Many of our young people are drawn to the guitar. Often, though, they simply strum it without any real knowledge, treating it as a toy. In this article, Giorgio Paci describes how he taught guitar to some of them, sharing the difficulties he encountered and the results he achieved. There are certainly other instruments that are easier and more suitable—the xylophone, for instance—and we would be happy to publish accounts of similar initiatives.
Before I taught a short guitar course at ABD (now AIPD, editor's note) last spring, I had little experience working with children who have Down syndrome.
From the first lessons, I had to adapt my teaching method to this new situation. Even before the course began, we were all clear about our goal: the guitar should become, first and foremost, an instrument for music-making, yes, but also a tool they could use with solid skill for their own enjoyment. We simply wanted them to understand what happens when you touch the fretboard, how to touch it, and to learn a few easy but complete pieces.
During the lesson, the students would learn an exercise after constant repetition and with my help. The real problem came between lessons. Once home, the child would forget what we had practiced. I quickly realized the parents needed to know which exercises to work on at home. Some chose to sit in on the lessons. The results varied. For some students, having a parent there made no difference. For others, it was an obstacle—perhaps they felt sheltered from the discipline needed to tackle new exercises. They would give up at the first small difficulty and lose heart or become distracted.
In the end, I would say that whether a parent sits in should be decided case by case. What is certain is that every parent must learn the exercises themselves and have their child practice them at home. It is also essential that parents understand roughly how to tune a guitar and actually do it, because guitars go out of tune often—accidentally or simply because teenagers are curious about the tuning pegs. I never fully explored teaching the students to tune their own instruments. I preferred to spend the time on things more fun.
The effort required of parents is considerable. But without it, the results will not last.
To help students practice, I taped small pieces of adhesive tape on the frets they needed to press. This made it easier for them to find the right spots.
When I needed to write out exercises for home practice, I found that the simplest and most effective method was the American tablature system. It lets you visualize the guitar neck and the finger positions without needing to read music.
I ran into many technical difficulties, though most of them are common to any beginner guitar class.
The disability simply made more obvious the complications that most people face when starting any course.
The children had varying degrees of manual dexterity and ease. What they all lacked was finger coordination—though patient repetition and my constant guidance helped. What worried me most was helping them grasp that plucking one string produces a sound, plucking another produces a different sound; that pressing different frets produces different sounds too. Most students understood or sensed this. Some, even in the final lessons, either didn't press hard enough or, more often, pressed on the metal bar dividing the frets.
Some likely had visual difficulties and confused the strings. Many couldn't hold the guitar upright; they had to tilt or lay it flat to see all six strings clearly. I often had to accept these habits to ease their learning and avoid burdening them with rigid discipline. I thought that over time, these quirks would fade. While there are many playing styles, we can roughly say there are two ways to play guitar: as a soloist, using arpeggios, or accompanying a melody with chords. I tried teaching both. I found that in general, it was easier for the students to learn melodies on the guitar alone.
Accompaniment, by definition, depends on the ability to sing—and most of these students were out of tune. It would have meant double the work: learning to sing and play together. And learning not to be out of tune is not easy. So I decided to teach very simple melodies, spending plenty of time on each piece and trying to get them to finish it.
The first lessons focused on loosening the fingers and building decent dexterity. This meant spending time on purely technical, non-melodic exercises—boring ones. You have to adapt the method to each person, because their needs and responses to instruction are different. Some liked a piece; others didn't.
I also noticed different gifts: at least two students had a knack for playing chords for accompaniment, though I never tried to get them to sing.
Students showed their full potential only through constant repetition—both during the lesson and at home in their free time.
So it became clear that the number of weekly lessons should depend on how much the student can be supervised at home and how willing they are to practice on their own.
Nearly all of them needed more frequent lessons, but given the availability of the students and myself, what we managed to organize was already an achievement.
We quickly learned that lessons had to be short—twenty to thirty minutes. The students tired easily and lost focus. Some stopped abruptly, becoming passive or even leaving. For a long time I taught hour-long lessons with two students until I tried thirty-minute individual lessons. Comparing the two: individual lessons allow better concentration, but there is a risk the lesson becomes too short. The five to ten minutes I need to spend with the parent takes up a bigger chunk of the time, and the intense concentration demands more effort from the student. They tire faster and want to quit. Double lessons are more scattered, but lighter. There are more chances to joke around, and the students motivate each other. Still, you have to watch for small jealousies. If one student performs an exercise better and gets praised, the other might lose heart. The course was not long enough to reach a final judgment about whether children with Down syndrome can learn to play guitar well. Every evaluation should be personal. Still, even if a young person with Down syndrome will likely never play guitar as well as others, with desire and some natural aptitude, the guitar can become a source of joy—and for those with less ability, a pleasant break from the daily routine.
by Giorgio Paci
(from «Sindrome Down Notizie no. 2/1986»)