January 2005

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Preface

This is a general overview of the parameters of the beginning guitar class (Classical Guitar I) in place at Servite High School in Anaheim, CA. I do not claim to have all of the answers, and this is what I feel I have learned over the last four plus years of building a guitar program from scratch at Servite. I hope that you can take something from this to help you in your teaching.

I have learned much from many. I wish to acknowledge Joseph Breznikar, Director of Guitar Studies at Southern Illinois University. The course I have developed is based on a course that he developed and I taught under his direction at SIU-C in the mid 1990's.

I have attempted to be as general as possible to allow for individual methods, techniques, and ideas to be used. In some cases specificity was necessary to put the point forward. In the cases where specific musical or technical examples are used, these are things that I used, they are not necessarily the only way to do things. I offer them as a reference point for whatever information you may be able to glean from it.

Gregg Goodhart

Expected Outcomes

First Semester

The text I use is the old red and black Aaron Shearer Classic Guitar Technique Volume 1. I DO NOT use it as a method, but as a sequenced series of supplemental music. We do not go through everything. We will eventually sight read the whole book in the second semester.

• Whole, half, quarter, eighth, dotted half, ties, key signatures up to three sharps, all first position notes.
• Play several right hand arpeggio patterns through a basic chord progression with the thumb alternating on several strings.
• Play several one and two octave scales in first position with three RH finger alternations.
• Perform certain works by Sor and Giuliani in first position from the end of the Shearer book. In these works students will utilize arpeggios, moving bass lines with a pedal, and two part music utilizing scale passages with sustained longer notes in the bass or top voice.
• Be able to play rest (not in conjunction with a P stroke) and free stroke with the fingers.
• To be able to sight read all notes in first position with whole, half, dotted half, and quarter notes, up to one sharp, at a reasonably slow tempo.

Second Semester

There is no text. Students work from individual pieces by Sor, Coste, Cano, Aguado, Carcassi, and a folk song arrangement.

• Add sixteenth, dotted quarter, reading up to ninth position, all major and minor key signatures.
• Play previous semester arpeggios and several new ones that utilize several different alternations with joint action of the thumb and another finger. A longer arpeggio study such as that of Aguado can be introduced to plug these patterns into.
• Play several two and three octave scales with three RH finger alternations.
• Be able to play rest stroke with the fingers with joint action of the thumb free stroke and in controlled use within a piece of music.
• Be able to play pieces that utilize notes on all six strings up through ninth position with key signatures up to four sharps.
• Be able to play pieces that incorporate varying quarter, eighth, and dotted note patterns.
• To be able to sight read reasonably in fifth position and somewhat in ninth position with eighth notes, dotted rhythms, and ties.

General Parameters

First Semester

First Quarter

• After teaching sitting position and basic right hand operation open string notes are introduced.
• Sight Reading; Shortly after notes are introduced, sight reading should become part of daily class activities. One of the most effective ways is to have a music stave board at the front of the class. The instructor can write notes that have been studied in different patterns each day. Another way to keep beginning sight reading within these students abilities is to use pieces and exercises from previous areas of the book you are using. This can include sight reading duets by dividing the class in half. Most beginning books have such pieces and the result is immediately rewarding to the beginning student. If a class participates in sight reading on a very regular basis the class will accomplish much more and the instructors life is a lot easier (i.e. it is much easier for a student to do well if they do not have to spend an inordinate amount of time learning to read the assignments).
• After teaching left hand position fretted notes may be taught.
• Note Reading; The student will be able to read all of the notes in first position through the fourth string. This includes the introduction of one sharp (G#)
• Arpeggios; One pattern; P i m a, is introduced during the first quarter. Students learn chords in a progression (we use simple first position chords in C major). The student will play the progression with the pattern 4 times through before switching to the next chord. The thumb will alternate between certain bass strings each time the pattern is played. For chords with their bass note on the 5^th string (C major, A minor, D minor, etc.) the thumb will alternate on the strings as follows: 5, 4, 5 ,4. For chords with their bass note on the 6^th string (E minor, G major, etc.) the thumb will alternate between 6, 5, 4, 5.

