Classroom Guitar Blog

It is the beginning of the year and the stream of paperwork and returned forms is starting to pile up on your desk. How can you keep track of it? In my guitar classes students must return a student data sheet, a student parent agreement, an instrumental rental...

Forearm Placement in Pick-style vs. Fingerstyle What are the differences in forearm placement in pick style vs. fingerstyle? Think about this. 1. Forearm position is largely the same for pick style and fingerstyle. 2. The difference is the angle the hand is in...

Tune UP to the reference note. By tightening the tuning key you prevent the string from slipping. If the pitch of the string is higher than the reference pitch, lower the string just below the reference pitch and then tighten it up to match the tuning track. This...

Guitar Class Assessment by Jerry Snyder I have found that the following individual testing method worked very well in the Guitar Class. The student starts with 30 points. Points are then deducted in the six categories; each category is worth 5 points. At the end of...

How Do You Play Staccato on the Guitar? Relieve the pressure in the left hand after playing the note, or stop the string with i or m in the right hand (or the pick) or both : ) [social_button button="facebook"...

During that first month of classes, your students' fingertips might get tender. Here’s an activity that you can do while you rest their fingers. Pose these questions and have the students answer as one student records the answers on the board: 1. Where can someone...

How do you motivate students whose eyes wander? 1. If your students keep looking at their fingers and lose their place in the music, and then give up on reading place the music stand along the sight range of your guitar neck. You can also project the music on the...

What are some good warm-ups? A good warm up for linear movement is the block approach 1,2,3,4,4,3,2,1 in a position on every string or on one string shifting to all positions. I like the l.h. pattern 1234,4321,1434,2434, because it gives extra attention to the 4th...