Beginning Guitar Curriculum

The guitar curriculum contained in my book, Beginning Guitar for the Classroom, A Comprehensive Approach, focuses on three distinct areas of study: popular-style, classical, and guitar ensemble. All three of these areas are integrated into every lesson, each reinforcing the same objective of that lesson. Below, you can download a pdf of the entire beginning book or, utilize the eBook, which includes audio recordings of all the exercises, songs and repertoire (as well as a few tutorial videos). All gratis.

"I want to take a moment to say thank you for the expertise, thoughtfulness, and generosity you have shared with all music educators by publishing your curriculum online for free use. Thank you for your holistic approach to guitar music education. Your materials are such a powerful tool in my classroom. My students are reading better than they've ever read, playing better than they've ever played, and enjoying music they never imagined they'd enjoy. Your love for guitar and music education are so evident in the pages you've written. Thank you so much for sharing it with us." – Kelsey Snyder, Maricopa High School

"You have created some really awesome curriculum for guitar! I am a super fan and you have helped me transform my guitar classes immensely by keeping students super engaged. Thank you so much for creating and sharing your work! – Kathleen Dolan, Collegiate Academy, Northwest Pennsylvania

"Let me thank you for creating this amazing curriculum for guitar classrooms. It is very rare you find a guitar book that is designed for group lessons. I have been using your book for three years and it still amazes me how well-written this method is. Because of this book, the number of students interested in playing the guitar and music, in general, has increased greatly!" – Akzhol Issin, QSI International School of Astana

"I just discovered your beginning guitar materials, but from what I can see so far, your approach is fantastic. It's sequenced perfectly and I'm really grateful for the way that you provide a musically meaningful context for the beginning player. Your website is just a wealth of materials and it's organized so easily. I'm excited to explore some more. Grateful." – Jill Reese, PhD, Associate Professor of Music Education, The State University of New York

Beginning Guitar for the Classroom, A Comprehensive Approach
pdf Version

The beginning book below is designed for a one-year, two-semester class. As stated above, it integrates popular-style, classical and guitar ensemble into each lesson. Popular-style skill is developed by learning basic chords and strumming technique in the context of learning popular, mostly classic rock songs. Each song is presented as a song chart so that students immediately begin the music-reading process. By the third lesson, the concept of beats, time signatures and basic rhythms are in place. Students will then begin to learn how to read standard notation, one string at a time, and always in the context of learning and performing teacher/student duets. These duets are important not only to develop reading skills, but also so that students learn how to listen to another player and to a common beat. Most importantly, duets allows music-reading development to be relevant, engaging and fun. By the second semester, students will prepared to begin learning classical guitar as well as guitar quartet music.
By the end of the school year, students have will have learned a substantial amount of skill and musicianship in all three areas. In the area of popular music, the class final is Stairway to Heaven. The classical final is Estudio, by Francisco Tårrega. Both of these pieces are quite impressive for a first-year student to learn and play.

Note: Stairway to Heaven is a demanding song to learn, especially for beginners. Early on, when rock was far more popular than it is today, most students had heard this song and were greatly motivated to learn it. More recently however, I've found that significantly fewer students listen to rock, let alone heard Stairway. Without an awareness of its popularity and relevance to guitarists, the drive to learn this song is greatly diminished, and therefore, success is less likely. As a result, I've been teaching only the first page (Letters A (the forbidden riff) and B. This has worked out great. Student success is much higher than if they tried to learn the entire song. More importantly, like all the other classic rock songs in the book that most students hear for the first time, students learn to love this song.

Note: Feel free to supplement or replace the popular songs in the lessons, if you've found better choices. (I'd be interested to know of your choices!) Also, it is not necessary for students to learn all the classical guitar pieces in each lesson. Learning one is adequate. Lastly, and as already mentioned above, all of the music and exercises have been recorded for your convenience and are located below in the eBook. (Recordings of the classical guitar and guitar ensemble pieces are also located on those corresponding pages.)

Restrictions of Use
Below is a pdf of the Beginning Guitar Book for you to download for free. You have permission to distribute this book to your students as digital or hard copies. However, you are strictly forbidden from receiving compensation in any form or context from this book or any other material on this website. This includes your recordings of my compositions and arrangements. Thank you.

By downloading this curriculum, you understand and agree to the above terms.

I Agree

(Updated 2/24)

Beginning Guitar for the Classroom
eBook Format

Below is the Beginning Book in an interactive eBook format, with audio and video recordings of the material.
This format is highly recommended for teachers to use in the classroom as well as for students to use while practicing.

"Everything I need is right there, step by step, page by page, lesson by lesson, click by click! I don’t know how you came to develop your curriculum but it strikes me as very
intuitive and peaceful." – Sarah Dawn, K-8 Music Teacher

"I used your online book and curriculum last year with a first year guitar course and I cannot express how effective this system is. Even after one year, I was being asked to add
another section of guitar after the word got around!" – James Mock, Ed.S., Richmond Hill Middle School

If you have benefited from the curriculum and/or ensemble music, please consider subscribing to The Guitar Classroom YouTube Channel and liking/commenting on the videos. Doing so will help increase visibility of this website, allowing others in the guitar community to be aware of and have access to the free materials here. Thank you!

1st Semester

Lesson 1

2. Forward

3. Table of Contents

Pace of the Book
I've been asked by other guitar educators how to pace the book. First, since the book is divided into two semesters, the long-term goal is 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 school, 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, particularly on days class doesn't meet. In that context, I am able to comfortably get through the book at a relaxed pace.

Part 1 – Overview of the Guitar

Part 2 – Lesson 4 Walk –Through

A & D Chords, The Beat

4. Lesson 1

00:00

Lesson 1 - Ex. 1

00:00

Lesson 1 - Ex. 2

00:00

Lesson 1 - Ex. 3

00:00

Lesson 1 - Ex. 4

5. Get Back

00:00

Beatles - Get Back

Lesson 2

The E Chord, Rhythm

6. Rhythm