In teaching Electric Guitar over the past few months, I have taught three different students, who each had 3 different levels of ability on the instrument. These were Jazmin, a beginner guitarist, Lewis, an amateur guitarist, and Will, an intermediate guitarist. I was unable to simply replicate the same lesson plans and strategies for the different students, as they would have been ineffective to any student it wasn’t targeted towards. However, this allowed me to utilise a range of different strategies for teaching these students.
Jazmin had only touched a guitar a few times before, and knew some basic chords, but apart from that had no knowledge of the instrument. Lewis had been playing for 3 years, with some fair ability with rhythm playing and hand synchronisation but lacked confidence in lead playing and had issues with technique. Will had been playing for a while, has played live as a guitarist, and was a fairly confident player in most respects.
I did not ask my students to sign a written, formal contract, as to not make the lessons seem too formal. I thrived on the casual nature of the lessons and I didn’t want any strict regulations to sabotage that. I ensured that the temperature was right, and there was enough space for the students, with no trip hazards or safety risks. I had the lessons take place in spaces that were comfortable for the student, this being Leeds Conservatoire for Jazmin, and Lewis and Will’s room at their home, for each respective student. This allowed the environment to feel right for the students. I decided that an hour length for lessons was appropriate due to the amount of content I wanted to approach in each lesson.
It was important to me to set out a list of basic goals I wanted to achieve in the lessons. This included:
- Understanding goals and interests for guitar
- Putting goals into lessons
- Showing visual examples for students
- Getting students to learn themselves without me telling them the answer
- Separating elements of learning to then combine them later
- Playing along with the student
- Setting homework
It was extremely important to understand what the student’s goals were learning electric guitar. This should help the student become more engaged in their learning, which will increase the quality of their learning outcomes. Schlechty describes 5 levels of engagement, with the highest being Authentic Engagement, in which the students, ‘…are not just compliant or passively participating – they are deeply involved in their learning’ (Millerskills, 2025). Giving pupils more autonomy is seen as a great way to help them be more engaged in their own learning as it allows pupils to ‘take more pride in their learning’ (Engage, 2019).
One way I did this was to see if there was anything a student specifically wanted to learn. I did this with Jazmin by asking her what kind of music she was into. Her love of Pop Music was put in the lesson as I taught her how to play ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ by Foster The People.
I also did this with Will, as he wanted to learn ‘Slow Dancing In A Burning Room’ by John Mayer.
In order to keep him engaged in the lesson, it was important that he was aware of the progress he was making. I recorded his own playing and played it back while asking him to self-reflect on it. Will noticed a few issues in his playing, so we were able to look at those more closely.
Another way of seeing understanding what the student’s goals were is to ask them directly. Lewis said he wanted to improve his lead playing and his general speed on the guitar, so this was translated into lessons
Another goal I wanted to achieve with these lessons was to put the aforementioned goals of each student into the lessons. This is important as it will keep the student engaged with the lesson if they can see themselves improving at what they want to get better at. I did this with Will when he told me in he wanted to work on his fretboard knowledge, so I used an exercise with him to enhance this ability.
By the end of this lesson, he was far faster at it and doing it on multiple strings.
By future lessons, his knowledge had increased to even more strings
Another important goal I wanted to achieve with these lessons was to use visual examples for students to help explain certain concepts. Visual learning can help with memory retention, with research showing it can improve learning by up to 400% (Henebery, 2022).
One way I did this was by showing Jazmin how to hold a guitar correctly and comfortably. I physically pointed to different parts of my body and held up the guitar to more carefully show points.
I also did a similar thing when showing Jazmin how to hold a pick properly and explaining.
I showed Lewis proper technique for how far his left hand should be from the fretboard
Another goal that I wanted to put into the lesson was to get students to learn themselves without me telling them the answer. This gave them a greater sense of accomplishment and can help engagement in the lesson (Sullivan, 2015).
When teaching Jazmin fretting, I made sure she was telling me what note we were on instead of telling her. When we got to the octave on the 12th fret, she visibly found a sense of satisfaction.
When improvising over a 12 bar blues with Lewis, it was very important that it was up to him to play and decide whether the notes he was playing worked or not.
Another important goal I wanted to achieve through these lessons was to separate elements of learning to then combine them later. This is important as it has been shown that learning concepts individually makes it easier to do the whole thing and can stop you from being overwhelmed (Boyes, 2025).
I did this with Jazmin when we went over right hand strumming on its own before adding the left hand for chords.
I also did this when teaching her palm-muted power chords, which contain three techniques; Palm-muting, down picking, and power chords. I ensured to teach her the elements individually before combining them to be able to play a song she wanted to learn (‘iloveitiloveitiloveit’ by Bella Kay)
I did this with Lewis when we worked on switching between open strings and playing with his left hand to a metronome for the riff to Thunderstruck by AC/DC.
There was great improvement in future lessons, due to this teaching method.
Another goal I wanted to achieve in these lessons was to be able to play along with the student when showing them new skills. This is important as it can boost their confidence as they can look at what I’m doing to check that they’re doing it right. This can also develop the student’s ear training as if it sounds wrong then they should be able to hear it more clearly and be able to fix the mistake.
There were some difficulties I encountered whilst doing this. One thing I had to keep in mind was to ensure I was playing quieter as time went on as to improve their confidence and not be too reliant on me. Another thing was that I had to be paying attention to what the student is doing above my own playing, whilst still ensuring I was playing it correctly. Also, I had to keep in mind that I needed to give feedback on what they were doing if they were doing something incorrectly, or praise and reassurance. I made use of practising all these three things at the same time.
