Introducing
Guitar for Teens
A Group Course for Beginners
Next course starts 1 February 2025.
‘All together I would give the course 10 out of 10 – great teacher, great staff, great facilities – Waltons has it all.’
– L. Clancy
‘Excellent teacher. I had so much fun learning to play guitar in a fun and relaxed environment. I will definitely come back.’
– L. Hopper
Course Description
Want to learn guitar through the music you like? Designed especially for teen beginners, Waltons New School of Music’s Introducing Guitar for Teens course takes a practical, enjoyable approach to acoustic guitar tuition. The style is hands-on, contemporary and seriously fun. Skills are developed using chord and riff examples from today’s top groups. You will also gain such essential musical knowledge as song structure, tab notation, scales, rhythm and metre, intervals, chord shapes and strum patterns, and techniques such as muting and string bending. By the end of the course you should have an impressive grasp of guitar fundamentals and a solid understanding of how songs are put together.
Requirements
Course participants will need to have either steel-string acoustic guitars or nylon-string (‘classical’) guitars to bring to class and practice with at home. Learning to tune their guitars is also an important skill for all guitarists to learn. (See the Recommended Instruments tab on this page for a list of recommended guitars, two of which are available at discounts from Waltons Music for course participants, and the Tuning Your Guitar tab for information on tuning guitars.)
Enrol in this course.
Questions about the course?
or call us on (01) 478 1884.
Have you enrolled in this course?
Download our Introductory Handout
for tips on how to get the most from it.
Child Safety & COVID-19
The health and safety of young people attending lessons and courses at the New School is of the utmost importance to us.
First, the New School has a comprehensive Child Protection Policy in place, and all teachers are Garda vetted.
And second, although the COVID-19 pandemic is thankfully behind us, the disease remains a threat. So with the health and safety of both students and staff at the New School in mind, we have retained some of the equipment and policies we put in place during the pandemic to make in-school tuition safe. See our COVID-19 Safety Policy page for more information.
Introducing Guitar for Teens is one of the New School’s group courses. We also offer private guitar lessons in a range of genres for students of all ages and skill levels. See Guitar • Bass • Ukulele Tuition for more information.
Techniques Covered
A video demonstration of some techniques covered in the course:
John Sweeney
John comes from a musical family and has been studying, playing and teaching guitar, as well as bodhrán, tin whistle and a range of Irish traditional instruments, for over thirty years. He works in many different styles, including blues, rock, jazz, traditional and flamenco, and he has performed and recorded with a number of Irish groups, gigging extensively throughout Ireland, Canada, the UK, the US and Spain. He began teaching in 1988 at the Scarborough School of Guitar in Toronto, Canada, where he also studied composition and flatpick technique. He has also studied flamenco guitar with Miguel Escudero Lopez in Seville, Spain and traditional music at St. Enda’s Folk Park & Museum, and he continues to develop techniques in a range of guitar styles. John was the only guitar player selected by the renowned vocal innovator and improviser Bobby McFerrin to perform with him in the National Concert Hall for Bobby McFerrin Meets Ireland (2013), a unique collaboration for the Waltons World Masters Series between Bobby and a small, select group of Irish performers – chosen to represent the creativity, tradition and spirit of Ireland and selected through an Ireland-wide audition process. He has taught at the New School since 2003 and also teaches our Introducing Guitar for Adults, Introducing Bodhrán, Acoustic Blues Guitar Basics and Trad Guitar Basics courses, as well as guitar and bodhrán courses for our Outreach Programme and Music at Work Programme.
Reviews • Testimonials
‘My child loved the class and the teacher. She’s learned a lot.’
– D. Biancheri
‘Fantastic course! John is such a great guitar player and teacher, and he really inspired me to learn guitar. I can play a few songs now, and I’m definitely going to continue learning.’
– S. Burns
‘A great introduction to guitar and will be something I’ll continue into the future.’
– J. Keating
‘John is a fantastic teacher and mentor and is a great role-model for his students.’
– O. Martin
‘I really enjoyed this course and learned far more than I expected to in just ten weeks!’
