Hey everyone! This is a second year instrumental course that I have to take as a part of a music education degree, This is my Guitar 2880R course and here were learn the basics of classical guitar and how to teach classical guitar to others. As a part of the course requirements, I had to choose a piece of repertoire and conduct the class through it and teach them as well. I hope you enjoy watching!
Lesson Plan
Guitar: Lesson PlanPamina Neote “All Wound Up” This level 3 piece I feel is something that can be introduced to a class to help them in many ways on the guitar. It teaches everything that you would directly want to cover in a piece; simple yet fun to play. The rhythmic element of syncopation teaches counting and the dynamic markings and articulation teach musicality along with the DS al Capo and repeats. The other elements of music including the ritardando and accelerando are great to have them pay attention to your conducting and add more musical affect to the piece. Rhythmic elements of the melody that pop in and out of texture are great to push technique through all players yet is still not extremely challenging for beginners. As I begin to teach the class, I will start with introducing the piece and going through some of the musical aspects of it that stick out immediately ie: glissando (will point out where they are and how to play them), syncopated rhythm, percussion and the DS al Capo. I will start by teaching the Guitar 2 Part at bar 11. This is where the main melody/theme is first introduced to the performers, so teaching something that is recurring and possibly difficult to count is important to instill within them before we move onto anything else in the song. To teach this rhythm, we will first clap it out loud, I will clap it for them and do a “call and response scenario” to ensure that they all understand the rhythm fully and can clap it at tempo before attempting to play it on guitar with the notes. If they do not understand, I will pull out the tie between the eighth notes and make them clap them separately, and add it back in after. I may have to use a counting system to teach them as well with the rhythm to help them fully understand. Then I will have everyone play the Guitar 2 part and go over how the first and third part play mostly the same melodies to each part (ie. Guitar one has its own melody that it plays and Guitar 3 plays bass notes and a smaller melody). I will also point out how Guitar 2 moves to Bb and C, in the middle of the staff versus where we usually hear the main melody with a high F# and E. I will have them play a few bars. After teaching that I will move onto Guitar Part 1 and Part 2, the percussion parts at the beginning of the song and briefly go over what they are and how to play them. I will count and have everyone play the same part. Then I will have half the class play one part and the other half play the other part at the same time so they understand how it will sound. I will teach them the technique behind how to play the parts correctly as well. The two parts consist of hand percussion on parts of the guitar. Part 1 (right hand) will be taught to them by helping them to understand how to tap the side of the guitar with enough pressure from the finger nails without hurting themselves or damaging the guitar. Part 2 (left hand) will simply tap the bridge of the guitar (I will ask someone to point to the bridge of the guitar to show Knowledge and Understanding). Then I will begin to show them the Guitar 3 Notes if they do not know them and clarify if there are any problems since the notes are low, I would like for the Guitar 3 players to play out a little more to stabilize the entirety of the song and have a strong ground bass sound to complete the chords being played. Guitar 3 also has a small melody that comes in at bar 34, I will tell them that I will cue their eighth note so they know exactly where to come in. I will also tell them that they can play the grace note C if they can play it in time, if not, they can leave it out and I can give it to one of the stronger players to play as long as everyone else plays the quarter note in time. I will go through the counting and notes with them to ensure that they know them and can play them correctly. Things to point out: -accents and how to pluck them to differentiate between them -glissando -dynamics and who is important where in the piece -DS al Coda, repeats, to Coda -can teach them, do not have them play repeats and DS now, just teach them and play through the piece without them -congratulate them on one thing they did right and something new that they can fix when you play it again, do not point out the negatives first
Guitar Final Solo
Here is my final solo for the class, called "A Simple Dialogue" by Shawn Bell. Enjoy!