Simplified Chords in Musical Notation

I think that the title of that lesson is just hilarious. It's the name of the lesson I'm using from the Standard Guitar Method by Dick Bennett in my classes. It sounds very cerebral. I guess it really gives away the book's 1965 copyright. I'm not a big fan of the method but I do like the way Dick breaks down the simplified three string chords.

He notates little chord-building exercises in standard notation. For example, on C and G7 chords:

E E E E - - - - - - - - E E E

- - - - C C C C - - - - C C C

- - - - - - - - G G G G G G G

These have been pretty effective even with my really struggling 6th graders. It's at least an easier way to teach a whole class chords without walking around and manually moving 6 or 7 students' fingers.

Hal Leonard Guitar Method

I found this old Hal Leonard Method Book at the school yesterday . While looking through it I discovered that it has a lot of the same exercises found in the Essential Elements Method I wrote about in a previous post.


The Essential Elements includes the bulk of the material found in the first two Hal Leonard Method books with the newer songs and a new snazzy layout. I haven't looked at a newer edition of the HL Method to see what's changed over the years.

The one I found has a 1977, 1980 copyright and included this vinyl record!

Again, I think the main difference is that the Essential Elements book has a lot more copyrighted popular music in it.

How to Hold the Guitar!

...just in case you were wondering.

I can't believe I found this! The next time you're feeling down just check out the picture on the right. You just can't be unhappy looking at that.

I found it while looking through some old guitar method books at the school. The photo came from "The Standard Guitar Method" by Dick Bennett.

Actually, I really like the section on "simplified chords in musical notation". It's the three-string chords we've been trying to learn anyway. The exercises are written out almost exactly like what I had written on my dry-erase board anyway.

Essential Elements for Guitar Review

Now that I've kind of babied my students with the slower-paced band method, I'm beginning to include some stuff from an actual guitar method. They've already learned E-F, B-C-D and G-A on the first three strings. Now I'm using this book to introduce G on the 1st string. I also thought that it would be a starting point for the numerous new students I've gotten in the last few weeks.

Maybe I won't have to go back to square one completely since it's the "beginning" for this book. We're using the Essential Elements for Guitar book. For those of you familiar with the band method, they're not really comparable. This one's pretty similar to the standard method books with a few refreshing differences.

They begin with chords and note-reading at the same time. You'll have a page of chord-strumming and then a page of note-reading. They kind of alternate between the two throughout the rest of the book. At the beginning students learn 3-string versions of the chords C and G7 and E, F, G for note reading. The lessons progress almost exactly like every other guitar method though some don't introduce chords and notes simultaneously.

The big difference with this book is that it's published by Hal Leonard and they throw in a lot of great pop, country and rock songs. Whereas most method books use inexpensive public domain songs to teach both chords and notes, this one has you strumming Hound Dog, Sweet Home Chicago and Jumbalaya (On the Bayou) to learn the beginner chords. For note-reading you've got "Rockin' Robin" pretty early and later a great duet arrangement of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". In future posts I'll let you know how it goes in class.

Whiney Crying About Playing With the Pinky

Today we introduced F# on the fourth string and a couple of my boys declared that they weren't man enough to play with their pinky. I'll have to think about what I'm going to do about that one...

Schedule Changes

My classes are doing pretty well with cut time. I'm especially working on getting them to tap their foot and feel it as cut time rather than just playing it twice as fast.

In other news...I've had four new students added to one of my classes! We've been in school for 12 weeks, done six pages worth of beginner guitar instruction, finished rhythm and almost finished melody in our theory book and I don't really know what I'm going to do with these students who haven't been here for any of this.

I just named the blog Adventures in Classroom Guitar Instruction while trying to think of something catchy. But this may really be more adventure than I'd bargained for!

Question:
How do you teach students who are three months ahead and brand new students at the same time?

Learning Cut-Time

Well, we've had 9-weeks tests and watched West Side Story. So, I haven't updated much on the guitar. In our 30 Days to Music Theory Curriculum we're on Day 18 "Key Signatures" which means that we're about to have our second test on theory. We did rhythm first and now we're about to test on melody.

With guitar we're rockin' on with the first 3 strings (minus high G). The songs have more skips and we're playing songs like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Jingle Bells" in the key of G.

