Remote Teaching Resources
As many teachers in our community are faced with the prospect of remote teaching, the GuitarCurriculum.com and Austin Classical Guitar Team want to share all the remote resources we have available.
Let's Play.com
This is a completely free, graded, solo study track with 44 expressive sequential pieces. You and your students can download the entire 82-page book for free online here (choose pdf download).
The music, mostly written and arranged by Joseph Palmer, is beautiful and engaging, with ample fingering and dynamic indications. Even more exciting is that each piece in the first seven levels have accompanying audio guides, also free, and available for streaming online here.
As you may know, we developed this site specifically for use by the blind and visually impaired community, so some of the audio guides are labeled Braille Lessons, which your sighted students may simply ignore. The other audio lessons, however, address detailed technical and musical subjects, and provide recorded examples of each piece.
How can this help you and your class?
For beginning and intermediate classes you could assign, for example, an appropriate piece for each student to learn on their own using the audio guides. This will assist the speed and quality of their progress through the new material, and allow your remote teaching sessions to be more productive. They can prepare a section on their own, and share their progress with you via video exchange or in remote consultation. Additionally, since the 44 pieces are directly sequential, you and your students will have a clear path forward.
How does this relate to GuitarCurriculum?
It relates directly! The LetsPlay material was created to mirror the sequencing of GuitarCurriculum as follows:
LP Level 1 = GC Level 1 (simple, open string songs)
LP Level 2 = GC Level 2 (introduces reading on strings 2 and 3)
LP Level 3 = GC Level 2 (introduces reading on string 1)
LP Level 4 = GC Level 3 (3 pieces + 1 scale to learn and master im alternation and string crossing)
LP Level 5 = GC Level 3 (im alternation solos with open string bass notes)
LP Level 6 = GC Level 4 (solos with fretted bass strings)
LP Level 7 = GC Level 5 (more advanced solos with fretted bass strings)
LP Level 8 = GC Level 5+ (parallel literature, 1st position only, no audio guides)
Other Resources & More GuitarCurriculum.com Materials:
GuitarCurriculum.com: Our Director of Curriculum, Eric Pearson, has just changed permissions on videos in GC.com and are available for anyone who navigates to the video page. These videos are tailored specifically towards students and you can find them here.
Using Zoom? Here is a great video on how to optimize audio on a Zoom call for music.
Need more resources? Here is a comprehensive list of remote teaching tools.
Please be kind to yourselves during this time. All the solutions proposed above are imperfect, and there will be a ton of troubleshooting in the weeks ahead.
Additionally, feel free to reach out to anyone on the ACG team if you have any questions or need support!