Bill Swick's Beginning Guitar Class Review

I haven't posted anything for a very long time, mainly because they now block blogging at school. My last post (about a year ago!!) dealt with my continuing frustration over the impossibility of trying to teach guitar in an inclusion classroom. I was about ready to give up and just go back to pure theory, history, etc.







At the beginning of this year I tried a new guitar method from Bill Swick out in Las Vegas. This method has proven to be a lifesaver for me. It's the most "graded" method I've used. This allows you to individualize the lessons without having to write something easier for slower students or find something more advanced for students that are ahead.

I'm particularly impressed with how well my Special Education kids are doing. I have kids reading music who I never thought would be able to at this level. Last year I had the majority of the lower performing students doing one-string TAB because I just didn't have time to write a whole separate curriculum for them.

One great feature is that the book is reproducible. I sent him a purchase order from my school and he emailed me the pdf. I really wouldn't have guessed how much I love having the materials in pdf. About once a week I assign a new piece for them to pass off for a grade based on their progress and ability.

Since it's reprodicible I'm free to mark everything in the student's book. I date when it was assigned and make notes for things they should be working on. This is the only way to work if you've got kids working on different levels. You can't go around saying, "What are you working on?"
Coincidentally I have my more advanced students in the same class as my inclusion kids. Some are on p. 20 while others are on p. 70.

I will say that this method isn't a stand-alone method for self-instruction. For self-instruction you would probably want to use this as a supplement and get another method that covers things like What a Whole Note Is, How to Tune the Guitar, or What a Fret Is. This book assumes you have a teacher in front of you to show you technique and teach you basic music theory.

December 12, 2009 Update: Bill now has a teacher's edition for this material.  Here's the description from his site: "The Teacher's Manual offers a step-by-step method for teaching classroom guitar. Ideal for first-year teachers or for the non-guitarist music teachers. This package offers 2 quarters of weekly instruction, 18 lesson plans, 2 curriculum maps, 2 backward assessment models, 6 pre-tests, and more to make your beginning guitar class run smoothly from day 1. This manual will make the above methods a stand-alone program."  He's also updated the original material.  M.J.


I got 2 quarters which is 102 pages for my school for $99.00. You can separately purchase the first or second quarter for $45 and $54 respectively . Having used it for a couple of months, this is a great bargain for a substantial reproducible guitar curriculum.

My biggest problem with it being reproducible is kid's taking a page home and forgetting to bring it back the next day. Every day in class isn't enough?
But this is a great problem. They're excited about playing the guitar and can't get enough.

This is the best method I've seen for classroom use. After reviewing a bunch of other methods, some of which I've used throughout 12 years of guitar lessons, I'm going to give this one my official endorsement (for whatever that's worth). It's what I'm using now and I'm no longer searching.

Check out Bill's site, classroomguitar.com for more info or order the books here. I've linked to his site before but he's got some new video clips of 1st and 2nd year students improvising using his Swickster fingerboard sticker system. Check it out!

If you've never seen the GAMA video from Discover Guitar it feature's Bill's guitar program in Las Vegas and is awesome!!!

Rethinkining Dick Bennett

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I think I gave up since I had about 6 new special ed students added to my classes in December. I really don't know what to say about that except that I'm individualizing the guitar part of my curriculum at about 3 different levels now. So it's kind of difficult to do a quick post about what I'm teaching.

I've got about 15 inclusion students playing one-string songs. (They're doing This Old Man this week.) I've got another 15 or so who've been with me the whole year who are playing the more advanced stuff on three strings. And finally, there are about 5 to 10 who have transferred to my class at different points mid-year.

I really just have to look at where everyone is and assign many different pieces depending on who's in the class. For example, in my 6th period I've got one kid who reads well that's way ahead, four 'normal' kids who've been with me all year, three 'normal ed' students who just transferred to our school in January, two special ed students who were only added in January to my class and one kid who's a talented musician but has reading problems and is playing some tab. And my other classes are just as diverse.

In terms of the 'regular' curriculum I started with at the beginning of the year, the kids who are on that track are doing great, considering. It just makes me sad to think about where I could be with them musically, if I wasn't individualizing so many lesson plans and teaching everybody something different.


These students are now playing out of Dick Bennett's Standard Guitar Method, which I have really come to appreciate. It's funny to read my last post from November and see what I thought, then. Now, I use this method almost exclusively.

Because of my unique situation, I have seen the benefit of his systetmatic, approach to teaching the students to play chords in standard notation. The chords are integrated into many of the songs, while others have a notated accompaniment underneath the melody. They can really work at their own pace while I'm helping other students who need special attention.