We're starting cut-time music in this band method that we're using. It's gotten me thinking about why there is so much cut time in band music. Sure, you find it in all kinds of music but in band you have a lot of it! I think it must be that it's just easier to read. Maybe it's easier than teaching so many eighth and sixteenth notes for beginning students. Maybe it's the march thing. I'll have to research that one.

Anyway, at this early stage, without eighth notes it's the only way to play songs like "Jingle Bells". It just doesn't sound the same if you play it with quarter notes.

I'm trying to get us to the point that we can play a couple of little Christmas ensemble pieces at the nursing home pretty soon.

One-String Yankee Doodle

This is what I'm using for some of my special ed students. I've also given them "Amazing Grace" recently. I actually write it out a little differently for them. I always right them out 4-8 bars per line. That way they can see the stucture. (The third line is the same as the first, etc.)

Chord Melody Enrichment

Earlier, I briefly mentioned that I'm doing some chord-melody with one of my students who is more advanced. He's in band, reads well and knows some chords. He's far enough ahead that he can sight-read what I've got planned for everyone else for at least 2 months.

So, what do you do? Well, one thing I'm doing with him is having him play the same pieces chord-melody style. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it's where you play the chords under the melody, making the melody note the highest note of the chord.

The guidelines I've given him are:

1. Strum the chord with the melody note being the highest note of the chord. For now, it's just once per measure.

2. Don't pick any note higher than the melody note.

3. Use the fourth finger to play the notes D and G on the first and second strings.

I don't usually write them out but here's a notated example:















Of course, you don't actually play the chords as quarter notes. I just notated it incorrectly. You hold the chord tones as long as you can or at least until the next chord if possible.

You eliminate unwanted chord tones and change fingering to have the melody 'on top' like so:

Steve's Jazz Guitar Journey

http://jazzguitarjourney.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html

This is a link to Steven Rosenberg's jazz guitar blog. It's a little off topic for this blog but Steve's a great writer and it's got a lot of cool links for jazz guitar study. This one's more for the hard-core student who already plays well.

Studying jazz helped improve my playing more than anything else I studied after the first few years. It's great if you need to get out of a rut, which is a common occurance for guitar players. Jazz is something that you could literally study and enjoy for the rest of your life.

Ensemble Music

I'm very pleased with the progress my students are making. We're now playing E and F on the first string, B-C-D on the second, and G-A on the third. All of my classes are at least to page 10 in the First Division Sax book. They've learned whole, half and quarter notes and rests, 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures, repeat signs, first and second endings and played some simple duets. We've just started ensemble music in one class.
We're using this Yamaha Band Ensemles book now that we know a few notes.

Yep, it's the Eb alto sax book because they transpose to the keys of C and G which are friendly to guitar players. You would need to know about ten more notes before getting started with a comparable guitar ensemble book.

A few of my inclusion students are working on "One-String Yankee Doodle". (5-5-7-9-5-9-7-0) and one of them can play some of the note-reading tunes if he writes the letter names on the page. By the way, he doesn't have the reading skills do it the 'normal' way but he's awesome when it comes to improvisation time! The students in this one class just have to play the blues at the end of each class. I've told them I'm going to get sunglasses for them to wear while we play the blues.

Smart Guy Reviews

Here's a site that reviewed a few of the many guitar methods available online. With so many sites for guitar methods out there, how could you possibly know which are any good?

He opens with the question "Have you been overwhelmed by all of the 'learn guitar' programs available on the web?" Right on! This is a pretty helpful look at a few. Be sure to read the user reviews page.

The top rated one looks pretty good. Expensive but cheaper than the price of a semester of lessons.

GAMA video

I posted a link earlier referencing this but I wanted to test out this new video feature. This is the Guitar and Accessories Marketing Association Video on the growth of guitar programs in secondary education.

This should inspire anyone involved in guitar and music education especially at the pre-college level.

Links Related to Music Education and the Guitar

I originally promised some links related to guitar in the music classroom. Most things that come up in searches are for on-line courses and lessons. There are also method books you can download or order for your classroom. Some of these look interesting but I'm not going to go through a bunch of commercial sites right now.

One site that's non-commercial that I keep coming back to is the MENC site on guitar in the classroom. This one is definitely worth checking out if you're introducing guitars into the music classroom for the first time. They focus heavily on getting non-guitar-playing music teachers to introduce guitar in music class.



