As usual, am late into this--I have a slightly different approach than Rick--My reckoning is that most of the songs that people want to learn use one of about four chord progressions--so for a start, I teach them them these chord progressions and how to recognize them--

I try to teach my students how to keep a good solid beat, above all else, and I teach them how to keep from dropping the beat, even when they don't know, or muff, a chord change--

I also teach them how to count each beat and measure--that way, even when they don't know what chord to play, they know a)when the part they don't know is coming, and b)how far they are from the part they do know--0

Also, I tried to teach my students to always learn the melody cold--first to hum, then to sing, and last, to play, even if they aren't going to ever actually perform the melody, so they know where the song is going all the time--

For students who wanted to learn lead and melody playing, I just opened up my Band-in-a-Box program, typed the chords in(or picked a song that was there) and recorded it on a 3-minute endless loop tape--(One of these days, I am going to get a CD burner, and then "Fageddaboudit")

All of this should be past tense, because I don't teach anymore--