Please recommend a good guitar method for kids...

[FMiguelez]

Hello.

My little nephew, who is around 11, has been taking guitar lessons. He lives in NY. My sister is looking for a different teacher.

In the mean time, is there like a really nice and modern method for kids to jam against prerecorded tracks? Back in my time it was the Jamey Aebersold books, but they may be too advanced.

You know, some book that teaches him some typical progression that he can learn and jam with an included CD?
It should be something that does not get kids bored but excited...
Anything you can recommend?

Thanks!

[stubbsonic]

If jamming along is the goal, you don't need a "really good guitar method". There are plenty of jam-along tracks and PDFs that are easy to find online. Blues, pop songs, etc., and a few pentatonic scale fingerings, and the student is good to go.

For a good method book, I've been using FJH's "Everybody's Guitar Method". The downside is that the songs are the typical, stale, public-domain selection. The upside is that through the end of book 2, the pace and progression are good, and you end up with strong reading skills. Another downside is that the play-along tracks are pretty weak.

Another option is the Hal Leonard Guitar Method, which is available as separate books or as a "Complete" books 1-3. The play-along tracks are much better sounding with more real instruments and good players. It's not "jam-along", it is accompaniment and examples for the notation reading. I'm not as familiar with the content off the top of my head, but I recall it is a good method.