This video is awesome! Very exciting for guitar teachers. It's from the "Video" section of the Discover Guitar site. It discusses the growth of guitar in the music classroom. It's produced by a group for marketing in the guitar industry. It features a school system in Nevada with an incredible guitar program. More about it at classroomguitar.com.


I also just found this book. It's from a series often referred to as the "Berklee books". It's interesting if you're looking for something that's different than the typical E-F-G, B-C-D methods. It starts with the C major scale in first position.

I think it's a little too fast for average students without prior musical experience but it's interesting in that it's different. He also dives straight into triads using the notes in that C scale. You can look at sample pages at Amazon.

1st Division Guitar Method Samples

These are the first couple of pages I use to teach note reading. I've pasted on guitar fingering diagrams to replace the sax fingering diagrams when introducing new notes.

Note the simple repetition used in these exercises. These are really accessible, even to 6th grade students. Notice that on the first few tunes there are whole rests between the notes to give the students time to think about the next note.

They allow for the teacher to walk around and check for proper technique which is very important in the beginning. Also, the Solo/Class and Duet pieces hold interest, keep the students focused and allow the teacher to better evaluate what individuals are doing.

You could use any old band book your school may have available. Just use the Eb instruments to have it already transposed to the correct key.

Why Guitar Method Books Are Weak part 3

In a couple of previous posts I stated some reasons why guitar method books are much weaker than methods for other instruments.

This time I'll talk a little bit about what I use and why I think it is more effective.

I basically use what I call the First Division Guitar Method. I've taken some old First Division Band Method books that my band director wasn't using anyway and use them to teach guitar. I use the Eb Alto Sax books because they transpose to C/G which are very guitar-friendly keys.

(Mine don't really look as nice as this pic. I've got the really old ones.)

With this method, we begin by learning D, C and B on the second string with whole notes. When we add the note E on the third page we've now got a great list of beginner songs that the student will immediately recognize. Also, the student is only playing two fretted notes. They can then play Mary's Little Lamb, Au Claire De Lune and Hot Cross Buns.

The main difference, however, is the pace. I really think that the technique required to play the guitar well requires this kind of slower pace. Since it is a beginner band book, it's designed to teach one hundred or more 6th graders to play many different instruments all at the same time. The first two pages are dedicated to learning just those first three notes. They begin with whole notes and add quarter notes on the second page.

To keep things from moving too slowly they mix in several pieces with Solo/Class options and two line duets. These are really good if you have a large class and want to evaluate what each student is doing. You just get different kids to play the solo. We also do a lot of "Boys play # 5 and girls play #6" on the duet lines. I can walk around and see what each person is doing.

They also don't get as bored with the repetition required because the Solo adds interest and they want to see how others are doing. It also provides a great incentive for them to work harder since they know that they may be next.

For the rest of the book they add one or two notes at a time and have a lot of repetition. Also, after they introduce new notes they emphasize them for a couple of tunes and then go back and focus on those few core notes. The emphasis really seems to be on learning to read well rather than just learning "all the notes". The "real" guitar methods out there really seem to be about getting all the notes learned as fast as possible.

Any other band method would probably work just as well. I just happened to have old first division books here. But they're all designed to teach large groups of students at a reasonable pace. (Just remember that the Eb instruments are already transposed to guitar-friendly keys.) I think that this offers a great starting point for thinking about a new way to teach guitar.

Anyone who has ever played or taught Piano out of the Thompson books knows what a vast improvement the Bastian series is for beginning learners and so on with newer methods. For guitar instruction not only do we not have a "Bastien" type method, we don't even have a "Thompson". I really think that we are light years behind other instruments in the area of beginner instruction in note-reading.

I think that the main reason for this is that the guitar is generally taught by "strummers" like me. Learning to read notation is just kind of an afterthought. However, the stereotype that guitar players can't read music may not only be about players and teachers' interest and attitudes about reading music. It may also have something to do with the way we teach it.

Thirty Days to Music Theroy

This is the theory book I'm using this year. It's not perfect but it's reproducible. I just give them a few days worth, hole-punched, and they clip it in. You can't play the guitar the whole class period anyway.


