Reprinted with permission from the NJ ASTA journal from Fall 2006:

by Keith Calmes, D.M.A.
Wall High School
Wall, NJ

What's your favorite chord? Perhaps you love the simplicity of a D major triad. Maybe you prefer the richness of a C Major 7 chord. What if we combine these two chords and come up with a luscious C Major 13 (#11)? This is not unlike the differentiated classroom. Students work on independent projects which enhance one another and create a richer whole. The teacher of the beginning guitar class must be able to deal with independent groups such as those with physical disabilities, the "Resistant Rocker", those who don't read music well (if at all), more advanced players, unmotivated students, and left handed players.

Although students must learn to play the traditional open chords, there should be room for differentiation in regard to fingerings. While many play the G Major chord with a fingering of 2nd, 1st, and 4th fingers, many others are more successful with 2nd, 1st, and 3rd fingers; or even 3rd, 2nd, and 4th fingers. Fingering differences such as these may stem from individual finger length and independence. When someone asked guitar great John Williams to see his right hand fingernails, he replied "What does it matter? All of our fingers are different"!

Be careful not to let students merely avoid using the 4th finger of their left hand. This finger is weaker than the others, of course, but using it helps to avoid shifts and contortions in the left hand. Students fall into this trap so frequently that I call it "pinkyitis".

It is always worth remembering that the legendary Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt only had the use of two fingers in his left hand! Younger students frequently use a more severely altered system of chords which use only one or two left-hand fingers. I have had success using this same system of chords for students with arthritis, Downs Syndrome, finger injuries, and stubborn (yet gorgeous!) long nails. The simplest fingering for a G chord in this system involves placing one finger on the third fret of the first string, with the adjacent three strings played open. Students can play a C chord with just the first finger on the second string in this system. They can then proceed to play a C chord with two fingers, and then the common D7 chord. Many other chords can be simplified in a similar manner.

Guitar classes attract what I call the "Resistant Rocker". I welcome these students with open arms (just don't let them know that I told you so). Rockers are frequently good at learning music by ear and are usually excellent at reading tablature. These students love music yet may not enjoy being in a traditional classroom setting. This could be the class that turns them around academically (It certainly was for me!). Don't be afraid to use contemporary repertoire, chords, and scales in class.

Most of us have probably heard the joke: "How do you get a guitar player to be quiet? You put a piece of sheet music in front of them!" Reading staff notation on the guitar is challenging, and it takes time and experience to master. Most beginning guitar books are decent at presenting reading. The prevalence of reading tablature on the internet has altered the way that most people learn and teach the guitar. Tab can be utilized in the classroom to have students play pieces of great complexity, access popular repertoire, and facilitate learning for those with disabilities. Reading tablature also unwittingly provides insight into the history of guitar notation, since most Renaissance and Baroque compositions for plucked strings were written in tab.

Teaching across the curriculum really is a good technique for hooking students who find the guitar less engaging than their other classes. The aforementioned study of tablature is a good introduction to a unit on European history and the history of the guitar. Studying American history by playing and investigating popular songs is a natural for guitarists. The use of numeracy and mathematics is utilized throughout all aspects of music and the guitar (Jazz guitar legend Pat Martino said that an important part of his recovery from a brain aneurysm was recalling the way he numerically divided the fretboard). Knowledge of musical form also applies to language arts. These ideas are really just the tip of the iceberg. Always remember that you can engage a diverse class of students more readily by utilizing elements from other disciplines.

What about the more advanced players? Thankfully, there are always a few in every crowd (remember this when discussing careers in music!). These students should be utilized as peer coaches, role models, and certainly deserve to proceed to the next level of their development. They should be encouraged to play chords in a variety of voicings and to improvise over chord progressions with applicable scales/modes. Reading music is still frequently a topic to work on. These types of students would be well advised to play for the class frequently.

The beginning guitar teacher must also be prepared to meet the needs of left-handed guitarists. If the school is supplying instruments, there should be a left-handed instrument available. Left-handed chord diagrams should also be prepared for students, though many lefties prefer to read right-handed diagrams. Whichever diagram that the student can obtain the information more readily is the best way.

So visualize your guitar class recital at the end of the year: The Leftie Rocker is improvising on a song with the student who'd really rather be in math class. The future professional guitarist is leading players who (frankly) need help on an original Blues. A group of students playing a Canon from the Renaissance has a few people strumming chords with them. The diverse list of performers goes on. All of the learning needs of the students have been addressed, and they take with them positive experiences with the guitar and music. That's a performance I'd like to see.