Pace of the Book
Since the book is divided into two semesters, the long-term goal is, of course, to complete each half of the book by the end of the fall or spring semester, respectively. Within each half, the pace really depends on a few factors: How often does your class meet per week? How long is each class session? Are the students able to practice at home?  In my teaching environment, each class session is 1.5 hours long and will rotate between meeting twice or three times a week a week. I expect my students to practice at home (or come in during lunch to practive, particularly on days class doesn't meet).  In that context, I am able to comfortably get through the book at a relaxed pace. But of course, your environment and or goals may be different. The first semester is focused on basic guitar skills – learning chords and songs and starting the music-reading process. By the second semester, music literacy and guitar proficiency is at a place where classical guitar and ensemble work can begin while continuing popular-style guitar. But if you are not interested in classical guitar and only want to focus on popular music, that's fine. In that case, you can take the pace slower, if you like.

​A & D Chords, The Beat

The E Chord, Rhythm

Songs

I introduce Hollywood Nights by the third class session to help prepare them to transition between the E and A chords in the strumming patterns on page 7. I wait until the fourth class session to introduce Chasing Cars and  No Rain. All three songs are reviewed in each class while in this lesson and I make it a point to come back to Chasing Cars (one of the student's favorites) even in subsequent lessons. Note that while I introduce Chasing Cars in the fourth class session, I will postpone the 8th-note strumming pattern in the final chorus until the fifth or perhaps even the sixth class session, when students will have had more practice strumming eighth notes. Barton Hollow, on the bottom of page 7, is an ideal, one-chord song, that allows students to practice eighth-note strumming without being distracted chord changes. 

The G & C Chords, Reading Music

Reading Music

This lesson also introduces the student to reading standard music notation, which will prepare them to play classical guitar and ensemble music in the spring semester. If you plan to continue with my curriculum, this music-reading preparation is important since the rest of the program is heavily dependent on students having solid music-reading skills. 

Students will begin by learning the natural notes in first position, one string at a time, and always in the context of learning duet melodies.  In this lesson, students will learn the notes: E, F & G on the first string.  When playing the duet melodies, it is important that students use a rest stroke and alternate between the index and middle fingers.

While the duets in this and subsequent lessons in the first-semester portion of this book are an effective and engaging way to learn to read music, they are not reliable when assessing music-reading ability. Keep in mind that the goal of learning these duet melodies is not necessarily to have students play these melodies, but rather to read them. Since these duets are learned and reviewed during class, there is no way to determine if the student actually learned them by reading them.  Because of the repetition of the review and the reinforcement of hearing other students playing the melody,  some students could easily have learned the melody by ear or even by placing tablature indicators in their music. Therefore, in order to accurately asses true music-reading ability, I've found that a sight-reading test, with no more than 5 minutes of preparation, is the most effective and reliable gauge. 

On the bottom of page 13 below, there are  sight-reading exercises that will  closely resemble test examples (see Appendix). All the examples are four measures long and incorporate the rhythms discussed in Lesson 2 and 3, including quarter, eighth and half note rhythms. 

Duets

Below are two recordings of each duet. One is the melody and metronome only, and the other is melody with accompaniment.   In order to grasp a better understanding of rhythm, I suggest that the student first learn to play these melodies in the context of a beat only.  At this early stage of music-reading development, the accompaniment can sometimes be a distraction from the student truly understanding the rhythmic component of the melody, which could create a significant deficit in the student's music-reading skill.

Duet No. 1

Duet No. 2

Duet No. 3

Duet No. 4

Sight-Reading Practice

The Minor Chord, Notes on the 2nd String

Melodies With Notes on the 1st & 2nd String

Dust in the Wind

2nd String Player

The Beast Ring

Melodies With Notes on the 1st & 2nd String

Note: In some of the duets, such as BE BE String and Dance de las Hachas, the accompaniment track will not have a metronome.  The beat should be clear and it's good for students to start listening to the beat in the accompaniment.

BE BE String

Dance de la Hachas

Pavana III

Andantino in C

Study

Sight-Reading Practice

F Chord

Melodies on the 3rd String Only

Air on the G String

Dance on the 3rd String

Melodies on 1st – 3rd Strings

Allegro in C

Menuett

Spanish Dance

Sight-Reading Practice

Am & Dm Chords​

Notes on the 4th (D) String

Notes on 1st – 4th String

Sight-Reading Practice

The two duets below are no longer contained in the book, but I kept it here in the eBook, just in case you find it useful.

Duet 1

Duet 2

A7, D7 & E7 Chords

Notes on the 5th (A) String

Sight-Reading Practice

G7, C7 & B7 Chords​

Notes on the 6th String

Sight-Reading Practice

The Bm Chord

Accidentals

Duet

Sight-Reading Practice

Adding Notes to Chords​

Duet

The Allegro duet below is no longer in the current edition of the book. However,  I've kept this duet in the eBook just in case it might be useful to you. ​