We do a little theory, a little note-reading, some chords and sometimes a little improv at the end of class using 12-bar blues and a simple open position minor pentatonic scale.

Why guitar method books are weak part 2

In a previous post I talked about the need for a new guitar method which corrected some of the problems found in other methods.

The three problems I mentioned were:

1. They move too quickly.
2. They teach new notes in groups of three according to string tuning rather than adding one or two at a time.
3. They begin with modal music that sounds funny.

These problems are interrelated and I'll try to explain my thoughts on these. Let's start with the way most methods begin.

Most methods begin by teaching E, F and G on the first string. They teach these with little modal songs which begin and end on E (Phrygian) or G (Mixolydian). I really don't have much problem with this part. This is fine a fine way to start and is very logical in relation to the instrument's tuning. It's also consistant with other methods. It's what they do next that irks me.

After playing a few simple tunes with these notes, the student is then asked to learn 3 new notes, B, C and D, on another string. Usually the same or very similar modal pieces are used to teach these notes. They just transpose them to the keys to fit B, C and D.

Next, after learning to play these simple pieces, they throw all 6 notes into one song. This is where I've found I lose people. At this point they kind of give up. They had really been thinking high, middle, low for the three notes on each string and now they're asked to do something much more difficult.
I think that a much simpler and rational approach would be to add one note at a time. After a few years of searching, I found one method that kind of does this. Everybody's Guitar Method, which I linked in the other post, adds a note at a time after the first 3 notes are taught. Honestly, it still moves a little fast but at least they've taken a step in the right direction.

The only method for guitar that I've ever seen that does a good job with the add-a-note-at-a-time method and isn't modal is the First Act method that comes with their First Act guitars. That's right, the Wal-Mart guitars! Say what you will, but they start with G and the guitar is basicaly a key of G instrument. They add A, B, C and D progressively.

Think about it. When you learn G, A and B you've learned to read 3 notes of which only one is fretted, you're able to play simple tonal (non-modal) beginner songs found in every other instruments method book such as Hot Cross Buns, Au Claire De Lune and the simplified Mary Had a Little Lamb.

They stay a long time with those first three notes, which is consistent with methods for other instruments. The student learns to read well with different rhythms and develops a level of self esteem. Let's face it the technique required to play the guitar is confounding enough without having to also deal with an instruction method which is actually harder than other instruments.

My problem with the kids' First Act method is that it is very short. It doesn't go beyond those 5 or 6 notes. Maybe there's a 'book two' or maybe a similar edition for older students. So I actually use something different in class. I think I've arrived at something which may be about perfect. It allows students to move at a pace which is slow enough to not frustrate. Also, it's tonal and the songs are immediately recognizable .

The best part of it is that I didn't have to make the whole thing up myself (or even transpose it). It was right there in front of me! I'll talk more about it next time.

Winton's Ways to Practice

I introduced the concept of practice today. We practiced together as a group, a section at a time and then I set them lose to work on the piece by themselves. I also introduced Winton's Ways to Practice from his Tackling the Monster video.

Wynton’s Ways to Practice

1. Seek Private Instruction.
2. Make a Schedule.
3. Set Goals.
4. Concentrate.
5. Relax and Practice Slowly.
6. Practice Hard Parts Longer.
7. Play with Expression.
8. Learn from Your Mistakes.
9. Don’t show off.
10. Think for Yourself.
11. Be Optimistic.
12. Look for Connections.

The reason most guitar method books are weak is...

...they're written by guitar players. Well, I guess they are. I hate to say it because I am a guitar player, but guitar players are not great with method books. I learned to play out of one of these method books, and I've taught out of them for years but they're weak. Let me tell you why I've come to this conclusion.

1. They move too quickly.
2. They teach new notes in groups of three according to string tuning rather than adding one or two at a time.
3. They begin with modal music that sounds funny.

Most guitar method books begin by teaching E, F and G on the first string. Then, after you've played about a page you move on to B,C and D on the second string. Here, most books will stick with these six notes for a couple of pages. Then, when you're feeling like you can almost do this, they unleash the third string with G and A.

I learned to play the guitar great this way! I began with Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method Grade 1. I really do have a special place in my heart for this book. I fell in love with this instrument playing through this book. The funny thing is, I didn't even know about chords when I started teaching myself.

