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For My Mini Chord Curriculum Click Here

Below is 

My Adult Guitar Teaching Method

My approach to guitar is intended is to prepare folks to make music with others. The repertoire and the skills I present are part of the common folk wisdom of our culture. The most important skills involve right hand and left hand coordination used to produce and strum the most common chords.  These chords work together in specific pairs in order to support the melody of a song. The first lessons are directed towards giving students the practical experience of accompanying a melody.

I like to work with a repertoire of common songs that can be accompanied with only two chords. These songs are simple enough that students can focus on basic skills in a manageable way. Once the student is actually making music many of the other skills including rhythmic consistency, intonation, pitch matching repertoire development and memorization can fall into place naturally. My students gain a very strong basis with which to understand their own music and the music of others.

Method Books:

For students who wish to develop musical literacy I work with:

• Hal Leonard Guitar Method, Book 1,2 &3. by Schmid and Koch
• Easy Classical Guitar Duets By Charles Duncan (Hal Leonard)
• A New Tune a Day for Classical Guitar by Michael McCartney (Boston Music Co.)

For students working without notation:

• Rise Up Singing by Patterson et al. (Sing Out Publications)
• and a huge array of supplemental material

Teaching Experience:

30 years teaching privately in Burlington as well as group classes at YTV Trad Camp, Burlington Parks and Recreation, the Flynn Center, Meadowlark music camp, various dance and music camps, weekends and festivals and also as the director of the Celtic College in Burlington.

All private guitar lessons are based on an individualized learning plan.

Concentrations include:

• Celtic or American fiddle accompaniment,
• Celtic or American ballad accompaniment (including bluegrass)
• Vermont fiddle tune repertoire on guitar.
• Songleading and social musicmaking.

I have quite a bit to say on the matter but I do not specialize in jazz, pop or rock styles.