Teaching Beginning Guitar Class

As guitar instruction increases in popularity in secondary schools, many band, choir, and orchestra teachers are asked to teach guitar. In one helpfully concise volume, Teaching Beginning Guitar Class: A Practical Guide provides all of the practical tools that are necessary to teach guitar in the classroom, especially for music instructors who are not guitar specialists.
Formatted to follow the school year from summer planning to opening weeks of the fall semester to a week-to-week timeline for the full school year, Teaching Beginning Guitar Class encompasses all possible needs for a non-guitar playing music instructor navigating the world of guitar instruction in a classroom setting. In twelve expertly organized chapters, author and veteran guitar teacher Bill Swick gives hard and fast guides for instruction, providing reassurance alongside invaluable tips for novice guitar educators. This book addresses questions such as 'I Do Not Play Guitar, Why Do I have to Teach Guitar?'; 'What is the Classroom Lifespan of a Guitar?'; and 'New Students in January?' while also providing practical solutions including basic setup, how to select the correct method book, and equipment maintenance.

Bill Swick currently teaches guitar for the twelve-time Grammy award winning Las Vegas Academy of the Arts and is the guitar task force chair for Clark County School District. Swick has served as faculty of Drake University and University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

- Contents
- Chapter One: Getting Started
- I Do Not Play Guitar, Why Do I Have to Teach Guitar?
- Reasons Why Music Educators May Like Teaching Guitar
- Band Students Will Leave the Band to Join a Guitar Class, or Will They?
- Guitar Content for the First Quarter
- What Kind of Equipment is Needed for Guitar Class?
- Trimming the List
- No Left-Handed Guitars
- A Closer Look at Quarter One Class Content
- Playing with a Pick
- Playing with the Thumb
- Playing with Alternating Fingers
- How to Place Fingers on the Fingerboard to Change Pitches
- Chapter Two: Being Prepared Prior to the Start of the School Year
- Making a List
- Selecting a Method Book
- How to Evaluate the Selected Method
- Programmed Texts and Sequences
- It's Time to Do the Math
- Learn to Model the Content of the Method Book
- Learn to Model Technique for Both Left and Right Hands
- Learn to Model Posture
- Learn to Make a Sound with a Pick, the Thumb and Alternate Fingers
- Learn to Change a String
- Learn to Tune a Guitar
- Have Lesson Plans for the First Quarter
- Have Handouts Ready for Printing
- Know Exactly What Will Be Covered in the First Week of School
- Why Give Pre-tests?
- Know Exactly What Will Be Covered in the Second Week of School
- Have a Curriculum Map for the Entire School Year
- Prepare a Class Handbook and Have it Printed and Ready to Distribute
- Check All Equipment is in Place and in Working Order
- Have Chairs and Stands in Place to Match Seating Chart
- Chapter Three: Organizational Ideas
- Retention
- Public School Structure
- Structuring a Guitar Program for Longevity
- The Middle School Model: The Three-Year Plan
- Semester Versus Yearlong Classes
- The Year-Long Model
- The Semester-Long Model
- Explorations
- High School Models
- Ideal High School Schedule
- Block Schedule
- Backwards Assessment
- Backwards Assessment Model: Level 1 Beginning Guitar
- Beginning Guitar - List View - All Objectives
- Assessments
- Consider the Assessment Model
- Consider Using Music Prodigy
- Daily Routines
- Chapter Four: A Potpourri of Practical Ideas and Simple Thoughts
- Slow Down!
- Engage Your Students Before the Teaching Begins
- Are Your Students Listening?
- One Ounce of Technique
- Beginners Are Not Ready to Tune a Guitar
- Get Your Drums On
- Learn Their Names!
- The Shorter, the Better!
- Collaborative Learning
- Dreaming to be a Rock Star
- Not All Guitar Students are Rockers
- Practice Makes Permanent
- New Students in January?
- Make Friends with the Custodians and Counselors
- Just Heard a Classical Guitar CD and Want to Learn to Play Guitar
- Incorporate Ensemble Playing Early On
- What is the Classroom Lifespan of a Guitar?
- Ten Professional Suggestions
- Ten Quick Things to Make a Guitar Class Most Successful
