Classroom help

I discovered a neat trick in my private school guitar classroom last week…notation on the big screen.  Every student was engaged and reading or trying to read and I could walk around the classroom and look at their technique and make suggestions while the others played along to the music.

I have been searching for a more intelligent way of teaching a group of students in a beginning group guitar class that sometimes has small numbers like 5 students and sometimes can be as large as 10 or 20.  Using a “guitar method book” is difficult as some students get the concepts almost instantly and others take days and obviously struggle to practice on their own at home due to learning issues or maybe just have competing interests and lack of balance.

I have been searching for a few years to find some new, engaging and enjoyable way to present notation and get every student to find confidence and learn independently.  I have no problem in a one on one lesson because I can vary the material and adapt to the student’s individual needs, intellect and challenges.  But add in one or more additional students and the challenges multiply exponentially.

So my great idea for the classroom is I compose and transcribe our songs into Finale and then I project them onto the large screen TV in my classroom from my laptop computer.  I can slow the pace of each tune down and repeat songs so they are getting their repetitions in.  We can play the song and hear Finale demonstrate and play the audio of the notes while we practice listening and saying the note names in time.  I can turn the TV volume up or down to engage a larger or smaller classroom. Finale also has a little conductor line that follows along as the score/song plays and it points to the notes we are on, so the kids are learning to see exactly where they are in the piece and to read ahead.  It helps them to track, read and pace the notes.  We do one practice pass and count along as the piece plays.  We can then practice and play along and get 3 repetitions in a row.  Then when everyone is getting it I start playing fun speed exercises and we bump the tempo up a few beats and see who gets lost or who can play each song excellently.  Also, each song can have a count inserted at the beginning, so we are on beat and in tempo right from the start.

Guitar students are notorious for noodling in group lessons, so the benefit of having a song play out loud and along with us entices them to follow along, stay focused and they seem to be less distracted; plus I get some help and do not have to lead each song as much and this gives me ample time to walk around the class and I can be more attentive to individual technical or reading issues and we can address these immediately so we are not practicing incorrectly.  We also have created a bit of friendly competition that has started to seep in and most of my students are excited to try and excel as quickly as their nearest neighbor.

Another terrific benefit that I love with our projected music notation is that a screen encourages their attentions away from looking at their hands and strings and they HAVE to think and pay attention.  They have to know where their frets are and where their notes are and what finger has to go where and what that correct note feels and sounds like.  I started introducing this projection idea by writing a lot of the beginning original music that I started with and also composed redundant note patterns that really stress and work on finger coordination and recognizing notes right away.   So first we play small melodic fragments (germs) on 2 and 3 note patterns over and over with a few “made up” songs I create, like EGEG, and EFEF, and FGFG.  Then we reverse these two note patterns and I put together 3 note patterns (and call them riffs so it all sounds more real and interesting to them) and we then play EFG EFG and then GFE GFE.  Then we work on rhythmic patterns like EEFFGG G, then come back down GGFFEE E.   So each new germ is building knowledge based on previous patterns and creating memorable motor skills and fingering patterns that we can use and build on in future melodies.  I transpose these first E string “germs” from the high E string over to the adjacent B string to build up finger pattern memory and motor memory.  Then we start to mix the 6 notes together from both strings and I toss in a melody like Twinkle or Lightly Row or Jingle Bells and create the desire to try something challenging yet attainable for them that they’ve heard before, and off we go.

Finally I introduce and we start to play melodies from various method books that I borrow from cello, trumpet, voice, guitar and piano books and methodology that fits my teaching style and hopefully excites and encourages my class.  I am quite lucky as I have a high school aged assistant who I give a list to and she copies the melodies I like from various books so I can try new materials the very next class.  And with Finale I can alter the order easily by editing in the classroom on the fly, or I can adjust the materials outside of class.  I use a wireless mouse in class so that I can be “in the class” with the kids and not next to the computer in the front of the room.  I also use a classical guitar that I have put a strap on so I can walk around the room and demonstrate fingerings and patterns right up next to each student. These small things allow me to move around the classroom and to work and interact with my students more easily and more quickly.

It’s a shame I can’t just engage the kids the way we that we used to learn with a book of melodies and the potential of learning a new instrument and work.  Just kidding, as we are doing the work and I’m more than happy to try to engage them in a new way that is more familiar to them by using technology that they enjoy being challenged by.