New format for the “Beyond Beginner” guitar class

Starting in the January-February 2014 term, I’ll be making some changes to the way I teach the Beyond Beginner guitar classes.  There will now be three different versions of the class: one that focuses on strumming, one that focuses on guitar riffs, and one that focuses on fingerpicking and arpeggiation.  Each version of the class will be set up so that anyone who has taken the intro class that I offer will be able to enroll, meaning you don’t have to take the beyond beginner classes in any particular order.

Beyond Beginner Guitar – Strumming

This class will focus on teaching students more complicated strumming patterns than the songs covered in the beginner class.  I’ll start with songs like “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles, and work up to more complicated songs like “Closer To Fine” or “Wonderwall.”  I’ll continue to have the students practice scales, and we’ll also talk about ear training exercises that will help develop the ability to learn songs by ear.

Beyond Beginner Guitar – Guitar Riffs and Power Chords

For those of you who want to play songs like “Heartbreaker” by Led Zeppelin, or “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream, this is the class you’ll want to take.  We’ll do classic rock songs, but also newer ones by bands like the White Stripes and Wolfmother.

Beyond Beginner Guitar – Fingerpicking and Arpeggiation

The first half of this class will focus on fingerpicking techniques and songs like “Wreck of the Day” by Anna Nalick and “We Are Going To Be Friends” by the White Stripes.  The second half will focus on arpeggiation songs – that is, songs where the guitar player picks out individual notes in the chord.  We’ll cover songs like ‘Brain Damage” by Pink Floyd and “Wake Me When September Ends” by Green Day.

With this new format, you can take guitar lessons in a group format for 8 months, and study a variety of techniques that will give you a solid foundation.  This is something that a lot of my students have been asking me to do for quite some time, so I’m very excited to be able to offer these guitar classes in this new format.