- Advice for Teaching Beginning Guitar: Ten Things to Make Life Easier
- Chapter Five: Lesson Plans, Curriculum, Objectives and Standards
- Why Lesson Plans?
- What is Curriculum?
- Where to Find Guitar Curriculum for Each State
- Beginning Guitar Course Scope and Goals
- Beginning Guitar Course Structure
- Standards
- National Standards for Music Education
- Chapter Six: Philosophy of Classroom Guitar Teaching
- Learn to Play Guitar
- Do Not Have Time to Learn to Play the Guitar
- Observations and Experience
- How Does a Guitar Class Look?
- Ten Contributors to Determine How a Guitar Class May Appear
- Variations of How a Guitar Class May Look
- What Brings on Change?
- Learning Guitar is Fun!
- Teaching Guitar as a Harmonized Instrument
- College Ready?
- Chapter Seven: Applying the 80/20 Rule
- What is the 80/20 Rule?
- What Does the 80/20 Rule Have to Do with Teaching Guitar?
- The Conventional Path
- What to Teach and When to Teach It?
- 24 Hours a Day
- Organizing the List
- Applying the 80/20 Rule to Self-Learning
- Chapter Eight: Quarter One: The Timeline
- The Schoolyear is About to Start
- Week One
- Why Give Pre-Tests?
- Eight Objectives for Beginning Guitar for Month One
- Backwards Assessment Model
- Parts of the Guitar Pre-test
- Calendar and Timing
- Guitar Body Parts-Answers
- Answers to History of the Guitar Pre-test
- History of Guitar Pre-test
- Week Two
- Week Three
- Week Four
- Week Five
- Week Six
- Common Mistake Beginniners Make in This Stage
- Objectives for Month Two
- Seven Objectives for Beginning Guitar for Month Two
- Week Seven
- Week Eight
- Week Nine
- Chapter Nine: Quarter Two: The Timeline
- Quarter Two Begins: Week Ten or Quarter 2, Week 1
- Week Eleven: Quarter 2, Week 2
- The Right Hand
- Songs Using the Fourth String
- Week Twelve: No Teaching November or Quarter 2, Week 3
- Combining the Fourth String with Strings One, Two, and Three
- Ensemble Music
- Week Thirteen: Quarter 2, Week 4
- Eighth Notes
- Week Fourteen: Quarter 2, Week 5
- Picks
- Week Fifteen: Quarter 2, Week 6
- Protruding Thumbs
- Week Sixteen: Quarter 2, Week 7
- Ensemble Playing
- Sixth String
- Holiday Music
- Week Seventeen: Quarter 2, Week 8
- Prepare for Mid-Term Exams
- Week Eighteen: Quarter 2, Week 9
- Last Week Before Mid-Term
- Halfway
- Chapter Ten: Quarter Three: The Timeline
- Quarter Three Begins: Week Nineteen or Quarter 3, Week 1
- Combo Series
- Week Twenty: Quarter 3, Week 2
- Duets
- Week Twenty-One: Quarter 3, Week 3
- Week Twenty-Two: Quarter 3, Week 4
- Playing in 3/8 and 6/8 Time
- Week Twenty-Three: Quarter 3, Week 5
- Dotted Quarter/Eighth Note Rhythm
- Week Twenty-Four: Quarter 3, Week 6
- Chords
- Eighth Notes with Alternating Picking
- Duple and Triple Meters
- Week Twenty-Five: Quarter 3, Week 7
- Scales
- Blues Form
- Eighth Notes with Alternating Picking
- Week Twenty-Six: Quarter 3, Week 8
- ABA Song Form
- Additional Materials
- Week Twenty-Seven: Quarter 3, Week 9
- Basic Strumming Patterns
- Accidentals
- End of Quarter Three
- Chapter Eleven: Quarter Four: The Timeline
- Quarter Four Begins: Week Twenty-Eight of Quarter 4, Week 1
- Last Week of Month Seven
- Canon
- Key of G
- Week Twenty-Nine: Quarter 4, Week 2
- P-I-M-A
- Week Thirty: Quarter 4, Week 3
- Exploring the Guitar Neck
- Moveable Major Scales
- Week Thirty-One: Quarter 4, Week 4
- Tuplets
- Power Chords
- Daily Warm-up
- Week Thirty-Two: Quarter 4, Week 5
- Position Playing
- Second Position
- First or Open Position
- Fifth Position
- Supplementary Materials
- Week Thirty-Three: Quarter 4, Week 6
- The History of the Guitar
- Tuning
- Improvisation
- Two Octave Scales: The First Step
- P-I-M-A
- Week Thirty-Four: Quarter 4, Week 7
- Final Exams
- Two Octave Scales
- Moveable Barre Chords
- Participate in a Performance
- Supplementary Materials
- Week Thirty-Five: Quarter 4, Week 8
- Relationship between Music and Other Disciplines
- Musical Terms
- Week Thirty-Six: Quarter 4, Week 9
- Last Week of School
- The Wrap Up
- Chapter Twelve
- Dailey Procedures
- Taking Attendance
- Tuning
- Stretching
- Warm-ups
- Single Notes
- Chords
- Ensemble
- Finger-Style
- What Did We Do Today?
- Course Scope for the Beginning Guitar Class
- Curriculum Map
- It's Summertime!