Building An Award Winning Guitar Program

"It was 2005, and I was sitting in a large ballroom with over a thousand other music educators in the convention center for the Music Educators National Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when we were told that music education was in crisis. Student enrollment in music classes like band, choir, and orchestra were dropping at an alarming rate nation-wide. Music educators were going to lose their jobs if they could not figure out ways to attract students into their classrooms. The message was clear: we needed to start considering all types of alternatives such as guitar, music technology, Mariachi, blue grass, rock band, song writing, music theory, hand bells-any type of music class that would attract students and save jobs"--

"It was 2005, and I was sitting in a large ballroom with over a thousand other music educators in the convention center for the Music Educators National Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when we were told that music education was in crisis. Student enrollment in music classes like band, choir, and orchestra were dropping at an alarming rate nation-wide. Music educators were going to lose their jobs if they could not figure out ways to attract students into their classrooms. The message was clear: we needed to start considering all types of alternatives such as guitar, music technology, Mariachi, blue grass, rock band, song writing, music theory, hand bells-any type of music class that would attract students and save jobs"--

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.

Creating an Award-Winning School: Outside the Box Thinking for Inside-the- School Success, is the result of collaboration between the authors and practicing and retired administrators.The book is written for new and experienced school administrators, college level instructors, and leaders in the private sector. The authors designed the Principals’ Professional Pyramid to serve as the foundation for the book. Creating the Pyramid and adapting the steps from the study of Steven Covey’s Principle-Centered Leadership, the authors arranged the tasks of administration into five major steps. The steps are ONESELF, OTHERS, ORGANIZATION, and OPERATIONS and OUTREACH. The authors developed these steps because they felt that a principal should begin with ONESELF before dealing successfully with OTHERS. Once organization is implemented, then the principal can deal with the continued OPERATIONS of all the school. OUTREACH into a professional network is a necessity for the success of a building leader.Embedded in the book are suggestions of Outside the Box Thinking or practical ideas to enhance the day-to-day operations of the building leader. Field techniques, forms, charts, diagrams, and reflections offered by the authors. These have been used to support the topics and enhance the content for the reader.

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.

(Music Sales America). This book has been specially created for any guitarist who wants to learn note reading, be they beginners or more advanced players who have neglected this part of their musicianship. It starts with the very basics of written music and progressively introduces notes on each string one at a time until all notes in the "open position" (first five frets) of the guitar have been mastered, and up to 8th note rhythm subdivisions have been learned and applied. Also covered are sharps, flats, key signatures, accidentals, repeats and more. Each step includes practical exercises, handy tips and tricks and a simple repertoire for students to put their reading skills into practice. Spiral open so it lays flat no matter what page you're on.

Volume 1 of this 2-volume set contains 54 complete lesson plans for the first 18 units of Guitar Expressions. Each lesson includes a Lesson Snapshot, Instructional Overview, a complete step-by-step lesson plan with embedded assessments. The book also includes reproducible student worksheets, assessments forms and student progress record, CDs containing complete instruction, demonstration, play-along, and additional listening tracks. Educators will be pleased to also find Bloom's Taxonomy Correlation, Assessment Overviews, and Core Thinking Overviews. Plus interactive Guitar Guru technology embedded on the included CD-ROM (included in V. 2) allows students to use their computers to view animated fretboard displays of selected songs.

Aaron Shearer's Classic Guitar Technique is used by serious guitarists all over the world and has long been one of the definitive classic guitar methods. The Shearer Method: Classic Guitar Foundations, Shearer's final work, is the first in a series that encapsulates his lifetime experience as America's premier classic guitar pedagogue. This work is a step-by-step curriculum based on Aaron's innovative and common sense approach that incorporates all the advantages of modern technology. The method includes 63 DVD videos for up-close aural and visual learning, 74 new solo and duet compositions and arrangements (made exclusively for this method by Dr. Alan Hirsh), as well as works by Sor, Carcassi, Giuliani, and more. Plus, recorded tracks masterfully illustrate nuance, tone, and musicality. The book even includes Alfred Music's exclusive TNT 2 software that allows you to slow down and loop tracks for careful practice. In addition, a complete online supplement is available for teachers and students that want a deeper understanding of Shearer's work. The book does not replace Shearer's original classic. It augments and expands on it in ways not imaginable in the early '60s when the original was published. It's a must-have to complete the library of any classic or fingerstyle guitarist The Shearer Method Classic Guitar Foundations is not just a book but a media experience.