Middle School Guitar Class

[pszy22]

Originally Posted by Stonehauler

smart phones have apps that can act as a tuner. I would encourage you to use those vs adding in additional costs

Do you really want to start off a class by asking all the kids to pull out their phones?

[CoastStrings]

For reliability and consistency: YA-MA-HA

[Stonehauler]

A clip on tuner runs about 11-25 bucks depending on the model.
Let's say you go with the cheapest. Even wholesale pricing is probably only going to be 8-9 bucks, so you are looking at adding in 90 bucks just to add in 10 tuners. While that might be a worthwhile addition later on, when you are first starting out, that's going to be almost half the cost of one guitar. Plus you are going to have students that leave the thing on, batteries will wear down and need replacement, etc.

You might consider getting one tuner that the teacher can see (tune top string to low E), then teach them how to self tune to bring the others to pitch.

When you start looking at cases running 100 bucks retail, thin gig-bags for 30 bucks, and a 220 dollar guitar, and a 250/instrument and case/gig bag budget, you start running out of room for extras quickly.

Other things. Has the school budgeted for music books? Many schools these days require music students to purchase a specific book to teach from, but the school also needs to acquire the books as well (maybe a teaching version?)
Do they have music stands they can use (is the band/orchestra willing to share?)
Who is responsible for changing strings/broken strings?
Has the school thought about approaching a local music store and asked about them leasing/providing school discounts on specific instruments to students?
How does the school handle band/orchestra instruments for students? When I was growing up, if you wanted to be in band, there were several options. You could rent an instrument, in which case you gave a damage deposit, but paid out 5-10 bucks a month to rent the instrument. (it would be more now). You could also buy an instrument either with or without a repair plan. If the instrument was damaged, you would get a loaner while yours was being repaired. Finally, some instruments were owned by the school and were considered "advanced" instruments. For instance, the double valve trombone I played my junior/senior year in High School was school owned. The bass drum for all the bands I was in was owned by the school, as were the marching band drums. The mellophones were owned by the school and loaned to french horn players in marching band, The tuba, sousaphone, glockenspiel, chime/bells were school owned, etc.

A lot of the rentals/repairs were all done through the school. However, these days, you probably need to have the students work with the music store directly.

I have my lesson later on this week at my local music store that also supplies a lot of band/orchestra equipment in my local area. I am on fairly good terms with the owner, so I will ask them what they might recommend as an approach. Obviously, this will all be conditional (might not be for a week or two), because there might be another customer in the store and I won't want to interrupt a potential sale.

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by edgrissom

I have a local store who can get me the FG800 Yamaha in my price range. I thought it played really well.

We are all going to very strongly recommend the FS800 not the FG800.

They should be the same price.

[pszy22]

Originally Posted by Stonehauler

A clip on tuner runs about 11-25 bucks depending on the model.
Let's say you go with the cheapest. Even wholesale pricing is probably only going to be 8-9 bucks, so you are looking at adding in 90 bucks just to add in 10 tuners. While that might be a worthwhile addition later on, when you are first starting out, that's going to be almost half the cost of one guitar. Plus you are going to have students that leave the thing on, batteries will wear down and need replacement, etc.

You might consider getting one tuner that the teacher can see (tune top string to low E), then teach them how to self tune to bring the others to pitch.

There are a number of national/international organizations that teach thousands of children a year to play guitar/ukulele. They all purchase and use clip on tuners for a variety of reasons. It is difficult for instructors to find time to personally tune a dozen or two instruments before every class. Many experienced musicians don't tune by ear, let alone having a score of students try to do so amid the din cause by all their classmates doing the same thing.

It is sort of the cost of doing business if you want to avoid spending half of every class getting everyone in tune.

[edgrissom]

Thanks for everyone’s ideas and suggestions. My town has two really good music dealers and we will use one of them. The bids are written to include hard shell cases and clip on tuners. We are getting some really good pricing from both stores and the Yamaha 800 series and the Fender CD60 are a couple that are meeting the parameters.

I currently have 15 students who are playing a hodgepodge of different guitars. A couple have the Fender and I feel they are good for what we need. I have played both the FG and the FS Yamaha and they are great but slightly more expensive and are a couple months out on delivery. Fenders are in stock.

This class has been pretty fun to teach and we are getting good school support. I wrote my grant for 10 guitars as a way to get my classes smaller. 15 beginning guitarists is too many for one class! There will be over 20 signed up next year so they have agreed to cap each section at 10 and split them up. The guitars will live at school and different classes will be able to share them.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Good luck Ed! Let us know how it goes.

[Stonehauler]

Congrats. Keep us informed on how your program progresses.

On question…if the guitars will live at school…how will they be able to practice their lessons?

[edgrissom]

Originally Posted by Stonehauler

Congrats. Keep us informed on how your program progresses.

On question…if the guitars will live at school…how will they be able to practice their lessons?

Practice? What’s that??

Seriously, that’s always a consideration. We have time before and after school that the building is open for tutorials. Some kids will own their own guitars they can leave at home and others we will allow to check out guitars to take home. This year the kids have been leaving their guitars at school and not taking them home very often……

[edgrissom]

Originally Posted by pszy22

There are a number of national/international organizations that teach thousands of children a year to play guitar/ukulele. They all purchase and use clip on tuners for a variety of reasons. It is difficult for instructors to find time to personally tune a dozen or two instruments before every class. Many experienced musicians don't tune by ear, let alone having a score of students try to do so amid the din cause by all their classmates doing the same thing.

It is sort of the cost of doing business if you want to avoid spending half of every class getting everyone in tune.

The first day we spent the whole time just getting the low E string in tune.
15 kids means I have about 3 minutes per student each day to address any issues they have. By Christmas we could play Jingle Bells. LOL