r/guitarteachers • u/plastic_hobo984 • Mar 18 '26
Is taking guitar classes with my son a good idea? (Question for guitar teachers)
I (M40) have tried and failed to learn guitar on my own several times over the years. My son (M9) asked for a guitar for Christmas 2024. I got him a fairly decent squire strat and paid for a lesson app. We did a some app lessons together for a while but lost momentum pretty quickly and now both our guitars are gathering dust. I'd like to get back into and I think it's time to admit that in person lessons are the way to go. I've also been trying to think of things me and my son can do together to get more quality 1 on 1 time. I think it would be nice to find a teacher who will give us lessons together.
Is this a common thing? Is it even a good idea or would we be better off having separate lessons? Are there any potential pitfalls or caveats I should be aware of?
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u/whiskey-rye Mar 18 '26
Send him to lessons and get him to teach you what he learned.
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u/maestrosouth Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
Best answer. Teaching will reinforce your son’s skills better than practicing alone. Watching you make a mistake and correcting it is gold. Miscue analysis.👍
Also, having your kid learn an instrument is one of the best ways to exercise a developing brain. Mathematic patterns and creativity use opposite sides of the brain. Also using right and left hands has similar results.
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u/theloniousmick Mar 19 '26
Hopefully the op isnt like my dad though, tries for about 40 seconds then goes " oh it's too hard" then whines he's not getting any better, then asks me to go over it again and does the same thing.
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u/norostereo Mar 18 '26
I got saxophone lessons with my dad when I was a kid. As a child with a knack for music, I got to kick my dad's ass in the instrument very quickly, which was a pretty good confidence boost for me. It didn't last long because adults are busy, and their lessons rarely last. But it was really cool while it lasted.
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u/plastic_hobo984 Mar 18 '26
Wow 8 replies in a hour you folks move fast. Thanks for all the input this really helps a lot. Sounds like lessons together will likely be challenging but maybe worth a try at least initially, with the understanding that we'll split up if its not working. We're planning a move in a few month time so I'm not going to jump on it yet. I don't want him to get attached to a teacher and then have to find a new one when we move. I think probably the best course of action is to give him the option and see how he feels about it. If we do end up in lessons together and it's not working out we can always pivot.
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u/The_Seattle_Police Mar 18 '26
Honestly, you should take lessons separately. There could be weird feelings from your kid about competitiveness or why is it so much harder for him, and it will also hard to find a music teacher who wants to teach both of you at once.
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u/bothmawk Mar 18 '26
I think it’s a great idea to get started, and then split into two separate lessons but still practice together. I’ve thought some lessons like this and the kids really seem to love it.
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u/larry_is_not_my_name Mar 18 '26
It's pretty common. I have taught a few father and son's over the years.
Try to find a teacher who has had experience with fathers and sons taking lessons together.
I'd say the biggest challenge is how you both learn at your respective ages. A 9-year-old will require a different strategy for learning than a 40-year-old.
Additionally, some kids will act out if they are not into it, it's too hard, it's too easy, without being able to express why.
I'd say give it a go for a month or two, and evaluate from there.
If it's not working out, consider splitting things up (i.e. a lesson each) or letting your son stay in lessons if money is an issue ( supplementing yourself on YouTube), and act in a predominantly supportive role. Setting up and sticking to a regular practicing routine, 15 mins 4 or 5 times a week, is so important, having fun with it together, and helping him through the normal frustrations.
Best of luck with it!
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u/jazzadellic Mar 18 '26
As a teacher for 26+ years, I can tell you that while it sounds like a great idea, it doesn't actually work very well. First off, you'll both learn at completely different speeds, so this forces the teacher to teach at your level or your sons level, and they can't do both at the same time. So the lesson ends up being the teacher trying to teach at the speed of the slowest learner, this inevitably hurts the faster learner (and I'm not even saying you would be the faster learner). Or option two is for them to try and go back and forth between teaching one, and then teaching the other, in which case there is no point in having a group lesson because bouncing back and forth is going to make it hard for everyone to focus, including the teacher.
