CAPO GUITAR
TEACHING CHILDREN : RAISING UP THE NEXT GENERATION OF WORSHIP LEADERS / MUSICIANS | Mitch Bohannon
Have you ever tried to teach your son or daughter to play guitar ? After a couple of lessons , you probably couldn ’ t decide which one of you was more frustrated … It seems that their fingers just won ’ t listen !
For many years , I was a middle school P . E . coach . That has afforded me much experience with frustrating situations ! One of my major goals as a coach was to give each student an opportunity for success . It is really fulfilling to see a child pleased with their own progress . For instance , if a student had difficulty making a free-throw , instead of having them get more and more discouraged , I would move them closer to the basket . Eventually , they could begin to move back to the line . As far as shooting a basketball , the motion is the same , just the position was different . lessons and understood notes and rhythms pretty well . Sam started with the guitar as his first instrument . I started them first with simply strumming the open Esus chord ( cut capo with no fingers ) and then eased into one finger versions of the E , B , and A chords . These shapes keep their middle finger in the 2 nd fret ( above the capo ) and will prepare them for the full shapes . Sara and Sam both took to these chords very quickly . Sara , being older and having already had some music training , was able to strum in tempo immediately and we played a modified version of “ Here I Am to
Here I Am To Worship Tim Hughes
( Simplified for beginners )
Worship .” I had her playing “ diamonds ” ( whole notes ) with single strum only on each chord change .
This is a wonderfully simple song played this way ! Strum through it with these one-finger cut capo chords and then play and sing this with your child or student . How wonderful it will be to train our children to be worship musicians ! If you ’ re a father , a mother , a brother , or a sister … let ’ s commit to teaching the younger generation to play for Him !
The same goes with teaching the guitar . It is very rare that you ’ d find a child ( 7-9 years old ) that can easily form a 3-finger chord shape . On top of that , having them hold that chord and strum without dropping the pick or raking it across the strings like they are using a clawhammer . I ’ ve found that the cut capo is a great place to start … the motion is the same , just the position is different . The bonus here is that the finger positions are partial shapes of standard , open chords – and , they get to strum all the strings basically all the time ! There ’ s no need to tell them to only strum four or five of the strings .
E B A E B A Light of the world / You stepped down into darkness / Opened my eyes / let me see /
E B A E B A Beauty that made this heart adore You / Hope of a life spent with You /
E B E A Here I am to worship / Here I am to bow down / Here I am to say that You ’ re my God /
E B E A You ’ re altogether lovely / Altogether worthy / Altogether wonderful to me
E A B
© 2000 ThankYou Music
To get them started , you can find an appropriately sized guitar , tune it up and position the cut capo for them . Teach them to sit comfortably and hold the pick ( I teach a three-finger grip on the pick – they seem to drop it less ).
Our daughter , Sara , started as a nine-yearold and our youngest son , Sam , began at age seven . Sara had a couple years of piano
Mitch Bohannon Mitch Bohannon and his wife , Noelle have been married for 30 years with three adult kids and two granddaughters . Mitch developed the Short- Cut Capo for Kyser and is the Director of Live Production at Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles , Louisiana .