5 Ideas for the 1st Hour of Guitar Class

by Glen McCarthy | Jul 17, 2016 | Classroom, Education, News, Principles, Stories, Success Stories, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized

What to teach? So many choices! I want to teach my kids something substantive, but I don’t want to scare them. I hope they walk away inspired. The first hour of your guitar class can be intimidating; fortunately, you can cover a lot in just a little time. Here’s a...

7 Real Classroom Questions Answered

by Glen McCarthy | Jul 6, 2016 | Classroom, Education, Gear, News, Principles, Stories, Success Stories, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized

If you’ve ever attended a Teaching Guitar Workshop, you may have written a question, concern or comment on an anonymous sticky note for one of or guitar-teaching gurus to answer. If you’ve never been to a Teaching Guitar Workshop, that’s how we roll....

Bill Burke’s Sooper-Dooper Warm Up

by Glen McCarthy | Jul 3, 2016 | Classroom, Education, Gear, News, Principles, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized

Here’s a warm-up routine that works great in the classroom; private lessons; or individual practice. I have also used this in the Teaching Guitar Workshops. In a matter of less than four minutes, this exercise can be performed with great benefit. Some of the things...

Pitching Guitar Class: A Look at the Numbers

by Glen McCarthy | Jun 24, 2016 | Classroom, Education, Gear, Principles, Tips + Tricks

With tight and fluctuating school budgets, it can feel like an impossible mission to pitch a new idea. This is especially true of arts programming, as music educators know. Interested in starting a guitar program at your school? One way is to sell the powers-that-be...

4 Sites That Will Make You a Better Guitar Teacher

by Glen McCarthy | Jun 19, 2016 | Classroom, Education, News, Principles, Success Stories, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized, Videos

You’re a classroom guitar teacher and you’re having trouble planning lessons. Maybe your kids are getting better on guitar faster than you. You want to stay ahead of the curve, but when would you have time to take lessons and where would you find money in...

The End Is Near – Time for End-of-the-School-Year Chores

by Glen McCarthy | Jun 9, 2016 | Classroom, Education, Gear, News, Principles, Stories, Tips + Tricks

Just like your students, you are counting the days until the last final exam is taken and those sweet guitarists are on their way to summer! In our district it is very difficult to keep the momentum up during the last month of school. The first major interruption was...