I did this with Jazmin as I played along with her whilst ensuring that I went quieter as she got more confident with her playing.
Finally, I found it to be very important to set homework in these lessons as to ensure that the student works on the skills I have shown them outside the lessons as well. This should allow the student to become more disciplined as they have something to work towards. This should allow progress on the instrument to be made faster. However, there is always a risk that the student does not complete the homework I have set them in time for their next lesson. This is why I did not set and homework that was too advanced to ensure the student would not be intimidated by it and not complete it.
I did this with Will as I set him homework of practising the fretboard exercise I showed him in the previous lesson. We went over how he went about it and if it was successful or not.
I also did this with Lewis as I gave him homework to practise improvising with the blues scale, to fit with his goals.
Due to this being successful, I gave him more homework in a future lesson, which was to practise the ‘Thunderstruck’ riff that we learnt in that lesson.
I also did this with Jazmin as I set her a homework of being able to play ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ by Foster The People whilst singing along to it. We then assessed how this went as homework in a future lesson.
To further enhance my teaching effectiveness, I utilised some multi-sensory techniques. Kinaesthetic teaching methods tend to improve problem solving skills in students as well as increasing knowledge retention (Petty, 2025). I used a Kinesthetic method when showing Will how to play tapped harmonics. For tapped harmonics, it’s important that you touch the fret with your picking hand as little as possible in order to not mute the note. To explain this, I asked him to imagine that the fret itself was very hot so he shouldn’t touch it for long.
I also made sure to consistently utilise positive reinforcement methods such as verbal praise. This leads to active participation and a positive learning environment (Gordon, 2025). I used this with Jazmin when showing her how to do palm-muting by saying, ‘There you go, that’s the sound’, to help to motivate her and show her that she was getting it right.
It was important to me to create lesson plans for these lessons as to better structure the lessons and set and accomplish specific goals and targets.
Here is an example of a lesson plan for Jazmin:
The top of the lesson plan shows the main aims for the lesson. This one, learning ‘iloveitiloveitiloveit’ by Bella Kay, was an aim that Jazmin wanted to achieve. This is important to include as it shows what should be achieved by the end of the lesson, with the objectives showing the steps to get there. Although the extension is not required to achieve the aim, it is a good point to keep in mind if the student achieves the aim faster than expected. The resources show the basic necessities for the lesson to take place. As you can see, each section has been given a recommendation of how long it should take. This is to ensure I don’t accidentally go over the 1 hour time slot of the lesson, but also. The activity section shows what I should be showing the student in that specific section. Assessment shows what is necessary from the student to be able to move onto the next section. As can be seen in this lesson plan, there are lots of individual sections, which is to be expected for a less advanced guitarist, as there is more I would have to show them in terms of technique. It may be more useful to visualise these as flowcharts.
Here is an example flowchart for Jazmin:
As you can see, the aims, objectives, and order are the same, but it is in a more visually appealing format, and is arguably easier to follow and see where you are up to in the lesson
Here is an example lesson plan and flowchart for Lewis:
In this lesson plan, there are significantly less sections than Jazmin’s, however they have a longer average length. This is due to me having more faith in Lewis to be able to concentrate on these sections for longer with greater outcomes. The basics of the lesson plan are still intact, with a clear aim, objectives, and self-reflection at the end.
Here is an example lesson plan and flowchart for Will:
As you can see in the flowchart, the length of each section is far shorter than Jazmin and Lewis. This is due to me having the most confidence that Will can achieve these parts quickly due to his skill level. The flowchart is also short, with few arrows pointing to possibilities that Will isn’t understanding a certain section. This is for the same reason.
Overall, I have found my method of teaching to be very successful, with use of Kinaesthetic teaching methods, verbal praise, and continuous attention to student morale and ability. I have learnt about the necessities of changing method and teaching style for different abilities of students. I have seen great progress in the student’s abilities, which shows my teaching methods have been successful.
Boyes, A. (2025) Your Guide to Breaking Projects Into Manageable Chunks. Available online: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/in-practice/202504/your-guide-to-breaking-projects-into-manageable-chunks [Accessed 04/05/2026]
Engage. (2019) Student Engagement in the Classroom: The best methods to maintain & improve it. Available online: https://engage-education.com/blog/student-engagement-in-the-classroom-the-best-methods-to-maintain-improve-it/ [Accessed 04/05/2026]
Gordon, R. (2025) Positive Reinforcement in the Classroom. Available online: https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/positive-reinforcement-in-the-classroom/ [Accessed 04/05/2026]
Henebery, B. (2022) Using visuals improves learning by up to 400% – study. Available online: https://www.theeducatoronline.com/k12/news/using-visuals-improves-learning-by-up-to-400–study/280453 [Accessed 04/05/2026]
Millerskills. (2025) Schlechty’s Levels of Engagement: Understanding and Promoting Active Learning in the Classroom. Available online: https://millerskills.co.uk/blogs/teaching-history-in-the-present/schlechtys-levels-of-engagement-understanding-and-promoting-active-learning-in-the-classroom [Accessed 04/05/2026]
Petty, L. (2025) What is Kinaesthetic Learning?. Available online: https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/what-is-kinaesthetic-learning/ [Accessed 04/05/2026]
Sullivan, P. (2015) Kids prefer maths when you let them figure out the answer for themselves. Available online: https://theconversation.com/kids-prefer-maths-when-you-let-them-figure-out-the-answer-for-themselves-44016 [Accessed 04/05/2026]
