Children's Lessons
Are you looking for fun and
effective guitar lessons
for your child?
Can playing guitar really be this much fun?
If your child has never played guitar before, lessons at Auckland Guitar School will give them the best start possible.
If they’ve tried teaching themselves, or had guitar lessons elsewhere, we’ll help them make the progress they should be making, and develop into skilled musicians.
We focus on making sure that your young guitarist enjoys their lessons and builds all the skills needed to play guitar well.
Our teachers are trained, experienced and passionate about helping our young guitarists develop their potential. We work hard to keep them inspired and motivated.
Our innovative teaching methods and wide-ranging curriculum help ensure your guitarist makes fast progress, with lesson materials that are well-structured, engaging and featuring contemporary songs.
The School’s dedicated facilities offer a professional, relaxed environment with the use of technology and state-of the-art equipment for your child to get the most benefit from each session.
Your young guitarist can choose from a host of additional learning and performance opportunities to help them apply what they are learning.
Lessons are conveniently timetabled to fit around your busy schedule, including weekend and after school options.
“I’ve become better at playing guitar all round…”
“I decided to come here because it looked really professional and was what I was looking for. I feel like I get a lot of time with the teacher giving me tips and techniques to help with my playing. I just feel like I’ve become better at playing the guitar, just all round. You learn things right down to the core. There are some teachers who will only teach you how to play the song and that’s kind of it but here they teach you techniques that go along with the song and I feel like that really helps.” (Alice Cawley)
“Teachers are really friendly and always wanting to help…”
“There’s constant attention towards your playing – it’s easier than going online – with the teacher with me, they can tell me what I need to work on… I love the attitude all the teachers have towards teaching – they’re really friendly and always wanting to help… Taking lessons is way better than just trying to learn off YouTube – I know a lot of self-taught guitarists who’ve been playing for years and they’re still at a beginner level.” (Zarne Sorensen)
“In the past I didn’t enjoy lessons, but it’s different here…”
“{Having lessons at AGS has} helped me discover different ways to learn about music – you learn about theory, you learn about different styles of playing, different genres of music. The thing I like most is that it has structured sections, so that we can focus on for example fingerstyle playing, and then we’ll go into chords and goals so we can focus on our own things. I’ve been able to write songs, play along with friends, get together and just jam, play something I’ve learnt in class, which is always fun.” (Rico Ashmore)
“Being able to talk to someone who really knows what they’re talking about…”
“It’s a lot easier when there’s someone there helping you along. If you do it by yourself it’s easy to get side-tracked and do stuff that isn’t really relevant – you end up just learning songs and not actually how to properly play… [The lessons are] really designed for what I want to do and it’s the best thing for me to be able to get better – it’s not just something out of a book, it’s something that’s designed specifically for you and it’s much more interesting that way. [I benefit from] being able to talk to someone who really knows what they’re talking about and being able to get some insight into what to do and they can help you along – the teachers don’t just say exactly what to do, they will help you to try and figure it out yourself, which is good as it means you can figure stuff out on your own.” (Leo Strode-Penny)
“We leave class with the biggest smile on our faces…”
“I joined Auckland Guitar School after my 12 yr old son inspired me. He had joined Auckland Guitar School a few weeks prior, and I had this vision that we could play together – and now we do!! Even better my 8 year old son has now joined and has the bug too. The classes are so much fun, you learn an incredible amount in these lessons, and the teaching is suited to all walks of life! You play the latest songs on the charts, along with the good old time classics we all know. It’s addictive, all three of us never want to miss a class. One thing I notice is my boys and I leave our classes with the biggest smile on our face! Love it!” (Kira Chilcott)
Why Play Guitar
Research has shown that there are huge benefits to learning to play guitar.
Children who are exposed to music, or those who play an instrument, do better in school than those who don’t. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning, while playing music also benefits your child’s reading age and IQ.
Playing guitar improves maths skills, co-ordination and multi-level thinking. You also learn “how to learn” – through daily practice, you cultivate good habits and discover that to get the results you want you need to pay attention to detail and remain focused.
Hearing is a guitarist’s most valuable asset. Learning to play the guitar helps develop your child’s ability to listen in greater detail, not to mention learning to follow instructions.
In order for a group of musicians to sound good, they must learn to work together and commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practising. You have to be disciplined in order to master playing your guitar. There’s commitment and patience needed, showing up and doing the work, even on days when you don’t feel like it.
The rewards are huge, and through music study, your child will learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.
The guitar provides children with a means of self-expression. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression. Guitar performance teaches your child to conquer fear, to take risks and build self-confidence.
Learning guitar involves not only logical thinking, but the use of intuition and spontaneity. It develops decision-making skills and enhanced abilities of problem solving. Improvisation and composition allow students to bring out their originality and creativity in music.
There’s enormous satisfaction to be gained from playing the guitar, not only in the music itself, but also in sharing music with other musicians and an audience.
FAQs
At 7 years old, most kids undergo a fundamental change, resulting in better motor co-ordination and a marked shift in their focus and ability to take on new information. We’d recommend starting no younger than 7. If they’re super-keen before then, getting them a ukulele to play around with at home can be a good stepping stone to starting guitar.
Overwhelming research has shown that natural talent is a myth, and nor is it inherited from your family. Stories of child prodigies like Mozart and John Williams turn out to come down to. It’s not about “talent”, it’s about having the right guidance and support from an early age. If your child has never played an instrument before, we’ll help them do it the right way from the beginning.
It takes more than just being able to play the guitar to teach it, and all teachers are not created equal. Don’t give up on your child’s guitar playing until you’ve spoken to us!
YouTube or other online sources can only ever be a poor substitute for proper guitar lessons. There is no structure, feedback or support, and because you don’t know what you don’t know, you just learn a handful songs, not the skills needed to play guitar well (which would allow you to play countless songs!) In addition, you have no-one else to bounce ideas off, and don’t learn how to play with other people. We are constantly contacted by frustrated people who have finally realised online lessons are getting them nowhere.
How soon could you be playing
guitar the way you want to?