Want to teach 11 yr old daughter.

[oldskoolchop]

Where would you start her, something like the modern method book that has a group being started on this forum, but at here own pace, or with a book similar to this one
Amazon.com: Mel Bay Children's Guitar Method Volume 1 (0796279088343): William Bay: Books
which uses EZ chords with teacher playing a simple melody

[Brianmcg321]

I would start her either on the mel bay you listed or hal leonard. The Leavitt stuff would be quite dry for some people. I think an 11 year old would have more fun playing songs they recognize. The Leavitt method would not do that.

[brwnhornet59]

Agreed.

[Greg Brouelette]

Is she starting from the very beginning? Then you don't need a book at all.

Teach her a G and D chord and then start singing songs together.

Tom Dooley
Hot Corn Cold Corn.

Then teach her a C chord and sing about 100 more folk and bluegrass tunes.

As a former full time teacher I find that teaching kids to play songs works vastly better than trying to teach them to read music or play single note lines or trying to teach them notes on a string. Let them strum along and sing songs and they'll get hooked.

For my very first lesson I teach them "Horse with no name." The entire song has only 2 chords

0 2 2 0 0 0
2 0 0 2 0 0

Strum the first chord for 4 beats then strum the 2nd chord for 4 beats. Repeat until tired.

Beyond that let her know the names of the Strings. I use

Elephants
And
Donkeys
Got
Big
Ears

Those 4 or 5 chords will give her a lot of songs she can play while having fun doing it. Keep it fun by playing actual music and she'll fall in love with it. Then she'll come to you wanting to know how to play more.

[Drumbler]

Find out what pop songs or artists she likes and do those songs.

Taylor Swift songs?

[ronjazz]

I agree with Greg's take, also help her find melodies on one string, like Yankee Doodle, so she doesn't develop what Julian Bream called "fear of mountaineering". A little sensible basic technique to avoid developing bad habits, and if she takes to it, get into whatever method will keep her interested, probably not Berklee.

[JakeAcci]

With an 11 year old I start with (in this order)

proper hand positioning (exercises for it)
single string scale
twinkle twinkle, row row, this old man on the one string (depending on the kid, I either just show it to them or I have them try to figure it out over the week)

after that is good, open G scale, same melodies

gradually introduce chords and first song is Knockin on Heaven's Door

gradually I get to reading from Mel Bay

I might make up some simple melodies/etudes for them to play just so they have something they can actually DO, even if it's kind of stupidly simple.

[oldskoolchop]

we started this week learning D and A, then next will be Emin and G for her first Taylor Swift song, and I showed her a simple pentatonic scale, and a 2 note power chord (a la punk) for something fun to play around with and make noise with. I have told her 15 minutes a day of serious practice, and then noodle around as much as she wants, today I had to make her get off to get ready for bed