Reddit mentions of A Modern Approach to Classical Guitar - Composite (Books 1, 2 and 3)(book & 3 CD'S)

As a fellow music educator and as a guitarist who is currently student teaching in an orchestra classroom, I can empathize with what you are going through right now. First of all, there are probably hundreds of music teachers each year who are thrown into teaching a guitar class with little or no prior experience with the instrument, so don't feel too bad about your inexperience with the guitar. Like others have said, it is important that you learn the basics of the guitar (basic chord shapes, posture, note names in first few positions, guitar-specific notational systems, etc.) and that you acquire a decent amount of instructional materials (scale diagrams, chord charts, arpeggio diagrams, ensemble materials). I know that a teachers schedule leaves little time for privates lesson, but I would suggest that you take a look at the nearest university to see if they offer a summer guitar class for music educators. The university that I am currently studying at offers a 2 or 3 week guitar class that counts for graduate credits or professional development credits and is aimed at people in your situation.

Now you may be thinking "well that's great and all, but what can I do right now? First, remember that as a certified music educator you have received all of the pedagogical knowledge that you need in order to teach a music class, whether it be a k-6 general music program or a high school band. Are you expert at all the instruments? probably not, but I am sure that during your studies you had the experience of teaching another instrument other than your own.

With your beginners, relate what you already know how to teach (in your case violin/orchestra) to the guitar. The difference in content knowledge aside, how would you teach a beginning orchestra the D major scale? You can approach the concept, as it relates to the guitar, in the same way. Since you are not proficient with guitar you may need to display a scale diagram (similar to a fingerboard chart, but with frets) on the board or with a handout and then use your ear to detect mistakes. Most concepts on the guitar can be approached in this way, the main difference will be chords and for that I would suggest that you think back to how you learned chords on the piano (I assume you had to take some piano for your degree) and drill them on chord shapes and I-IV-V cadences. If you prefer a more structured approach I suggest that you find a good method book so that you do not need to "re-invent the wheel" for every lesson plan. The method book that I used in high school was A Modern Approach to Classical Guitar by Charles Duncan, I think it does a pretty good job of introducing classical technique while also teaching other basic techniques that are used in all styles (rock, pop, etc.), but there are many others that will do the job as well (including "Standard of Excellence").

For the more advanced class you can continue to introduce new scales and arpeggio patterns (again relying on diagrams and your ability to hear mistakes), but I would recommend that you start working on ensemble material because that is something any music teacher can do with out having to be able to play it themselves (I doubt that all band teachers can play the bassoon or clarinet parts in every piece their ensemble plays). If you need material, I would suggest Forrestguitarensembles.com which has hundreds of free ensemble and solo pieces for guitar and are graded by difficulty.

If you need instructional materials (chord, scale, arpeggios diagrams) or need help with knowing how to approach teaching a certain technique feel free to send me a pm and I can send you some materials or give my thoughts on particular lesson plan if you need.

First you should visit us on /r/classicalguitar

Books are going to be your best friend though. The Noad Book is most frequently recommended by people on /r/classicalguitar, though I have never used it before. My experience has been with The Duncan Method.

What I recommend is getting these books, and working on just them for about a week (try to do about half an hour a day if you can, if not just whatever time you have) and you'll have some foundation for technique. From there, since you like Carulli, I recommend starting with the Sor Studies. They are a great stepping stone for the beginner guitarist, plus they sound fantastic too.

If the Sor Studies are too difficult, play Leo Brouwer's Etudes Simples first - start with #2, then do 1, 3, 4, and 5 in order. If you can get the Etudes Simples down and sounding good then you'll be in great shape for the Sor Studies. Also, don't play the Etudes Simples as fast as this guy, he burns through them.

[Monthly] July was a month of...guitar! I'm following this book and made it to book 2 after enthusiastically practicing for 1+ hours everyday. I thought that a few months of violin would help with the finger pain at the start, but nope! At least it only lasted a few days...so maybe it helped after all? Currently learning chords, slowly shifting to first and second positions, and working on overall smoothness of finger transitions. Also practicing playing multiple notes at a time, like in piano. I'm starting to recognize some common note combinations, woot woot. And at least there's no bass clef to worry about. 😂 I'm also working on various other etudes/exercises for fun, so I don't get too bored!

I hope to work slowly but steadily on this second book and see how far I get by the end of the month! Hopefully I can learn a nice little piece to play for my mom when she comes back home next month :D

I hope you are all having a swell summer! Let me know what's up!

Guitar is a yamaha g-55-1 from the 1970's bought from someone on craigslist. It has a lot of dings and a few of the frets were peeling out, but after gluing the frets back down it plays just fine. I got the book A Modern Approach To Classical Guitar plus a music stand, a capo, and a new set of strings.

I am pretty excited. I have tried to teach myself guitar before on an electric but I never stuck with it and always ended up giving up after learning a few chords and scales. I have been using the book for 2 weeks now and I'm liking this a lot more than just trying to learn chords and scales and winging it.