Many music educators reach a point where they’ve mastered the material in the classroom guitar curriculum they’re teaching and find themselves becoming a bit bored with their own playing. If you can relate then keep reading. The guitar class offers the perfect opportunity to practice while you’re teaching guitar. There’s no better time to refine and Read the Rest…
Advanced Warmups
Warm up drills for guitar serve a few purposes for both students and teachers: They get the left and right hands synchronized on a purely technical level without concern for the music that is being produced. This is especially important before learning or practicing a new song or skill. Warm up drills can also help develop technique because Read the Rest…
How to Practice Guitar
This week Mike Christiansen shares a few tips to help get the most out of your guitar practice sessions, including goal setting, environment, mind set, attitude, and more.
Using Consonus Backing Tracks in the Ensemble Concert
One of the benefits of Consonus Blended Learning Courseware for Classroom Guitar is that most ensemble arrangements come with online accompaniment tracks. These tracks usually omit the guitar part that is being practiced so that the student can hear her own part with those on the recording. Another feature of the accompaniment tracks is that Read the Rest…
Combine Chords & Melody
For most guitar students the early stages of their studies focus on learning the foundations of playing the instrument. These things include the mechanics of playing single notes, strumming patterns, and basic chord vocabulary. Sometimes teachers are so consumed with these building blocks of playing that students aren’t taught how to combine chords & melody into Read the Rest…
Singin’ the Blues
In this week’s expert tip Mike Christiansen explains how to come up with great lyrics for the blues. Learn to write melodies and rhythmic phrasing that will have you singing the blues like you came straight from the delta. Post your own blues lyrics in the comments below!
Major Pentatonics Classroom Guitar
In this blog post Mike talks about Major Pentatonics for Classroom Guitar. This is a great sounding scale that is easy to play and works well over nearly any major chord progression. This scale is extremely popular and used all the time even by the pros. Another great scale is the Minor Pentatonic Scale, which is Read the Rest…
Artist of the Month – B.B. King
Bio B.B. King (Riley B. King), American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter, was ranked one of the top greatest guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone. He introduced a seasoned soloing style with fluid string bending and bright vibrato, which influenced many later electric blues guitarists. An inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Read the Rest…
Classroom Guitar: Sequence Every Skill
Every skill taught in classroom guitar has an associated sequence that it should be taught with. By using the correct sequence there’s a natural progression that allows more advanced skills to build on prior skills in the sequence. Whether it’s chords, reading, accompaniment patterns, or any other skill, understanding sequencing will save both teachers and Read the Rest…
The Muted Strum
Sometimes it’s the small things that make the biggest difference. In the world of guitar accompaniment techniques good time and rhythmic feel can make you sound like a pro when playing even the simplest strumming patterns. One of the easiest ways to develop that feel is by adding muted strums to your playing. It’s the percussive pop Read the Rest…
