Guitar for the Young, book 1 (CD incl.) Classical Guitar - Sheet Music

SKU: DZ.DZ-1110

ISBN 9782896550098.

(CD included)
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s there were a number of teachers, myself included, thinking about, or beginning to work in the area of guitar education for young children. Two of these early pioneers who were most helpful and encouraging for me were Doug Smith and Sonia Michelson. I first met Doug when he did a presentation on this topic at a guitar conference. I had just begun exploring the possibilities myself and Doug was very inspiring, really lighting the fire for me. He was also most generous in sharing his materials. Later I met Sonia who was equally generous and encouraging. Both of these fine educators, however, were using approaches that were a little different than what I had in mind. My studies and personal friendship with Aaron Shearer had opened my mind to some new, innovative ways to approach guitar technique and the basic elements of music. The new sequence of introducing technical elements and the approach to rhythm and learning were working very well for my college and high school students who were learning with fewer technical problems and more reliable, solid rhythmic skills. They were playing freer, with greater ease and confidence, than previous students of mine. Could this be adapted to work with young children? The thought was very exciting for me.
I had started to teach myself popular guitar when I was eleven, in a community and in a time when guitar instruction of any kind was extremely rare. I was fortunate to grow up in a very musical community, however, and did have good music teachers throughout my school years. In high school I had excellent instruction in voice and also saxophone, but no guitar. While studying voice in college, in the mid 1960s, I began to turn my attention more and more to guitar and specifically to classical guitar. Unfortunately there was still no guitar teacher around for me to work with. It wasn’t until age 23, when I was in graduate school, that I finally got my first guitar teacher. At age 25 I started working with Aaron Shearer who helped my playing tremendously. At that time he was rethinking how we could more efficiently approach the instrument. The years that followed included many innovations and were very exciting. I think all of us who were studying with him at this time had a feeling that we were on a cutting edge of guitar pedagogy. After my formal study with him, I stayed in contact and had many enlightening discussions on teaching guitar. The thought of applying this to teaching children was especially exciting for me, as my own studies had started so late. I began putting down some practical ideas and organizing my thoughts on how this might be adapted in a way that would be most effective for young children. With the help of a snow storm that left St. Louis, where I was living and teaching, paralyzed for three days, I worked out the rote section of Guitar for the Young and mapped out much of the rest of the book.
The next Fall, in 1981, I started working with some 6 year olds, applying what I had come up with. By 1990 I had taken enough kids through it to have worked out the details of this book and over the years since then have changed very little of it except for honing and clarifying. It has been a most rewarding and enjoyable process. I have had the privilege to work with some very interesting and outstanding young people and parents. They have taught me a tremendous amount, much more than I have taught them.