#1
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Guitar Class teacher asking advice from teachers
I'm a High School "class guitar" teacher who needs some help! I've taught choral/band/theory for 30 years, and guitar class for 9. I wrote my own curriculum with the help of several guitarists pro and amateur in different areas of the field, classical to country. (Schools love to have guitar programs, hate to pay for them). My quest, this year, is to make learning guitar more accessible to kids who have learning issues. Yes, we cater to individual needs - but I would love to hear what YOU have done to make guitar attainable for people that don't learn as quickly for others. I'm not looking for the latest app or book; I want to hear about teaching techniques.
So far, about 2 months into 10 month course, we have: Learned babyC, babyG, and D7, are working our way through a strumming sheet (syncopation soon) using those chords. We then began working on the C Am G Em D chords that make 'em rock stars. We often use a combination of those to single or simple strums to play along while listening to youtube. Additionally we've worked through strings 1-3 in standard notation using the no-nonsense (though plenty of corny jokes) FastTrack method book. To help my target kids I have: Created slide shows for notation notes that are printed into foldable flashcards (each one includes notation, letter name, and fret guide), then created slide shows with notation/letter name, and notation-only to quiz ourselves We play notation examples in repetition with me saying the letter names for the first 2 repetitions I am working on similar slideshow/flashcards for the chords (though the number of chord examples on the net with bad hand position is frustrating enough that I will likely 3D model a series, myself) My goal is to give kids a little of everything. Before year's end we'll do several fingerpicking styles, strum in a few styles along with youtube, be able to figure out all the barre chords and play the usual culprits in time, interperet tab, and read notation to do some new age, some light latin/flamenco, some classical. Some kids need some extra help to get there - and I'm hoping to find fresh ideas! |
#2
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My wife and I used to run a successful guitar instruction program at the elementary school where we both worked, so I'm going to use our experience and some of your ideas as a take-off point:
I'm going to assume, rightly or not, that there's a culminating performance (Spring concert, assembly, get-acquainted open house for incoming students, etc.) later in the year - and if not, speak to the powers-that-be and arrange one now; when students who have little to no track record of success in the traditional sense can latch onto a goal and "own" it, IME they'll surprise you with their dedication, initiative, and in several cases their level of achievement... You're clearly a very hands-on person when it comes to teaching materials, but I also suspect that you came up musically in a very different era (I'm 66 and started playing guitar in 1962). At the time I was taking lessons, a number of publishing companies produced multi-part arrangements of pop standards of the '40s-50s for guitar ensembles, in varying levels of difficulty (something that should be familiar to you as a band teacher), for use at the then-popular annual neighborhood music school recitals where every kid had to play regardless of ability ; I adopted a similar approach, writing four- and five-part arrangements with multiple players on each part: the less-advanced students were given simpler (but no less important) parts, while the future rock stars handled the complex lines. I recall one young man in a self-contained LD class who was rejected for the school band, enrolled in guitar class, and was assigned one of the supporting parts once he got a handle on the basics; he developed such a sense of focus and progressed so rapidly that we were not only able to assign him to a lead part at the Spring concert, he was also accepted into a gifted-&-talented program in music at the local middle school (where he became an equally formidable double-bass player)... You might also consider - as we did - turning them on to some earlier/simpler styles of popular music, and/or introducing fretted instruments different in appearance and/or timbre to provide a "specialty" segment. With the popularity of Ken Burns' Country Music series, you've got a potential wealth of heritage material that can be used not only for performance, but for instruction in music history (development of instruments, the merger of country/blues/honky-tonk as the roots of rock, etc.) - FWIW we used to assign similar "TV homework" if we felt our students would absorb some valuable influences... Scaffolding on the above (how's that for an educator term?) there's a session players' secret largely unknown outside the studio world - the fact that any such instrument can, with appropriate strings, be set up in some variation of guitar tuning (FYI the late Tommy Tedesco - first-call guitarist for the legendary L.A. Wrecking Crew - and his lesser-known NYC "Key Club" counterpart Vinnie Bell built highly-lucrative careers as studio multi-instrumentalists this way); a few serviceable flea-market/thrift-shop or Coupon Day instruments of this type can not only ignite a new-found interest in some of your less-proficient students, but give them something to call "their own." Here's a jump-start guide:
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"Mistaking silence for weakness and contempt for fear is the final, fatal error of a fool" - Sicilian proverb (paraphrased) Last edited by Steve DeRosa; 10-11-2019 at 06:44 AM. Reason: additional info |
#3
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I no longer teach, but with my younger private students, who sometimes have difficulty fretting, I used to tune the guitar to an open tuning (DADF#AD works well). They could make pleasant sounding music and play tunes with minimal fretting. Some kids never move beyond this. The ones who did advance never had problems transitioning to standard or other alternate tunings.
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Bill Guitars: 1910's Larson/Stetson 1 size guitar 1920 Martin 1-28 1987 Martin Schoenberg Soloist 2006 Froggy Bottom H-12 Deluxe 2016 Froggy Bottom L Deluxe 2021 Blazer and Henkes 000-18 H 2015 Rainsong P12 2017 Probett Rocket III 2006 Sadowsky Semi Hollow 1993 Fender Stratocaster Bass: 1993 Sadowsky NYC 5 String Mandolin: Weber Bitterroot |
#4
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You have my attention. Following this post to see what I can pick up.
I'm in my first full term of teaching introductory guitar in our local Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program, after being a substitute teacher last year. I only get an hour a week with our students, so that's a bit of a handicap; but we teach bluegrass / old time music, so I only need 3 chords! I'm also dealing with 9-10 year old kids instead of high school students. Attention spans are short. So I try to keep it fun. It's called playing music for a reason. We do have a recital/concert at the end of the school year as a goal for the kids. Plus the more advanced kids will play out at local functions. I teach in a group setting. One of my biggest challenges is keeping the engaged students engaged while not totally leaving the others behind. |
#5
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Quote:
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/folk...6-string-banjo https://www.musiciansfriend.com/folk...ng-tenor-banjo - one or two of these: https://www.musiciansfriend.com/folk...style-mandolin - and if you have any special-needs kids, this is an easy way to bring them into the mix (Hint: if you put colored stickers on the buttons, matching colored dots on the lyric sheet where the chord changes fall, and have them play it lap-style - a natural for a lefty, BTW - they can usually do a good job of keeping up): https://www.musiciansfriend.com/folk...s-21c-autoharp Best of luck...
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"Mistaking silence for weakness and contempt for fear is the final, fatal error of a fool" - Sicilian proverb (paraphrased) |
#6
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Thanks! I'm comfortable that all of my kids are achieving within the curriculum - with the exception of 1 kid (who hasn't turned her videos in), we've all passed test 2 (3 strings, and C Am G Em D D7). It's just my hope to empower kids so that all are learning ~the same~ material (within reason) and not being set aside as being different. I'll think on the ensemble instruments. I run a ukulele club in addition to guitar classes and club, but generally recommend that kids in the first semester of guitar NOT join uke club - - even I confuse the two on occasion. This makes me worry that going with anything other than traditional tuning and 6 strings may exacerbate rather than solve the problem.
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Many kids are good at fingerpicking, intuitively. Especially so if I can keep them from looking and just feel the strings. 1/3--2-1-3-2-2-1 is a variation on travis picking for 3 strings chords. |