• Scales; One scale, in this case C major. The student will learn how to play with rest stroke, two strokes per note alternating with the following patterns; i&m, m&a, i&a.
• Music; At the quarter final the student will play a piece in first position that utilizes all of the notes in first position through the fourth string using all free stroke. There is an alternation of quarter notes and eighth notes and the student should be able to execute this with a metronome in addition to demonstrating the technical requirements described above.

Second Quarter

• Arpeggios; The same chord progression and thumb alternation is used. Other right hand patterns are introduced. These are:
  

  1) P i m a 2) P a m i 3) P i m a m i 4) P a m i m a 5) P i m a m i m a 6) P a m i m a m i

• Several more first position major scales are introduced with same articulations.
• Two pieces of music in first position as described in first semester expected outcomes.

Second Semester

Third Quarter

• A new arpeggio exercise is introduced. This is a study by Aguado that allows the student to plug in different patterns to an eight phrase etude in e minor. This allows the student to make music and build strength as the length of the etude requires much repetition.
• Reading up through the ninth position is gradually introduced. Daily sight reading continues to reinforce this.
• Pieces that begin to incorporate these positions on a few strings and then more are introduced.
• A two octave scale is introduced.
• For the quarter final a student will play a piece that uses the first two strings up to the ninth position in addition to demonstrating the technical requirements described previously.

Fourth Quarter

• New arpeggio patterns are introduced and plugged into the previous music.
• Barring is introduced. Besides introducing technical exercises for this, pieces are assigned that gradually introduce the barre.
• A three octave scale is introduced.
• Longer form studies are introduced. For the final the student will play Carcassi Op. 60 No. 3 and the Sophocles Papas arrangement of Spanish Romance. Most of the technical instruction portion of the last four weeks of class are devoted to how to tackle larger works such as these.

Addendum

• In my school the seniors graduate about a week and a half before the rest of the school. My classes are mixed and are designed to end with the senior's year. For the duration of the class I work with those students who will be going on to the advanced classes the following year. There are additional areas that should be addressed in a first year class but I feel that enough is already required for those who just wanted to learn the guitar. With the continuing students I work on:

• Music: Robinsons May by Thomas Robinson.. This incorporates all aspects of playing, scales, arpeggios, sustained notes in the left hand, juxtaposition of eighths and quarter notes.
• Technical Requirements: Introduce slurs, begin learning all 24 scales, learn all 22 arpeggio patterns with the Aguado exercise.

Ensembles

For the advanced classes, ensemble participation is part of the curriculum. For the beginning class the focus is being able to basically operate the guitar.

For the beginning class, students are offered the opportunity to participate in extra-credit ensembles. These ensembles rehearse outside of the class and participants will receive one half letter grade extra credit per semester of participation (i.e. ‘A' becomes ‘A+'). By the second semester some of the more motivated students should be able to play in ensembles publically.

Ancillary Lectures

Students are not likely to get much, if any, guitar history in regular music appreciation classes. Conversely, many guitar students will not be taking any other music class and should be introduced to general music history as well.

• For the general music history an overview is presented. This includes the major musical periods and major composers within those periods. Other aspects affecting music production such as socioeconomic and geopolitical conditions are presented broadly.

• Guitar and related instruments are then discussed as to how they relate to any of the eras already studied. Major composers from the guitar literature and other factors relating to the guitar are discussed.

For many students who play popular styles this may be their only chance to come into contact with formal music theory. The concepts of keys, scales, intervals, and triads are introduced. Basic pieces are analyzed as a class. Since this can be confusing I review it over and over throughout the year.

