Quick answer: Guitar teachers can keep advanced students engaged by moving beyond standard chord-and-scale lessons into fingerstyle arranging, percussive body tapping, alternate tunings, two-handed tapping, harmonics, hybrid picking, loop pedal layering, and slap-style techniques. Each of these approaches builds technical skill while giving students creative tools they can use to develop a distinctive playing style.
Teaching guitar to students who already have solid fundamentals can be tricky. They’ve mastered open chords, learned their pentatonic scales, and can strum through a setlist of popular songs. So what’s next?
This is often the point where students lose motivation, or where teachers fall back on the same handful of lesson plans. The good news is that guitar is one of the most versatile instruments in the world, capable of producing percussive rhythms, layered harmonies, and textures that go far beyond strumming and picking.
This post outlines eight lesson ideas designed for guitar teachers looking to introduce fingerstyle arranging, percussive techniques, and alternative playing methods to their students. Each idea includes a brief explanation of the technique, why it’s worth teaching, and how to introduce it in a lesson.
1. Teach Percussive Body Tapping
Percussive guitar involves using the body of the guitar as a drum, tapping out rhythms with the palm, fingers, or thumb while playing melodic or chordal material with the fretting hand.
This technique, popularized by players like Michael Hedges and Andy McKee, transforms the guitar into a one-person band. Students learn to layer a kick-drum-style thump (often played by striking the lower bout) with a snare-like snap (played higher on the body or against the strings).
How to introduce it: Start with a simple exercise where students tap a steady kick-snare pattern on the guitar body without playing any notes. Once they can keep that rhythm steady, add a simple chord progression played with the fretting hand alone, using hammer-ons to sound notes without picking.
2. Explore Alternate Tunings for Fingerstyle Arranging
Standard tuning isn’t always the most efficient setup for fingerstyle arrangements. Alternate tunings, such as DADGAD, Open G, or Drop D, can make certain chord voicings and basslines far easier to play, while also opening up new tonal colors.
DADGAD, for example, is a favorite among Celtic and fingerstyle players because it allows for droning open strings that ring out under a melody, creating a fuller, more textured sound with minimal effort.
How to introduce it: Have students retune to DADGAD and experiment with simple two-finger chord shapes. Ask them to compare how a basic melody sounds in standard tuning versus DADGAD, then discuss why certain arrangements might call for one over the other.
3. Break Down the Travis Picking Pattern
Travis picking, named after guitarist Merle Travis, is a fingerstyle pattern where the thumb alternates between bass notes while the fingers pick out a melody or syncopated pattern on the higher strings. It’s foundational to folk, country, and blues fingerstyle playing.
This technique teaches independence between the thumb and fingers, which is a skill that transfers to nearly every other fingerstyle approach on this list.
How to introduce it: Isolate the thumb pattern first, having students practice an alternating bass line on just two strings until it feels automatic. Then layer in a simple melody with the index and middle fingers, keeping the thumb steady throughout.
4. Introduce Two-Handed Tapping
Two-handed tapping, made famous by players like Eddie Van Halen and Stanley Jordan, involves using both hands on the fretboard to hammer on and pull off notes, effectively doubling the number of notes a player can produce in a given span of time.
While tapping is often associated with fast rock solos, it can also be used melodically to play two independent musical lines at once, similar to a pianist playing with both hands.
How to introduce it: Start with a simple one-string tapping exercise, using the picking hand to tap a note higher up the neck while the fretting hand hammers on and pulls off notes below it. Once the coordination feels natural, expand the exercise across multiple strings.
5. Use Natural and Artificial Harmonics
Harmonics produce a bell-like tone by lightly touching a string at specific points, such as the 12th, 7th, or 5th fret, rather than pressing it down fully. Artificial harmonics extend this concept by combining a fretted note with a harmonic touch from the picking hand, allowing for harmonics anywhere on the neck.
Harmonics add a distinctive texture to fingerstyle arrangements and are often used to punctuate a melody or create a shimmering effect at the end of a phrase.
How to introduce it: Have students practice locating natural harmonics at the 12th, 7th, and 5th frets across all six strings. Once they’re comfortable, introduce artificial harmonics by having them fret a note normally, then lightly touch the string an octave higher with the picking hand while plucking with the thumb or a fingernail.
6. Practice Hybrid Picking
Hybrid picking combines a standard pick, held between the thumb and index finger, with the middle, ring, and sometimes pinky fingers plucking additional strings. This is common in country, gospel, and Nashville-style session playing.
This technique allows for wider interval jumps and faster arpeggios than pure flatpicking, since the picking hand isn’t limited to a single point of contact with the strings.
How to introduce it: Have students hold a pick as usual and practice picking a bass note while simultaneously plucking a higher string with the middle finger. Gradually build up to three-note patterns that combine the pick with two fingers.
7. Layer Parts with a Loop Pedal
A loop pedal allows a guitarist to record a short phrase, such as a rhythm part or bassline, and have it repeat automatically, freeing them up to play additional parts on top. This is a valuable tool for solo performers who want to sound like a full band.
Beyond the performance value, loop pedals are excellent teaching tools because they force students to play in time. Any timing inconsistency becomes immediately obvious once a loop is layered with additional parts.
How to introduce it: Have students record a simple four-bar chord progression, then practice playing a melody or bassline on top of the loop. This is also a great opportunity to teach dynamics and arrangement, since students must decide which parts to add and in what order.
8. Adapt Slap and Pop Techniques from Bass Guitar
Slap and pop, a technique borrowed from bass guitar, involves striking the strings with the side of the thumb (the slap) and snapping them with the index or middle finger (the pop). On guitar, this can be adapted to create percussive, funk-influenced rhythms.
This technique pairs well with percussive body tapping, since both rely on treating the guitar as a rhythmic instrument rather than a purely melodic one.
How to introduce it: Start with the slap technique alone, having students strike the low E string with the side of their thumb to produce a percussive thump. Once that’s consistent, add the pop technique on a higher string, alternating between the two to build a simple groove.
Building a Lesson Plan Around These Techniques
Not every student needs to learn all eight of these techniques, and trying to teach them all at once will likely overwhelm rather than inspire. Choose techniques based on a student’s current skill level and musical interests.
A student drawn to folk and acoustic music may benefit most from Travis picking, alternate tunings, and harmonics, while a student interested in rock or funk might respond better to two-handed tapping and slap and pop. Percussive body tapping and loop pedals work well for any student interested in solo performance, since both techniques help a single guitarist sound like a full ensemble.
Whatever combination is chosen, the goal is the same: give students new tools to express themselves and a reason to keep picking up the guitar between lessons.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the easiest alternative guitar technique to teach beginners?
Hybrid picking is often the easiest alternative technique for intermediate students, since it builds directly on standard picking skills without requiring a fundamentally new hand position.
Do students need a special guitar for percussive fingerstyle playing?
No. While some acoustic guitars are built with reinforced tops for percussive tapping, most standard acoustic and even electric guitars can handle basic body percussion techniques without any modification.
How long does it take to learn two-handed tapping?
Basic single-string tapping can be learned within a few lessons, but developing fluency across multiple strings and integrating it into full musical phrases typically takes several months of consistent practice.
Is a loop pedal necessary for teaching looping techniques?
A loop pedal isn’t strictly necessary at first. Teachers can introduce the underlying concept, playing steady, repeatable parts, using a metronome or backing track before investing in a physical pedal.
Which technique should a guitar teacher introduce first?
Travis picking is a strong starting point for most students, since it develops thumb-and-finger independence, a foundational skill that makes many of the other techniques on this list easier to learn.