Guitar Plus

What type of guitarist would you like to become: folk, rock, classical? There are many ways to learn guitar. Discover what works best for you. The Music House approach to learning guitar includes a variety of experiences that will help you develop not only your guitar playing, but your musicianship as well.

• Learn to play melodies and harmonies by ear (Yes, you!), note and tablature.

• Learn how to strum, pick and create harmony.

• Discover how simple and fun it is to improvise and jam.

• Learn how to listen to guitarists and their music.

Learning to play the guitar in this environment will develop the whole musician as well as the budding instrumentalist.

Playing by ear
While guitar repertoire can be learned through tablature and note-reading, many guitarists learn at least some of their repertoire by ear. Lots of guitarists play exclusively by ear. Opportunities to develop the ear should be part of learning the guitar from the very beginning. Ear-training is best developed through experiences on a variety of instruments.

Learning to play a tune on the piano, which is a visual map of musical relationships, will help you recognize the spatial relationships of the guitar. Similarly, learning to play a tune on the recorder helps to relate the length of the air column to the length of the string. Through this “many angles” approach, the ability to hear up and down, high and low, sequential notes and skipped notes, will click into place.

Studying and experimenting with chords and chord families on the autoharp and piano will prepare you to accompany and to find chords intuitively.   back to top

Strumming and Picking
How does a guitarist decide whether to strum or pick an accompaniment to a song? In choosing an appropriate accompaniment, the guitarist considers many musical elements: Does the song call for a strong or gentle accompaniment? Should it be dense or transparent, busy or calm, angular or smooth?

While the techniques of picking and strumming are learned on the guitar itself, the concept of harmonizing will be developed through studying chords and strums on the autoharp, learning how to create accompaniments on the piano and orchestrating pieces for percussion instruments.  back to top

Jamming and Improvisation
Making music with others is part of making music. Creating music in the moment is one avenue to the type of human musical interaction that many guitarists find so rewarding.

You will learn how to improvise, initially on the piano. Chord families and progressions will be introduced on the autoharp and then transferred to the guitar, enabling you to provide a steady accompaniment to an improvised melody. Opportunities to be part of an ensemble abound for a guitarist who is comfortable with this type of music making!   back to top

Music Appreciation
What inspires a budding guitarist? What motivates a student to persevere and achieve technical and artistic proficiency?

Hearing live and recorded music played by masters of the instrument is a powerful reminder of why you wanted to play the instrument in the first place. At Music House, listening to recordings of different guitarists and genres of guitar music - classical, Blues and folk, for example - will give you aural images of the guitar sound and demonstrate the different directions you may ultimately want to go with your own guitar playing.   back to top

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Learning the guitar can be a broadening experience, and at Music House, you will not only become a guitarist, but will become a sensitive, savvy and well-rounded musician in the process.

For more information:
212-744-8840
MusicHouse@NYCMusicHouse.org