Lead Guitar

Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 2022

Following more than half a century of resistance to popular music in the classroom, modern band programs have proliferated in the United States since the early 2000s. Supported in part by the music education nonprofit Little Kids Rock (LKR), proponents of modern band aim to engage more students in school music and to support creative, student-centered music-making. The present study examined responses to the 2019 LKR end-of-year teacher survey and found that program participation has grown substantially in recent years, but is concentrated in a few urban areas. Teachers perceived that modern band expanded access to music education by engaging more students while also making themselves more committed to the teaching profession. With respect to student learning, teachers perceived that modern band allowed for nonmusical outcomes, including academic motivation and the creation of classroom social bonds. To a lesser extent, teachers perceived that students achieved creative outcomes, such as composition and improvisation.

Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2018

There is a metaphorical incoming tide of information technology (IT) in the global guitar community. This phenomenological study examines the activities of the online guitar community to determine its role in guitar pedagogy. It questions how the traditional teacher-student model can continue to operate amidst the floodwaters of online guitar education resources. An historical presentation, and analysis of current practice is offered, and the pedagogical value of some online resources are scrutinised. The process of enculturation through Contemporary Popular Music (CPM) education is discussed from the perspective of guitar pedagogy and the implications for instrumental guitar teaching are examined. This study was designed to examine the activities of the online guitar community to gain a perspective on the phenomenon for the purposes of informing teacher educators working with pre-service instrumental guitar teachers.

This article discusses issues related to teaching the electric guitar in a private music school that offers free courses in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil. This work aims to present and reflect on the processes that characterize the teaching of the electric guitar in the context mentioned, taking into consideration its educational and spatial dimensions and the profile of the students. Together, these aspects constitute an educational environment, its respective concepts and practices.

There is a metaphorical incoming tide of information technology (IT) in the global guitar community. This phenomenological study examines the activities of the online guitar community to determine its role in guitar pedagogy. It questions how the traditional teacher-student model can continue to operate amidst the floodwaters of online guitar education resources. An historical presentation, and analysis of current practice is offered, and the pedagogical value of some online resources are scrutinised. The process of enculturation through Contemporary Popular Music (CPM) education is discussed from the perspective of guitar pedagogy and the implications for instrumental guitar teaching are examined. This study was designed to examine the activities of the online guitar community to gain a perspective on the phenomenon for the purposes of informing teacher educators working with pre-service instrumental guitar teachers.

Social Sciences and Education Research Review, 2021

This article offers a bird's-eye view of the evolution of guitar learning and pedagogy in the XX and XXI centuries, supported, and often propelled by emerging popular musical styles and new technologies. Specifically, the article discusses how learning to play guitar has evolved from formal teacherstudent lessons in private and academic settings, to informal and self-guided forms of learning through books, magazines, and DVDs. Starting in the late 1990s, technological advancements and the diffusion of high-speed internet brought about technologies and social spaces that contributed to innovating guitar pedagogies and disrupting traditional approaches to teaching and learning the guitar. These technologies include, but are not limited to online archives and communities, social media, apps and software, subscription-based services, augmented reality, virtual worlds, and digital games. Several of these technologies are still in their infancy and their potential for impacting guitar learning and teaching may still to be fully harnessed and explored.

M.A. Thesis, 2019

Mainstream music education in the United States has not changed significantly in over 75 years. Primarily teacher-led, it remains focused on Western classical repertoire, geared toward three main types of musical ensembles: band (marching and concert), orchestra (strings), and choir. A fourth pillar, jazz band, favors big band classic swing repertoire and instrumentation. This calcified approach to music education emphasizes strict mechanics and mastery of large group performances at the expense of individualism and creativity. Prioritizing the collective over the individual and mechanics over creativity often produces disengaged and passive music learners, resulting in high student attrition. The PlayTheGroove initiative decalcifies music education with a fresh approach, which has now been implemented in the national study that forms the basis of this action research. PlayTheGroove consists of modern jazz and world music presented in the classroom along with materials and methodologies designed to encourage and engage secondary school ensembles. Students take ownership of the learning process, choosing music they find meaningful and relevant, and participate in solo and group exercises that promote the Four Cs of a 21st century education: collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking. In this study on PlayTheGroove, research participants used a student-led, problem-based learning approach consisting of recordings, sheet music, and other resources, with a flexible methodology aligned to the National Core Arts Standards (NCAS). The research put the initiative through objective implementation with six case studies. The results show a significant increase in student engagement, changes in teacher's heuristic approaches to teaching music, and an increased ability of students to communicate, collaborate, and organize as a group to solve problems. PlayTheGroove encourages inclusivity, illuminates modern methodologies, and allows for a democratic creative decision-making process.

