Introduction to Guitar

Seventh and eighth grade Music & Media students were introduced to the guitar in January. They learned specific parts of the instrument, proper playing technique, and open chords in first position. Students worked in pairs for the first few days of the three-week unit, assisting each other with playing technique and chord shaping. The first open chord introduced was the A minor 7, which students can be seen playing in the video below. The seventh grade group in beginning of the video is shown on day one of the unit, exploring their guitars and identifying specific parts of the instrument. The same group is shown three days later performing the A minor 7 chord on their guitars while strumming a specific rhythm pattern and following a steady beat provided by a drum track on the computer. By the end of the unit students were able to play three different open chords in a specific chord progression, transitioning from one chord to another while strumming the same rhythm pattern and maintaining a steady beat. The grading rubric below was used for the final performance assessment.