I came across another article this past week regarding teaching music to children. This one is from a blog that is posted on the Alfred Music website (https://www.alfred.com/blog/tips-starting-elementary-guitar-program/). Alfred Music is similar to Hal Leonard and Mel Bay, in that they produce hundreds of books and videos on musical instrument instruction. However, its focus is much more toward educational programs, covering a wider variety of instruments (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, etc.), and setting up actual teacher/student paths.
The blog brings up some interesting thoughts for teaching guitar-centric curriculum to younger students. Some say that it is hard for a young person to learn guitar. The author states that he has had continual success with young students. My thought is that getting them to be interested in the instrument at a young age is the best bet for continued interest, not just as a hobby but perhaps as a possible profession. The struggle is getting young students to be disciplined in practice and progressing. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, distractions are aplenty, mostly coming from social media and video games. Playing video games is easy, but the teacher (or parent) needs to instill the idea that there is no long-term satisfaction with winning a video game, yet progressing on a musical instrument has tons of rewards.
The Alfred blog looks at setting up an actual guitar instruction classroom. It mentions the initial (and follow-up) cost of having everyone in class secure a guitar. It is very unlikely that in a class of about 25 elementary students, every one of them will afford a decent acoustic guitar, and it is even more unlikely that someone like Billy Strings will donate guitars to a school (https://bluegrasstoday.com/billy-strings-donates-guitars-to-all-the-students-at-his-former-school/). Thinking way back to my elementary school days, the music program consisted of everyone in 4th grade being taught basic instrumental music theory by purchasing a cheap recorder/flutophone (which one or two students’ parents even passed on), learning the basics, then moving on to some regular instrument such as trumpet, snare drum, violin, etc. While I wanted to pursue drums at the time, my parents only gave me one choice – play the old saxophone that my brother ditched, or nothing at all. After two years, I lost interest in it completely. I took an interest in guitar (particularly, bass guitar) at 15, played in my cousin’s oldies band, and went from there, much to my parents’ dismay.
The blog suggests that to cover some costs, the teacher/students/parents could resort to fundraising. Now this blog was written in 2018, pre-pandemic, and these days, people a lot more conscious of where their money goes. If anything, considering setting up such a project will require a lot a research. First, seeing if it is feasible – if enough kids would be interested in such a program in one classroom. Personally, I think that it would be unlikely, but perhaps an after-school project for an entire school would work.
Interest may also be gathered by presenting a music performance at the school by a local or touring bluegrass band. A lot of bluegrass bands have an educational program. The best initial place to find out this information is when Bluegrass Unlimited magazine publishes its Annual Talent Directory (https://bluegrassunlimited.com/article/2022-talent-directory/). Bands will note in their listing if they provide educational programs. While most kids will probably be fidgety during performance, there will most likely be a few that will take interest in learning an instrument. Maybe a few will not be interested in guitar but another instrument like bass, banjo, mandolin, or fiddle.
There are a few other suggestions within the Alfred blog to look over that I will not cover here. I recommend reading the article. If serious about starting a music program within a school, you may consider securing the instructional books that Alfred offers entitled Sound Innovations for Elementary Class Guitar (https://www.alfred.com/sound-innovations-elementary-class-guitar-overview/). I am certain that a quality basic program in elementary school can lead to a bluegrass-oriented program in middle or high school. If I could turn back my personal hands of time and stuck with using my high-school teaching degree, I would have been motivated to set up some form of bluegrass/folk music club at the school at which I was working. As one can see form my past blogs, I am very interested in getting young people to be interested in performing acoustic music, particularly bluegrass music.
Chew on it and comment.
Luegra 