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?

Hey gang, thought I'd fill everyone in on a little mental trick I've used to help me with the ladder exercises.

Early on, I had a ton of trouble performing the 1/3-2/4 exercise. I just couldn't focus on moving the correct finger combinations together smoothly.

This morning, I had a bit of an epiphany. I found that if I concentrated on the maintaining the pressure of the stationary fingers first, just for a split second, I could release the travelling fingers fairly easily.

For example, starting with the 1/3-2/4 on the 6th string (as in exercise 5.23), right before I make my first movement with the 2/4, I focus a very slight bit of pressure on the 1/3. This allowed me to easily "release" with the 2/4 and make the movement to the 5th string in a fluid, simultaneous motion. Similarly, when I make the second movement (the 1/3 going from 6th to 4th string), I focus a slight bit of pressure on the 2/4 before making the movement.

After playing through the exercises, I've found that this helps with most of the difficult movements, particularly those involving moving the 3rd or 4th fingers independantly.

If you're having some difficulty with these, give this a try and see if it helps.

PB/Teachers - let me know your thoughts on this. If you see this being detrimental in any way, please explain.

Cheers,

PapaH

This is my first post, so first off thanks to PB for this awesome resource. It's great to find a lesson plan that's based on realistic, fundamentally sound, thorough instruction, without all the bullshit.

I'm new to classical guitar technique. I'm finding that I'm able to tackle the ladder exercises with some success, but the spiders completely shut me down. I'm sorely lacking the ability to coordinate the simultaneous multiple finger movements, even at a snail's pace.

My question is - is there's any physical merit to building some strength and flexability with the ladders before starting a strong regiment of spider practice?

Thanks in advance.