So I potentially have the opportunity to begin guitar lessons with a 15 year old. I’m looking for advice on what order to teach concepts in. My plan, off the top of my head (which i don’t often have!), is to start with the theory necessary to begin learning guitar (basic music theory, parts of the instrument, fret hand technique,etc.). Meanwhile, I want to start him on learning proper pick technique. This is something I struggle with, since I’ve been doing it wrong for three years. From there, I plan to teach the chords for the key of G, then introduce the Nashville Number System. After, that, I don’t know exactly where I’ll go. Any suggestions or changes to my current “curriculum”? One of my fears is making the early lessons boring for him, causing him to lose interest and quit. That wouldn’t make for a good teaching record!
Teaching What You Learn
I started with 3 chords - I, IV and V - that is with A, D, E. And tried to play any songs with it. Either those 3 chords or you can start your student with G, C and D with basic fret and pick hand techniques.
Attached is what I started on learning. https://banjoben-discourse-upload.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/2X/d/decd2e3aa7d233a8f02aafd918dbdaa649891ad8.m4a
This way, your student won’t get bored.
Once he/she can get the fret hand and pick hand coordination going, you can slowly introduce him to proper techniques and improve on that.
Depends on what kind of goals they have. I’d start with them making some chords right off the bat and picking out some basic melodies.
Ok, thanks! This makes sense because you can play most songs with just the 1, 4, and 5. I’ll work with that.
Happy Thanksgiving!
How much, if any, theory would be necessary to start with? And what would be the best concepts to cover?
Very subjective, but I’d start with the knowledge of what a major scale is and showing how we get chords. You don’t have to get too technical about that but helpful for folks to start realizing there are common chords that most songs share.
Every teacher has their own concepts for what their students should learn and when. After teaching about 4000 students in the last 50+ years, I try to allow my students to choose their direction. If they choose folk music, that allows me to help them learn the skills to get them to their goal. If classical music is their love, there are different skills, as with rock or jazz or flamenco or blues or bluegrass or alternative or any style. Rarely do I start with music theory as I want them to enjoy the process from the first lesson. So songs/tunes are learned immediately. Music theory comes in as soon as needed to understand the the techniques being learned. I teach theory directly adjacent to the skills being learned along with tunes that use that theory.
Of course, every teacher teaches differently. 
Great! Thanks, y’all! I’ll try to keep y’all up to date on how it goes!
You might think about some of the the things you say “I sure wish I knew this when I first started”
Ok,… The Nashville Number System. Got it!