How to play guitar, with a primer on how to make some musicalish noise

BOOPPPS!!!

Bridge: Who wants to be a rock star? Well, not exactly a rock star. Who wants to make music?

Teaching Objective: Make music creation accessible to everybody.

Learning Objective: Students will be able to take a guitar and use it however they want, to create music. Students will also (hopefully) re-examine the boundaries of traditional music.

Pre-test: Short quiz.

Participatory Activity: Making music as a group.

Post-test: Question period. Revisit quiz. Student impressions.

Summary: Music is whatever you want it to be. I used a guitar as a simple example because it is a very flexible instrument that is used very rigidly. Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain never used to tune his guitar. Ricky Wilson of the B-52’s only used 4 strings on his guitar (it wasn’t a bass guitar). Keith Richards often played in different tunings with only 5 strings. Point is, do what works for you. Anyone can make some form of music.


Caleb’s Intro To Guitar Quiz:

How many strings are on a guitar?

What notes do you tune the strings to?

What makes a minor chord different from a major chord?