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Strike a chord after school guitar class: Guidelines and class structure
1st Class 1) Set up – Arrive 10 minutes early to set up the chairs and music stands. Chairs should be arranged in a semi circle, one music stand per 2 kids. 2) Roll call – Take roll with provided roll sheet. 3) Introduction & behavioral guidelines/noise game – Welcome to the Strike a chord after school guitar program, my name is…etc. Establish a silence signal. Play a game with it – Make noise until I show the signal. 4) Guitar safety speech – Using these guitars is a privilege and it is very important you take extra care of these guitars. Refer to the guitar safety tips and go over all the rules. 5 ) Student introduction– Have the children introduce themselves one by one – My name is…My favorite band is… 6) Song of the day!! Pick a song from one of the kid’s favorite bands, and play it for them. 7) Unpack guitars – Have kids take out their guitars, look on the back, and give you their guitar number.
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8) Lesson #1– The guitar from head to toe. When you teach them about the string numbers, also teach them the letter names of the strings, using ,”Eat A Darn Good Breakfast Early”. 9) Call and response game - Teach them the “shave and a hair cut” call and response to get them playing right away. If you have time, march them around the room, counting and clapping like page 7. 10) Guitar players Oath – Gather the kids together with hands in the middle….I pledge…To the gods of Rock…That I will do my best to become a guitar god…I will practice 10 minutes a day… etc. 11) Dismissal – have kids line up with their books, as you write their names in them with a felt tip pen. Make sure all kids know where they’re going after class.
Notes and guidelines - Be attentive to any nervous or upset kids. - Have kids participate…Read text boxes, etc. - Be very firm in the first few classes around behavior. Don’t let kids walk all over you. - HAVE FUN!!! - Make sure kids have gone to the bathroom and gotten drink of water before class
2nd Class
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1) Noise Game – As kids come in, have them take their guitars out, place their soft case under their chair, and backpack behind their chair Lead kids through the noise game for about 3 minutes… Lot’s of energy! 2) Song of the Day!! Play any song to entertain the kids. If you like, you can use this as an opportunity to better establish your behavioral guidelines. I discontinue a song if they become disruptive 3) Tune guitars –, Line the kids up to have their guitar tuned (I recommend bringing a tuner to class). Do not allow them to make guitar noises while in line, and only let them speak in a whisper as to increase your efficiency in tuning their guitars. Once their guitar is tuned, have them sit quietly and wait for the rest of class. Segue into the lesson with the call and response game. 4) Lesson #2 - the 2nd class will be mostly teaching about tab, rhythm, picking strings(at which point you hand out guitar picks) and the musical alphabet. Remember, you can use page 7 as a fun game of marching around the room and clapping on the beats you say. Try to make sure they’ve started the half note and quarter note exercises, played back to back, by the end of the second class. 5) Homework assignments – At the end of class, have the kids write their homework assignments on the last page of the book. (bring a stash of pencils in case some kids don’t have one)
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6) Dismissal – Remember to make sure all kids know where they’re going after class! And write down their homework before they leave.
Notes and guidelines - Treat any disruption like a grass fire… Put it out immediately! - Don’t be afraid to separate any kids who have a tendency to talk to each other when sat side by side. - Have kids count while playing picking exercises. - Remember – All at once, and then one at a time (picking exercises and songs etc.) - HAVE FUN!!! - When teaching them the tablature lesson, take extra care in making sure the kids can differentiate strings from frets. Test them by having them put their finger on the X fret of Y string, which will show you who is having trouble and who isn’t.
3Rd Class and beyond 1) Noise Game!!! 2) Song of the day!!! 3) Tune guitars…SSSSHHHH…Segue into warm up with the call and response game. 4) Warm up – Have them play last weeks picking exercise, while counting for one another. All at once, then one at a time. Remember, when you get to the half note and
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quarter note pages, have them play them back to back, to the same tempo. 5) Learning & Practicing Chords – In the 3rd class, you should be on schedule to start teaching the children chords. Take extra time to make sure they understand chord diagrams. Younger kids will often have trouble with the diagrams, so for them, we will use color coded dot stickers on the guitars. After the 3rd class, walk them through a practice session to improve their chord playing as follows 1) Make each chord 10 times, letting your hand down between each time. 2) Put Chords into pairs, and switch back and forth 10 times. 6) Strum pattern and/or song - When you get to a new song, teach them the strum pattern on the page before it, only playing one chord, for the first day. From then on, just go directly to the song. With new songs, ask them how many measures they play each chord before they switch to make sure they understand. Refer to steps 3, 4, and 5 in the 5 step method of learning new songs. 7) Theory lessons – If you have extra time at the end of class, teach them about music theory. 8) Dismissal – Remember to have them write down their homework before they leave.
Notes and Guidelines
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- At some point, you will have different kids working on different songs. If / when this is the case, separate them into groups. Some days, you might want them to be in groups with kids working on the same song, other times, you might try putting the more advanced kids with the less advanced, to help them out. - When they start to get good at chords, have chord playing competitions. Have them make an E chord 10 times, slapping their knee in between each time, while you watch the clock and see who’s fastest. Then do A, and then D. - Give kids a tight structure for practice. I tell them to spend 2 minutes playing the warm up exercise, 4 or 5 minutes practicing the chords, exactly how I talked about earlier, and 5 minutes practicing the song they’re working on. - Remind them how hard it is for most people to learn chords in the beginning so they don’t get too discouraged. - Be funny, Have fun, act childlike. Do anything you can to keep the mood light, as long as you also keep the kids well behaved.