– A. Ní Súilleabháin
‘Brilliant course. I can now play some of the songs I love, and I look forward to learning more.’
– S. Peterson
‘I learned loads and really feel like I have a good general knowledge of guitar.’
– D. Shine
Have you taken – or are you taking – this course? We would appreciate it if you could take a few moments to give us your feedback in a brief online questionnaire about it.
2024-2025 Second Term
Course Schedule & Fee
10 weeks, 1 February – 12 April 2025
(No class on 22 February – Mid-Term Break)
Saturdays 12 – 1 pm
Course Type: In-School
Tuition Fee: €220
Enrolment
Enrolment for this course requires a completed Enrolment Form and full payment of the tuition fee. Places are limited to eight and are available on a first-come, first-served basis, based on the date of enrolment. Many of our group courses fill in advance of their start dates, and early enrolment is recommended.
Purchasing this course as a gift?
Please complete a Gift Certificate Booking Form.
Questions about the course?
or call us on (01) 478 1884.
Recommended Instruments
Most participants taking this course will use steel-string acoustic guitars. There are many of these available, but the following instruments – all available from Waltons Music – are recommended for their quality and affordability:
- SX SD104 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar • €99.99
- SX SD204 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar • €135
- Fender CD60S Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar • €199
- Takamine GD20-NS Dreadnought Guitar • €320
- CNB Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Gigbag • €43.99
The two SX guitars can be purchased from Waltons Music at 5% discounts for students enrolled in the course. If you would like to obtain a discount, please contact Waltons with your instrument choice and include a scan or photo of your course payment receipt.
What happens after the course?
Two weeks before the end of each Introducing course, participants will be given options for continuing their tuition with the New School if they would like to do so. Although an ‘improvers’ or continuation course cannot be scheduled on the same day/time as the Introducing course, one can be arranged if enough course participants would like to continue and the teacher has timetable availability or there is timetable availability with another teacher. Participants can also continue their tuition with private (one-to-one) lessons or ‘partner’ lessons with another class member. (See Tuition Options – Private • Partner • Small Group Lessons.) We are happy to discuss these options with you.
Tuning Your Guitar
Tuning your guitar – and keeping it in tune – is an essential first step to playing it. Here are some simple instructions for tuning your guitar, as well as guitar tuning apps.
Strings
The strings of a guitar, from thickest/lowest to thinnest/highest, are:
- E, the sixth, thickest and lowest sounding string
- A, the fifth string
- D, the fourth string
- G, the third string
- B, the second string
- E, the first, thinnest and highest sounding string
Tuning
- The E string. Tune the bottom E string as accurately as you can. Chances are it’s already in tune; being the thickest string it is less likely to ‘detune’ itself than any of the others. If you have another instrument such as a piano or keyboard, you can tune it to the second E below middle C. If you have no device or instrument handy, just try to get it as accurate as possible; what really counts when you are playing is that the guitar is in tune with itself.
- The A string. Place the first finger of your left hand (or right hand if you’re playing a left-handed guitar) just behind the fifth fret on the bottom E string. That’s an A note. Keep your finger on that fret. Now pick the fifth and sixth strings in turn, gently adjusting the fifth string tuning peg until the two notes are the same.
- The D string. Place the first finger of your left hand just behind the fifth fret on the A string. That’s a D note. Tune the fourth string (the D note) to that.
- The G string. Place the first finger of your left hand just behind the fifth fret on the D string. That’s a G note. Tune your G string to that.
- The B string. Place the first finger of your left hand just behind the fourth fret. Note that the B string is the only one that comes from a different position, the fourth fret; the rest are from the fifth fret.
- The E string. Place the first finger of your left hand just behind the fifth fret on the B string. That’s an E note.
Tuning Apps
There are a number of free smartphone guitar tuning apps available. Here are two of the most popular:
GuitarTuna
Android:
iOS:
Fender Tune
Android:
iOS:
A wide range of clip-on electronic tuners, which are inexpensive and easy to use, are also available.