a bit, I think I'm going to give PB's "Guitar Basics 101" approach a try and see where it takes me with this. I figure, even if the kid is a fast study, it'll give me a least a few weeks worth of of material to work with.

Yep, start there and then move on to the 'daily practice' sheet, concentrating on 1-2 exercises per module. This seriously contains YEARS of study material and practice exercises.

Songs it is then. I figured that was the case, just didn't want to damage the kid before he even got out of the block.

Thats funny huh well I am 57 years old and I don't want to waste my time learning what someone else already did I would rather learn technique and then I should be able to play any song if I have all the mechanics....I guess it is the age difference but the time it takes to memorize a song....I could have 3 chords feeling easy....MY philosphy just thought I would point out the difference...Maybe I am also a bit don't want to learn songs and get out there to feeling but I am a guy who likes to know what he is doing anyway and I do learn all the songs for the stage that I am at...and that is fun....I also go back to first string book and start over.....how bad do you suck perrtey bad BUT. I have already climbed a mountain getting through the first six strings in a year and learning a dozen chords and a pentatonic scale so.... good to be here only second time I posted. Pebber Keep up the good work Samaritain. Much Appreciatied.
Cheers,
RR

Guitar basics 101. A couple weeks material? If done correctly, you would never master guitar basics 101. Always room for improvement. Always.