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Education Research, and Innovation (ICERI 2021), 2022

This community service is carried out by providing training to educators, especially elementary school teachers in West Java and surrounding areas. The training was carried out on the basis of input and information from several educators in West Java and its surroundings, that they had difficulties when they had to teach Cultural Arts or Thematic subjects in which there were Cultural Arts. This happens because educators at the elementary school education unit level are classroom teachers who must master and teach not only one field of study. Meanwhile, arts and culture subjects or thematic (cultural arts) require teachers to have skills in the arts. Therefore, this training program was held to equip the accompaniment guitar playing skills and manage practicum for educators, especially elementary school teachers in West Java and its surroundings. The training carried out during this pandemic was carried out online due to the Government's appeal for social distancing and physical distancing. The training was carried out by utilizing the YouTube and WhatsApp group media platforms. The training participants referred to as partners are educators in the West Java region and its surroundings, especially elementary school teachers who on average do not have competence in the arts (music). The training participants referred to as partners are educators in the West Java region and its surroundings, especially elementary school teachers who on average do not have competence in the arts (music).

Music Education Research, 2023

Music education in the United States is typified by students in large ensembles, like band and orchestra, learning to perform pieces of Western art music. One organisation working to expand curricular offerings within the field is Little Kids Rock (LKR), which has invested millions of dollars training music teachers and providing instrument resources for popular music pedagogy. Though this organisation has demonstrated success in its ability to propagate ’modern band’ programmes, the effects of its investment are not known. LKR administers an end-of-year survey to its participating teachers to assess teachers’ perceptions of their music programmes. However, LKR do not publish meaningful information regarding the outcomes and impact of its activities. The present study examined free-response data from the 2018 end-of-year survey. Using the passive and active identity and learning realisation (PAILR) model as our analytical framework (Froehlich, Hildegard C., and Gareth Dylan Smith. 2017. Sociology for Music Teachers: Practical Applications. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315402345), the authors analysed themes using grounded theory to produce a logic model to describe the effects of LKR’s investment. Results indicate participating teachers perceive a positive impact on students, including being more engaged in their learning, and more musically independent. Additionally, teachers believed they were more engaged and committed to their profession, and more able to teach previously disengaged students.

Globalisation, through its many means, including the internet and also faster and more economic travel, has made the musical marketplace a very different place than it was when the traditional music education practices were established in Australia. Furthermore, since the middle of the twentieth century, each new generation has sought after, and/or created, a musical genre to call their own in a way of rebellion against the generation that came before them. The current youngest generation of music listeners now have instant access to music from any part of the world and as a result the entire art-form has become much more globalised and less localised than ever before. Therefore current music education techniques need to not only reflect this multicultural slant but also embrace it. This research project will investigate the educational methodologies encompassed within instrumental music instruction, specifically guitar tutorage, in other cultures around the world with a focus on ascertaining the particular elements that educators and students consider excellent. The intention is to identify two or three successful methodologies and propose ways of incorporating these practices into a more holistic approach to instrumental guitar tuition in Australia as a way of integrating internationalism into the curriculum to better prepare current music students for a future global musical marketplace. This presentation reflects research currently being conducting within a Masters of Education (International) program at Charles Darwin University.

IASPM@Journal

Many electric guitarists have earned their reputation as expert performers and connoisseurs, despite the absence, at least until very recently, of school-based curricula or internationally recognised examination bodies, and usually without any institution to validate their credentials. Despite recent initiatives to support new pedagogical paradigms in teaching and learning, teachers of the electric guitar continue to be confronted with problems of preparing learners for soundscapes beyond a gig setting or one of the recent electric guitar examinations. Instrumental fluency cannot be understood merely as a function of mechanical achievement (that is, musical and instrumental techniques), but as a function of human capacity as "instrumentality": how "human beings have puzzled over […] something they acquire without knowing how, that they possess but which something possesses them even more, that is not a part of them but without which they would not be what they are" (Sigaut 2002: 421). This paper is based on a case-study with an undergraduate music education trainee teacher at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University who undertook lessons with a