Handout from Guitar skills for entry-level music therapists: what’s taught and what’s not

Instruction and practice strategies for essential guitar skills:

Skill: Singing with strumming accompaniment

• Identify appropriate strum pattern/style, learn to play independent of lyrics
• Play pattern slowly when incorporating the lyrics, taking note of how lyrics line up rhythmically with strum pattern
• Gradually speed up to desired tempo

Skill: Basic strum patterns

• Start slowly with straight 8^th-note patterns
• Develop consistent up-down motion, free of tension
• Learn variations of 8^th-note pattern (e.g. quarter-eighth eighth – quarter – eighth eighth)
• Apply “swing” style to 8^th-note patterns, beginning with basic “shuffle”

Skill: Basic open chords

• Learn shapes in sets according to key centers (e.g., I, vi, IV, V in G)
• Practice using a progressive, step-wise system (like this exercise)
• Take note of and utilize pivots (finger placements that are common between two chords)

Skill: Basic finger-picking patterns

• Learn PIMA system (explained in most introductory books, especially classically-based ones)
• Play arpeggiated chords, one string at a time (slowly, then gradually speed up)
• Play patterns in which two or more strings are plucked at the same time
• Play simple melody over sustained or moving bass notes
• Find opportunities for moving melodies within familiar chord shapes

Skill: Transposition

• Complete basic harmonic analysis of original song
• Observe how each chord functions within a song
• Complete quick transposition model (see below) until it can be done mentally

Old Key	Roman Numeral	New Key
C	I	G
Dm	ii	Am
F	IV	C
G	V	D
Am	vi	Em
D7	V7/V	A7

Skill: Bass runs

• Identify the root and the diatonic path toward the target (e.g., if in the key of G, the diatonic path from G to C is G-A-B-C; if going from G to D, the most logical path is G-F#-E-D)
• Practice bass run independently, identifying on which beat it begins
• Integrate into strumming pattern