by Glen McCarthy | Jul 9, 2014 | Classroom, Education, Principles, Tips + Tricks
How to Win Over Bad Students and Influence Classes Every teacher – whether they’re presiding over guitar or Algebra – has had a class utterly ruined by a bad student. Student with bad attitude, tough home life, too many jokes (funny or not); somehow they managed to...
by Glen McCarthy | Jul 2, 2014 | Classroom, Education, News, Principles, Tips + Tricks
A feeder program will keep music strong in your community and help to stave off problems like budget cuts, recruitment, retention, and weak programming. Here are a few ideas for establishing and strengthening your feeder program. Meet Your Neighbors Reach out to the...
by Glen McCarthy | Jul 2, 2014 | Classroom, Education, News, Principles, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized
It would be extremely handy to rent a time machine and drop in on live performances by Page and Hendrix, just in time for the solo. There’s really no better way for your students to learn the art of soloing than to see and hear the performance as it happens. But since...
by Glen McCarthy | Jun 24, 2014 | Classroom, Education, Principles, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized
Inhale. Count to five. Exhale. Repeat. It’s performance time! Organizing an ensemble performance will require skills beyond your garden variety instructional/class management skills. You’ll need to prepare your students, your venue and your audience. But follow these...
by Glen McCarthy | Jun 24, 2014 | Classroom, Education, Gear, Principles, Tips + Tricks
With the introduction of Finale 2004 a new chord feature, the Fretboard Editor, was made available that greatly simplified creating custom guitar fretboards. As a Guitar Educator you can use this feature to design custom elements for your guitar classroom quizzes and...
by Glen McCarthy | Jun 18, 2014 | Classroom, Education, Gear, Principles, Tips + Tricks
Mistake #1: Not Developing your Calluses It doesn’t matter how much natural talent you may have; if you don’t practice consistently enough to develop your calluses, playing will never feel easier. (And pain, as we all know, is a natural deterrent.) Fix: Try to play...
