Teacher’s guide

Presentation

This method is the result of years of personal experience, trial and research. While respecting the importance of other existing teaching methods, many teachers feel that it is sometimes necessary to adjust their approach to the current times. Nowadays young people are used to immediate gratifi cation and results, lest what started as an engaging hobby becomes a series of boring music lessons, with the inevitable rejection and withdrawal. The students themselves, far from accepting a passive role, attempt to imagine, manipulate and create; the teacher and the method used play thus a crucial role in supplying the right input, so that the student can achieve independence of thought. The basic tenet of this book is that “in music, theory must follow practice”, that is, the student must learn the rules only after having experienced fi rst hand the facts that gave origin to them. As such, all music theory topics are offered as needed and practiced directly on the guitar, thus speeding up the learning process. Completing the volume is a substantial anthology of original pieces for solo guitar, which serve to consolidate the work done in the fi rst part of the method, and the multimedia package, which enables the student to listen to audio tracks during the study phase (complete and accompaniment bases) via playlists on the Edizioni Curci Digital app (see instructions on the last page) and to vary the playback speed as needed. The selection of original compositions in a wide variety of genres that draw on different geographic and historical sources is not only educational but exciting for students. Discovering places, styles, and cultures through music makes the students more mindful of what they are doing. And it does so without ever losing sight of the accuracy of a ‘classical’ approach to the instrument, which can provide all the skills necessary to continue their studies in high school or at the conservatory. The method proposes a playful approach to the guitar precisely at the stage when the student falls in love with music, thus enabling them to learn quickly while at the same time acquiring proper basic training.

The Author

Teacher’s guide

The purpose of these brief suggestions is to facilitate and streamline the teacher’s task. As mentioned in the preface, the principles of music theory and instrumental technique have been deliberately kept to a minimum to allow the teacher to approach each topic in their own personal way. The diffi culty of the pieces increases very gradually, so that the student can grasp all the theoretical and technical challenges in a simple and effective way. In addition, each new topic can be reinforced by the new ANTHOLOGY FOR SOLO GUITAR (at the end of the book) and REVIEW TESTS (distributed among the different topics) that in some cases are also a pretext to encourage the student’s creativity and imagination. As a supporting activity, for the rhythmic exercises called SERVICE STOPS, it is advisable to repeat them several times, tapping with the right hand on the body of the guitar while vocalizing the notes with simple syllables, and rests with numbers, for example:

TA TA ONE TA TA-A ONE-TWO

Orchestral backing tracks are provided for all the pieces. These are available in the special playlist accessible on the Edizioni Curci Digital App (see last page) and, like the guitar parts, the playback speed can be adjusted. I would also recommend encouraging the student to sing the melodies of the fi rst part, pronouncing the names of the notes. The size of the guitar is of primary importance. Depending on the age and size of the student, I suggest using either a smaller guitar or, with a full-size guitar, placing a capo on the third or fourth fret, which not only ‘shortens’ the fretboard but demands less pressure on the strings from the fi ngers of the left hand.

Now let’s get started!