Wavin' Your Guitar Flag!

Our guitar idol...Wanda the Witch puppet (aka Grizelda). 

 

Everyone seems to love guitar, especially kids!

We start learning guitar at Musicalia around age 7.  We use 1/2 size classical guitars and we all learn while sitting on the floor, unless there is a health or physical impediment that makes this too difficult.  

The kids are pretty excited to learn to play.  It's social.  It's a sing-a-long instrument.  It makes a pretty great sound right from the beginning.  It's cool. 

Yesterday, I worked with a group of 8 & 9 year olds.  They are in their 2nd year of guitar and have just begun to "pick".   This seems to have ignited new passion for the instrument. 

We've been chording (and while fun and a great harmonic accompaniment for sing-a-long style music) it is a bit more challenging than picking.  At least that's what the kids say.

Currently our repertoire consists of:

Wavin' Flag (there is a chording section and a bass line picking section)

Hedwig's Theme (they adore this one and it's quick learn, picking only)

Tell My Ma (Irish tune that they already play on recorder and sing it too, on guitar this one is for picking only)

I Gotta Feelin' (we learned a boomwhacker version of this song provided by Kat Fulton a couple of weeks ago and they are lovin' this, a mix of chords and picking)

Ghost Chickens in the Sky (originally we learned Ghost Riders in the Sky and then they all wrote versions poking a bit of fun at the original...another big hit, chording only)

Ah! Poor Bird (our first picking song, we already play this on violin, recorder and sing it as a canon, it's absolutely beautiful and they like to perform it)

If you have any thoughts or suggestions for other simple tunes kids love to play, I'd love to hear them!