Last month I talked about using the one finger open chords G7 and G as a good starting point for introducing chords to guitar newbies. But, what is a good way to approach strumming those chords? This is a great point to introduce your student to music notation - using rhythmic notation is a great visual aid for students to help them understand what they are physically doing.
Start with quarter notes have the student count in groups of four (1234, 1234); play through each chord individually by looping a one measure rhythm and counting out loud to help keep their timing smooth.
Once students are comfortable playing each chord, have them switch chords every four beats. Allow the player to take as much time to switch at first without a strict rhythm and once they can switch chords smoothly with a problem then enforce a stricter rhythm.
Next month the topic of“Chord Basics” will continue by outlining how to read chord diagrams.
