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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → easy songs to teach junior beginners?
Hi I'm teaching a group of school children a bit of guitar and looking for nice easy songs that are popular today. Some of the children find it hard to hold a chord, so have also been teaching easy guitar riffs to go with the songs. Any suggestions would be welcome thanks. 
Welcome to Chordie!
Wow, a group of children? Group lessons are a challenge at any age, but it might help to know the age group we are dealing with?
Many Popular tunes will have at least three Chords.... and not all of them easy for young fingers to deal well with. You could start out with the abbreviated "cheater" chord fingerings at first just to get the music going on so at least the kids are focused, but you will want to stress the more proper chord fingerings so that those that are able to get them right off have a sound foundation to build upon.
Please check out the Public Books and other resources available here on Chordie for "easy beginner" music selections. You might find a few hiding in there that you could print off and use. Also consider using the transposition feature to help find chordings that might be easier to manage albeit in a different key.
Welcome Aboard and Hope you find the site and Community helpful to you in whatever way we can be. There's a great group of folks here that I'm sure will go out of their way to assist you in promoting guitar as a means of musical expression among your students.
Thanks for Joining &
Take Care;
Doug
I'm really not sure. I have a 14 yr old, 5 yr old and 3 yr old. I try to find songs that they might like since they don't care for "the music of yesterday" that I play all the time. It seems, if they hear it enough however... they get into it. I know it's not something "new" but I do "You are my sunshine" -2 here: http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/?url= … anspose=-2 - My little girls like it!
Here's one that's not too bad and is a newer song for the teens, "Broken" : http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/?url= … ranspose=0
Good luck!
I'm not a teacher but I have 7 grandkids and when I deal with young children I tend to start off with ukulele as it has the simplest chords to strum along with. Older kids I keep a 3/4 acoustic around and string it up with nylgut strings if one of the kids wants to learn. If you search the internet, I've seen a bunch of "100 easy songs for kids" books at various sites. Wish I had kept the URL's around but "sorry" is the best I can do about that one.
Keep at it. As noted, it grows on them if heard often enough. GRIN
"Put de lime in de coconut" has two chords, G7 and D7, two beats each. Get the rhythm and progression going and plug in thr lyrics. Fun!
Try a few of these. I hope it helps.
http://www.storytimesongs.com/guitar.html
http://guitar.about.com/od/tabchordslyr … _songs.htm
my teacher started the jr.high beginners class boulevard of broken dreams (without lyrics of course). they caught on so fast. as the TA for that class, i can honestly say they catch on fast. also try paint it black.... that wasn't hard, either. twinkle twinkle is superbly easy! he is even teaching them dust in the wind. (very slowly and piece by piece so that they catch on, and so that they really grasp it) he's teaching that on in the middle.... it'll really show you how quickly their brains catch on. just a tip, take it or leave it: when you teach them skills by songs, especially songs they know, it hits home faster. maybe take a survey on what songs they want to learn.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → easy songs to teach junior beginners?