Deviance

With up to 5 hours per week with each class there will be plenty of time for questions and other areas of interest. Students can have a time each week to ask questions about playing popular music or to bring tab in to get help with. Depending on the experience of the instructor students could study jazz, rock, blues, improvisation, flamenco, world music, whatever. There is plenty of room for deviance within this model as long as the core of the class and the expected outcomes are solid classical guitar performance at a basic level.

Philosophy

Guitar class is just that, a class. Like any other class the student will need to do homework and pay attention in class to pass. I have a meeting at the end of every school year for anyone interested in guitar the following year. I explain that if they do not work they will fail. If they do work they will be able to play the guitar, and that is a pretty good deal. When is the last time they pulled out an algebra final and showed it to all of their relatives over the holidays? They will do that with their guitar tests. Either way they know what they are getting into.

The only way to receive an ‘A' is to be able to do all of the assignments metronomically. A mistake here and there is fine, but inability to play with good meter is not. Lower grades are given appropriate to how close a student can play at the ‘A' level. ‘F' means 59% or less of the work has been done, not some or no work has been done. That would be a zero.

To maintain a certain standard it is true that sometimes you have to fail students and this can be hard. It is not much easier to give out the D's either. If standards are not held then many students, even ones who may have found they like to play, will take the easy way out. Most (and in many cases all) students will do what it takes to pass if they know there is a consequence otherwise.

This may sound harsh. Many guitar teachers believe that if a student does not want to play he or she should not be forced to continue or to achieve at a higher level. I used to believe that too until I found so many students, who once pushed learned to play very well, and went on to study for several years. Think about how many adults we as music teachers have met who express regret for not having tried to play or pursued past the beginning steps the playing of an instrument as a child.

Through my teaching I have come to believe in The Doctrine of Forced Practice which states;

If a student takes up an instrument it is because he is interested in playing it. It is because he has knowledge of how it is performed, and desires to do that. The only obstacle, if he has a good teacher, is practice and work. When confronted with the work, and the knowledge that he cannot perform adequately without doing this work over a long period of time, he may wish to quit. This does not change his desire to perform, it is only an adverse reaction to work put in versus tangible results in the short term. If the student is forced (through grades or whatever) to do the work then he will then reach a level of performing where he can do what originally drew him to the instrument. At this juncture many students experience the ‘rush' of being able to perform well for themselves and others. The student now enjoys the great gratification that any musician feels from being able to perform. There is no other way to provide this sense of accomplishment and pride without putting in the practice time. When the student experiences this level of playing he can make an informed decision about whether he wants to go on and pursue it further. If this happens you have given a great gift to that student that he would otherwise never have had. Conversely, if a student decides it is not what he wants it is not like you asked him to cut his hand off. All you asked for was a reasonable amount of work like any other class. You did not torture him; it is not all that bad and it lasts, at most, for 9 months. Don't worry, he will live and his life will be fine.

Many students in advanced classes and considering college music study would not have done so if such standards were not present. Some ‘D' or ‘F' students who, when faced with the realization that there was no other way out but to do the work, learned to play and found that they loved it.

Recruiting

There is a school of thought which says that students will not come to the guitar in any number without exploiting its cool, popular side.

If this was the case then how do we explain the success of band programs boasting hundreds of students out of schools of a couple of thousand? I was a band director for three years and saw some of the most unbelievable student performances when we went to competitions. These kids were dedicated musicians playing very well.

As a band director I had to accept that my activity was not as cool as football. What I did was improve the quality of the band so that the school would be proud of their work. This is how all of the major high school band programs do it. This works with guitar too. Quality and achievement, not pandering to the lowest common denominator is the best draw.

Once students begin performing at a higher level and ensembles become visible at campus events students will take notice. Classical guitar will become part of the school culture. The rock and roll players are very impressed with even the beginning classical guitarists. When they find out they can start at the beginning level and learn, many will take the class.

This quality over quantity approach will take a little longer to build a large program, but will perpetuate more long term interest and achievement than the quick fix of filling classes with popular music students.

Do you have a question for this instructor? Email him here.