Classroom Guitar Blog

How do you do assessments....especially in classes of 30 - 40? When I was teaching at Ernest Becker Middle School in Las Vegas in 1996-2002, I had many of the same questions. In large classes, it is difficult to do assessment unless you have a plan. In my...

What I Have Learned About Teaching Beginning Guitar in the Classroom by Bill Swick Lesson 1 The more students there are in the class, the slower the pace, the more times it is necessary to repeat things, and modeling and classroom practice become of the utmost...

Tuner or not, students must listen. How do you teach pitch perception? This is definitely one of the most challenging things to teach...and learn! In my rookie days , I felt teaching tuning was the primary objective, but I soon realized that not everyone is ready...

It's a tall order to get a non-musical substitute teacher to motivate the class to play. But there is plenty of non-playing work that can be done to teach your students about guitar and help them love the guitar even more. I like to keep a collection of guitar...

The quick answer is preparation and flexibility.   Know your short and long term goals for the class. Have more than what you might need if they pick things up quickly but don’t push it if they are not grasping the concepts. Begin with something they enjoy...

by Jim Yancey The question I have first is: How often do you see the kids? If you are only seeing them 1x per week….IGNORE the tuning and YOU do it. The kids have got to create and enjoy music. Tuning guitar is no fun…for anyone! If you see them everyday I would...