Teaching Guitar through Riffs and Licks: Stepping Away from the Method Book

Building a guitar curriculum? The guitar elective usually has teachers reaching for a guitar method book, and for good reason: they give a scope and sequence in both fretboard knowledge, music literacy, and lead and rhythm playing. However, method books are limited in their ability to present culturally relevant and accessible material to the wide array of students that we see every day. This workshop will present a curriculum built around popular music, giving students choice in the music genres that they engage with, with a variety of levels of complexity for each student’s access point. This is a workshop aimed at teachers who work in inclusion settings, with students of a varied level of experience in music and guitar playing at the middle and high school setting. 

Sarah Fard is a music educator focused on popular music education and adaptive music methods. She currently teaches at Medford High School in Massachusetts, teaching guitar, music technology, popular music ensemble, adapted music, and introduction to piano. She holds a BM (University of New Hampshire) and Masters (Boston University) in Music Education, and a Graduate Certificate in Music and Autism from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she was also a long time educational consultant for their Institute for Accessible Education. An adjunct professor at Longy School of Music of Bard College, Sarah is passionate about accessible music education and supporting pre-service and new music educators. 

NAfME presents this live virtual event at no charge to all as a service to the music education profession. To register, you must enter your NAfME member information or create a nonmember account. After registering, check your email for instructions. A recording of this program will be available to all registrants for one week following the live event. Members can also view archived NAfME webinars in the NAfME Academy.

The views expressed are those of the presenter; they do not necessarily reflect the views of NAfME.