I went on to study some classical in college while majoring in music. Years later, when I began to teach private lessons, I was surprised to find that most students didn't have the same experience with this method that I did. They had trouble keeping up and lost interest because they were required to learn so many notes just to play the first couple of pages.

The difference for me was that I was already a musician and highly motivated. I had played the saxophone for three years in band, could read music very well and was already a full-on, passionate music nerd!

Most people who came to me for guitar lessons wanted to learn to play guitar but didn't have the same ability or motivation. I really have always wanted to believe that anyone can learn to play. I set out to find a method that was geared more toward inexperienced musicians.

First, I tried Mel Bay's Mastering the Guitar book which mixes in chords and tab at the same time as the note reading. I figured this would help with the monotony of the note reading. But the note reading section still worked from a 3-notes-at-a-time approach and some students couldn't keep up.

Then, I found Everybody's Guitar Method which after teaching the three notes on the first string, uses an add-one-note-at-a-time process which I was pretty happy with. It definitely helped the pace but had one song per note added; still a little fast.

In a future post I'll explain why I think that a new method is needed for guitar instruction.

The Treble Clef Rap

This is a great way to teach kids the notes of the treble clef. (There's also one for the bass.)Thanks to Chris Young for sharing this at our state choral meeting.

F, A, C, E, F, A, C, E,
These are the spaces I can see
E, G, B, D, F, E, G, B, D, F
These are the lines o the treble clef

You use your hand for the staff and touch the spaces between your fingers as you say the space names. You touch your fingers as you say the lines. It's really great for my special education kids but I do it with everybody and they like it. It's a fun chant they'll remember and it uses kinesthetic learning.

My class guitar grading rubric

October 26, 2010 edit: I have a more recent rubric which can be found here.  It better reflects my current teaching methods.


http://classroomguitar.blogspot.com/2010/01/updated-class-grading-rubicgrading.html

The following is the original 2007 post:

This is the basic rubric I use. I weigh them differently depending on how far along we are and may add others later. For example, the first couple of weeks I might assign 50 points of a playing grade toward the "elbow on the hip" because I really want them to understand the importance of that one.

I give a lot of weight to the first three or four items under technique at the beginning because once they're learned properly the students can play without looking at their fingers and don't have to unlearn nasty habits.

The first week or two I assign about 5 or 10 points total to the general performance items. I've found that if they've got the technique right, these first easy songs will be correct anyway. Most beginner's problems with playing beginner songs correctly stems from their not being able to play notes without looking at their fingers, losing their place because their looking at their fingers and not being able to reach certain notes because of poor Left Hand (LH) technique.

Guitar Playing Rubric

Technique
· Elbow on the ‘hip’ of the guitar. (50 points this week)
· “Thumbs up” – LH thumb behind the neck, pointing up. (20 pts - this is fundamental esp. for small hands)
· Fingertips pressing strings against thumb. (Teacup pinch) (7 pts - this will definitely be higher each week. They have to learn to play with fingertips)
· Fingers spaced to fit the frets (7 pts - this one needs to be increased too. They can't get the 3rd fret note without looking at their hand and sliding unless they learn to feel this finger spread)
· Rest Stroke – RH thumb comes to rest on the string below (6 pts I've got nylon stringed instruments. I would use the thumb even if they weren't. They can feel what they are doing better than with a pick. Also, playing it as a rest stroke teaches them to feel where they are without looking at their fingers)

Musicianship (I'll start hammering these more next week. We're doing them but I'm not grading it yet)
· Looking at music – even if you know it!
· Say the letter names in rhythm
· Tap your foot

General performance (10 pts - This will be fine the first couple of weeks if they're doing the above technique correctly. The songs are just so easy. Technique is the killer!)
· Play rhythm correctly – Steady beat; be sure to hold notes full value
· Play pitches correctly

Good left hand finger spacing

Poor left hand finger spacing

Big Mistake No. 1 (for this year)

I taught some chords first! I gave in to the impulse to get some immediate gratification and just taught some chords. They're just so much more satisfying. I've always done it that way with private lessons. If there is any confusion about playing single note melodies you can give immediate feedback and fix the problem. But what do you do when you've got six kids still strumming multiple strings?

I've only had a problem with it in one class but it's still frustrating. I think the problem stemmed from one thing...

I used stickers this year.