Not only will each person have different speeds of learning but also different musical interests, especially a 9yr old and an adult. This also makes it hard for the teacher to make you both happy. You may also both have completely different learning styles, this further makes things difficult. As an example, I have some students that just want to work on TABs and play, I have other students that really want to dig into music theory, and yet others we spend the bulk of the time working on music reading skills. Some want to play metal, some want jazz or classical....All of these factors combined make it a terrible idea (usually) to try to do a simultaneous lesson. The odds of you both have the same speed of learning, same learning style, same musical tastes, etc....are very small. If you matched up perfectly then it could work fine....But you almost certainly won't, even if you were identical twins or clones of each other ;o)
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u/Cautious_Homework628 Mar 18 '26
Honestly op as much as I love the sentiment, I have to agree that two separate lessons may be better for progress for you both. That’s does not mean you can’t practice together and make it a routine to practice most days with your son. This is coming from someone who is a guitar teacher and someone who also got taught by their father and now the role has reversed years on!
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u/greytonoliverjones Mar 19 '26
I’ve done it before, with Dad and kids taking lessons and what usually happens is the kids lose interest while the Dads keep going.
Your son’s current age tells me it will probably work for a bit until he gets older, and doesn’t listen to anything you say.
So, you’ve got a few years to give it a shot.
Good luck!
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u/RJB6 Mar 19 '26
I hated giving dual lessons in one, someone’s always behind and someone’s always ahead, so you’re either boring the ahead one or frustrating the behind.
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u/si-gnalfire Mar 19 '26
I went through this earlier this year. Kids are like sponges, the dad will be trying to keep up the whole time, and not have time to practice.
I ended up saying to the kid that she should teach her mum, and their family friend, and with a little bit of coaxing, they play together quite regularly. The kid is 11 for reference. It’s insane watching a kid do things in 5 minutes what it takes grown adults to do in 2 hours.
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u/plastic_hobo984 Mar 19 '26
Yeah it's wild how quickly kids pick up new skills. I used to be a SCUBA instructor back in my 20s and the few times I taught kids I was blown away by how quickly they picked it up. They'd be 4 dives in and already better divers than their parents who'd been diving for years with 50+ dives. I fully expect him to overtake me rapidly at which point I'll 100% need to put him in his own lessons.
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u/HotPresentation7261 Mar 19 '26
You should take separate lessons. Then in a year when you can both play decently you can jam together all the time
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u/bdemon40 Mar 19 '26
Funny story from my teaching days, I taught a father and his eight-year-old together for a few months, super cool pair. Turns out the dad worked in special effects for movies, many of them David Cronenberg films. At some point he told me he'd just signed a deal to write Friday the 13th Part 10 (released as Jason X) and was brainstorming ideas for the film by testing them on his son.
If you've seen the movie you know how funny that is--or twisted!
Wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or not at the time, but sure enough the film came out years later and the name, James Isaac, matched the name of my student (as well as the documentary clips of the film I saw later). Being a fan of the movies, I like Isaac's spin on the franchise.
But echoing the others, they learned guitar at different paces, so it was tricky.
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u/MoeraBirds Mar 19 '26
How about learning separate instruments? My daughter is learning drums, and so I learn the same songs she’s learning on my guitar so we can jam.
I learn other stuff as well, taking separate lessons.
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u/punkrok78 Mar 19 '26
It does eventually get hard as the teacher as generally one student ends up progressing faster than the other. Do individual lessons back to back
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u/RogueEagle2 Mar 18 '26
Don't do it. As a 38 year old man who plays guitar poorly with a 9yo, I think if I had any sudden improvements before my kid did it would destroy his confience.
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u/plastic_hobo984 Mar 18 '26
Thats a valid concern. However I think it's much more likely that he will advance faster than me.
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u/John_Mitchells Mar 18 '26
Personal opinion, so obviously take it with a grain of salt : I'd recommend separate lessons, so that the teacher can really focus on one of you at a time and really make you progress better. Also, it would probably be pretty chaotic if you both struggle to play stuff that you haven't mastered yet at the same time.
And for bonding time, you could learn a song that you both like and play together outside of your lessons. You could even ask the teacher to teach each of you a different part of a song that's played by two guitars. For instance, your son plays rhythm, and you play an easy lead part that sounds good over his chords 🙂