New Publication Advises Making Teaching Classroom Guitar Relevant
RESTON, VA (October 13, 2009) – Teaching Classroom Guitar, a new publication by Steve Eckels and published by MENC: The National Association for Music Education and Rowman & Littlefield Education (RLE), is designed to supplement a teacher’s regular method book with songs, keys, and artists that are relevant to today’s music students.
This comprehensive teaching manual for guitar engages students by using contemporary content. Eckels says, “Student engagement in any class is improved when the content presented is relevant to them, be it popular or classical music.”
It can easily serve as a college textbook or as a desk reference for teachers at all levels. Written by a master classical guitarist with fifteen years of classroom guitar teaching experience, the book provides outlines for daily, weekly, and semester planning. An outgrowth of Steve Eckels’s summer seminars for teachers, the book covers it all—from planning, assessment, and music reading to chords and music theory, jazz harmony and improvisation, remedial techniques, and more. Reproducible templates for assessment, grid and staff paper, and worksheets make it easy to implement the instructional strategies. The extensive listing of popular songs by grade level make choosing repertoire easy. Teachers will be able to discover the excitement of teaching this popular and motivating instrument with these supplemental methods.
“This is a much-needed approach for guitar educators since it will assist both experienced and novice guitarists teaching popular styles in the classroom. For any musical style, there are many good tools to manage class progress in this book, delivered in a sensitive and very positive way.”—Michael Quantz, education director, Guitar Foundation of America
Steve Eckels is a National Board-certified guitar instructor at Flathead High School, Montana, the author of over twenty guitar books for MEL BAY publications, and a master guitarist.
Teaching Classroom Guitar is available from RLE in paperback for $49.95 and clothbound for $95.00. MENC members receive a discount of 25%. To order or for more information, call 800-462-6420 or visit www.rowmaneducation.com.
MENC: The National Association for Music Education, among the world’s largest arts education organizations, marked its centennial in 2007 as the only association that addresses all aspects of music education. Through membership of more than 75,000 active, retired, and pre-service music teachers, and with 60,000 honor students and supporters, MENC serves millions of students nationwide through activities at all teaching levels, from preschool to graduate school. MENC’s mission is to advance music education by encouraging the study and making of music by all. Since 1907, MENC has worked to ensure that every student has access to a well-balanced, comprehensive, and high-quality program of music instruction taught by qualified teachers. MENC’s activities and resources have been largely responsible for the establishment of music education as a profession, for the promotion and guidance of music study as an integral part of the school curriculum, and for the development of the National Standards for Arts Education. MENC is located at the National Center for Music Education in Reston, VA.
