book recommendations for young kids starting electric guitar

fenris

My two kids are mad to get going on the electric guitar, Santa will be delivering a half size flying V for her ladyship (nearly 6) and a 3/4 size strat-alike for himself (7 1/2 and arms not quite able to reach on a full size) along with a couple of battery powered pocket amps.

I know that some people recommend acoustic as a place to start, but they like electric and I want instruments that can live/survive in the bedroom and can/will be picked up and played as opposed to needing constant adult intervention/supervision and kid gloves treatment.

They like Greenday, The Clash, Ramones type music so "Mary had a little lamb" is not really where their heads are at but any music books geared at that age group seems to be of the "Little Miss Muffet" variety.

Has anybody any recommendations for books geared at that kind of in between age group and using a more rock based repertoire for learning?

I have looked at amazon and most books have so many contradictory reviews that you are left none the wiser.

We will also be arranging lessons for them of course.

feylya

This comes up as the top book on Google:

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Rock-Guitar-Jimmy-Brown/dp/0793520177

Decent reviews, aimed at teaching power chords which will help the kids play the songs they like plus it's quite cheap.

fenris

Thanks, I saw that one on amazon.co.uk and thought that the review was not exactly enthusiastic but the .com site seems a bit more positive.
I was also looking at some of the Mel Bay books but the kids seem to need to be already well able to read music to get any use from them.

fenris

Got a couple of books and have had a look through them here are my initial impressions that may be of use to anyone in the same boat.

This looks like the best of the bunch - easy steps that follow nicely and reward with fun tunes like James Bond theme, Spiderman, bits about bats and rats and simplified arrangements like "Born to be Mild" etc. I think that this is the one that will get the most use as it is simple enough for the kids to pick up themselves after an initial run through, but still has a lot of content.
Guitar Basics: (Book/ECD)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0571532284


Got Beginning Rock Guitar - looks good on the outside but is a bit like a schoolbook from the 60's on the inside, definitely not for younger kids and there is better out there for older kids. Got the feeling that there was a good bit of page filling with repetition.

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Rock-Guitar-Jimmy-Brown/dp/0793520177


Also got "Learn to play Guitar"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0746001932

Lots of pictures and diagrams without a lot of substance, don't know how much use it will be for kids that actually have guitars