We've got three 3/4 and three full-size classical guitars ordered and the music store has now received them. He's setting them up today for me to pick up after school. Woo hoo! I've had quite a few kids playing baritone ukes the last 2 weeks.
This year I've also started out the year exclusively playing guitar. I usually do a lot of theory worksheets and more General Music type stuff. When I first started I just didn't know enough to do guitar all period and keep them focused.
Footstools
I started the year off making my students use a footstool and sit in classical position. I did this just because I was inspired at my summer workshop and "wanted to get my life right" as the preacher would say. I expected to see some long-term pay off for this later on in the year. But honestly, I've been shocked at what a difference it has immediately made.
Everything is better: left hand, right hand, not bending the neck to see the fretboard. It also makes it incredibly easier for me to see what they're doing because their left hand is not behind a desk/music stand.
Set-up
I've set up my room with a couple of risers at the front of the room. One of them is pretty high, and I can actually sit on it and show them how to adjust their sitting position. From this higher seat I can play, see what their hands are doing and point at my posters behind me (my rubric and 3 ft. high Scott Tennant "3 points of contact" poster), all without leaving my seat. Sweet! I've also got my dry-erase board right there within pointing distance. The Scott Tennant illustration is from his Basic Classical Method 1.
Methods
I've learned a lot about doing this at the classroom level from experience over the last 3 years, but I've got to say that a lot of the big improvements this year came from my week at the GAMA workshop this summer.
Besides the footstool idea, I picked up on a lot of simple phrases and ways of teaching things that have made my life easier. Probably the biggest one is to not stopping playing everytime you want to tell the kids something.
This really worked well yesterday when I was working with 4 or 5 Special Ed students in one of my classes. We just started picking E quarter notes. Then, I'd say something like,"Now, when I say 'ready, go' we're going to put our first finger on the first fret and say 'F'. Remember to play with the tip of your finger. Ready, say 'F, F, F, F'."
While picking F I'm talking them through G. "Now, we're going to put our third finger on the third fret, bird-man in the air, skipping over the second fret. Lorenzo, bird-man in the air, skip the third fret."
Before I would have stopped and moved fingers. Gotten everyone adjusted and then tried to start over. This simple technique really works great. I probably worked with those kids for 3 or 4 minutes and you wouldn't believe the looks of relief that they were actually getting it because they were completely lost with the general class instruction. If you worked with Special Ed students you know that look of frustration.
Just the phrase "bird-man in the air" is beautiful. I've probably said, "This is the only class where it's OK to have the bird-man in the air" probably a hundred times this week. But if you've taught any amount of guitar you know how hard it is to get some kids to not play G with their second finger. This phrase has ended all of those lectures.
GAMA Teaching Guitar Workshop Plug
By the way, all of this came from Jim Nancey at the workshop in Atlanta. This is from a guy who is a piano player with a background in choral music who couldn't even play guitar much until he went to a GAMA workshop. I gained a lot and I've played and taught private lessons for 20 and 10 years respectively.
Bottom line: anyone could learn a lot from the workshop, even if it's just a few teaching ideas or phrases from seeing other people teach. Get to a GAMA workshop. You won't regret it!
No comments:
Post a Comment