Teaching a Guitar Class of Beginners and High Flyers

by Glen McCarthy | Dec 17, 2014 | Classroom, Education, Gear, News, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized

Photo credit: FlyingPete from morguefile.com Are you struggling at teaching your guitar classes because you have both beginners and students who have rocked out for a long time? This has been a struggle that I have found myself in and one that I have been asked about...

Breaking Unspoken Rules in Guitar Class

by Glen McCarthy | Dec 10, 2014 | Classroom, Education, News, Principles, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized

Photo credit: manuere from morguefile.com School is full of rules, most of them unspoken. However, if there’s one takeaway from music, it’s that you have to break the rules to make something beautiful. In shaping growing minds and life-long music makers...

5 Songs to Play with Barre Chords

by Glen McCarthy | Dec 9, 2014 | Classroom, Education, News, Principles, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized, Videos

You’ve seen Rob Pethel’s videos on how to teach Barre Chords, now how do you make it musical for your students? We put some song recommendations together for you and your classroom guitar program that involve barre chords, mixing open and barre chords, and...

5 Holiday Songs for Guitar Class

by Glen McCarthy | Dec 3, 2014 | Classroom, Education, News, Principles, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized

It’s that time of year again: Everyone is busy shopping and making plans for the holidays. Meanwhile, you forgot to plan out some holiday songs for your guitar class! Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with 5 songs that are easy to learn and teach....

When Guitar Is Not Your First Instrument: 5 Teaching Tips

by Glen McCarthy | Dec 1, 2014 | Classroom, Education, News, Principles, Stories, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized

Part of my responsibility as the Guitar Task Force Chair in Clark County is to pay attention to the challenges that guitar teachers are facing. Currently, 60% of our classroom guitar teachers do not play the guitar or did not play the guitar before teaching their...

Guitar-Class Utility Belt

by Glen McCarthy | Nov 19, 2014 | Classroom, Education, Gear, News, Principles, Tips + Tricks, Uncategorized

Batman’s utility belt had all sorts of little gadgets that helped him save the world. There were bat cables, bat ropes…even bat-shark repellent (think Adam West). Well, what happens when disaster strikes your guitar class? Keeping your guitar class running...