“Multiliterate Approach to Chord Lyric Notation in Class Guitar” Lesson Plan

Guitar classrooms are an ideal place to explore the concept of multiliteracy. Multiliteracy posits that a contemporary literacy curriculum should invite the reader to negotiate and create utilizing a multitude of text modalities across a variety of communities of practice. Not only does this develop flexible musicianship, but it allows the reader to explore different approaches to musical organization. Working guitarists are often great examples of “multiliteracy” because they often read an array of music media forms, such as tablature, staff notation, lead sheets, chord-lyric notation, and audio recordings, while performing across many different styles.

This lesson uses chord-lyric notation as a text modality to explore learning by ear while also exploring the variety of ways working musicians may utilize this music media design for music learning.

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