• Welcome to Guitar!

    Guitar 1

    Guitar 1 is a performance-based course and serves as an introduction to the guitar, its history, and its application in music. The beginning of the course will be spent as an introduction to music notation involving notes and rhythms, basic music theory skills used in guitar playing, and the history of the guitar. Once students have their guitars and method books in hand, we will begin learning how to play the guitar through the use of the method book and supplemental material. Students will be exposed to a variety of repertoire for the guitar, spanning from classical music to today’s top hits. Listening will be an extensive journey in which students will learn the vocabulary required to dictate their thoughts on the music they hear. We will listen to a variety of genres, including rock, country, pop, classical, bluegrass, acapella, jazz, and many more. By the end of this course, students will be able to accurately read music notation symbols and use these symbols to perform on their guitars, as well as distinguish multiple genres of music by their defining characteristics. 

    Guitar 2

    Guitar 2 is a performance-based music course and is the advancing class from Guitar 1. The instruction of this course utilizes a method book, repertoire, and additional supplemental materials to allow for the musical development and growth of all students. In this course, students will receive continued instruction in instrumental music performance on the guitar, and continued instruction of music reading skills. Skills learned from Guitar 1 will be reviewed and used as a base for learning advancing musical concepts on the guitar (tablature, finger-style, barre chords, power chords, improvisation, etc.). Students will be exposed to a variety of repertoire for the guitar, spanning from classical music to today’s top hits. Listening will be an extensive journey in which students will learn the vocabulary required to dictate their thoughts on the music they hear. We will listen to a variety of genres, including rock, country, pop, classical, bluegrass, acapella, jazz, and many more. By the end of this course, students will be able to perform advanced techniques on their guitars using traditional and guitar-specific music notation symbols, as well as distinguish multiple genres of music by their defining characteristics. 

    Guitar 3

    Guitar 3 is a performance-based course and is the advancing class from Guitar 2. The instruction of this course will be based around the advancing musical knowledge of those enrolled. Ensemble performance and solo-based musical endeavors will be the focal point for the chosen repertoire. 

    Required Material 

    Students are expected to bring the following materials to every class: 

    • 3 ring binder with notebook paper OR notebook for Music Listening Journal
    • Musical staff paper (available to print from templates online) and Notebook paper
    • Folder to store supplemental materials
    • Pencils 
    • Guitar Picks
    • Hal Leonard Guitar Method Complete Edition by Will Schmid and Greg Koch
    • A quality full-size Acoustic Guitar with a protective case