Yeah, you can see them in the pictures. I had to because my first period class is an inclusion class and I have four "special needs" students who really needed it. Then, when I tried to teach them to play individual notes they kept going back to the stickers. ...and strumming multiple strings.

I think we will be able to get them going in a couple of days but if I had the same kids again I probably would begin with the note-reading first. I think it's easier to teach the concept of "those three notes we learned are all in this G chord" than teaching it the other way around.

A couple of these kids will probably never be able to get the note-reading and the others will be behind my regular ed students.

Something to think about:

How do you teach kids within a very wide range of ability levels in a classroom setting?

I don't know if my thinking is correct, but I've basically been giving my more medium level and advanced kids things to work on and letting them practice while I work with others who require more intensive instruction. Also, they're not necessarily working on the same thing at the same time.

I think that this idea can work when teaching beginner guitar because so much of it is just practicing. They have to initially understand the concept but after it's been taught they have to work on learning it kinesthetically through muscle memory. Later, it's more about musicianship, and then, I could see having a problem with this aproach. But the Mattster's open to suggestions. If you have experience with this, please share your ideas with me.

One thing I've gotten out of this is that I'm teaching them some new terms. They are now learning that we 'pick' individual 'notes' and we 'strum' 'chords'. I've also taken the time to notate the chords. This is helpful, even if they can't read all of the notes yet, because it shows them what it looks like on the staff to have more than one note at a time.

Anyway, TGIF!

I told them that if they worked hard I'd give them a free day tomorrow (Saturday). They groaned. I know it's a stale old joke but I'm kind of a stale old guy.

This year's adventure in general music

I'm currently teaching general music classes for the second year at a Middle School in North MS.

This year I have three sections of General Music. Two of them are 7th and 8th graders and the third is 6th grade. This is my first year to teach 6th graders with guitars in General Music and although I didn't expect them to pick it up as quickly as the older kids, I'm surprised by how much more instruction they need.

We're using these little Excel EX 36NBK guitars which we purchased last year mostly with $$ from the class fee paid at the beginning of the school year, being that funds are very limited. We generally get less than $200 per teacher in Mississippi (yes, that's for the year) to spend in the classroom. So, everything else we have to raise ourselves.

They're nylon-string 3/4 size guitars which we were able to purchase for about $40.00 a piece. They retail for $60.00 but we were able to get a discount because we bought 13 of them. They're really sound great for the price.

I've found that the nylon-string instruments' mellow tone and softer volume help minimize the irritation of beginner clanking and minor intonation problems. Although they probably don't stay in tune any better than a cheepo steel-string, they're much easier on the ears. Listening to a classroom full of cheepo steel-strings played by beginner middle school students is enough to make anyone lose it!

Also, in this price range I think the nylon-stringed instruments hold up better. Truss-rods to support the neck of a steel-string are just not great for a $60.00 guitar. After a few years they tend to bow in under the string tension. This makes them harder to play and intonation horrible.
I think that the 3/4 size is great for beginners of all ages because the students can easily see what they are doing without craning their necks over so much. And for middle school ages it's a must to have 3/4 size.

We're finishing up our second week of school and I'm very excited about what these kids are going to do this year. We've learned the one-string version of "Twinkle Twinkle", begun note reading, and are strumming "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" and "Amazing Grace" using Matt's famous EZ chords G, C and D. (More on that later)

What's this blog about?

I'm starting this blog to record my own experiences teaching groups of (sometimes young) individuals to play guitar. I've found that this is no easy task.

My background:

I'm 34 years old with a degree in Choral Music Ed. I've played the guitar for about twenty years, taught public school choral and general music for about ten years, and taught private guitar lessons for ten years as well. I've taught up to 60 students a week in music stores and at a church with a school of fine arts.

In that time I've found that guitar instruction books move too quickly, are set up in a way that makes no sense and are basically useful only to individuals with exceptional talent and/or prior musical experience. And that's for individual lessons! Try using these books in a classroom setting with average ability/interest level students and they are very ineffective.

In this blog I'll address some of these problems and their possible solutions with the hopes that others with experience will join in the discussion. In my searches I haven't found very many resources that are useful for a large class setting. Please let me know if you find something that you think works. Again, not for just highly motivated 'nerds' like I was when I started out but something that will work with your average student.