College Classes for Beginners on Guitar
Syllabus Supplement for Teachers
by Mary Jo Disler

M.Mus., The University of Michigan
Adjunct Faculty, Oakland Community College, Retired
Farmington Hills, Michigan
Charter Member, The Guitar Foundation of America

• Introduction

The comments in this Supplement augment the Class Guitar I: Course Syllabus, which represents a highly successful course developed and taught over 25 years at several southeastern Michigan colleges: The University of Michigan–Dearborn, Mercy College of Detroit, and currently Oakland Community College. This experience resulted in the text Guitar QuickStart by Mary Jo Disler, ISBN: 0-9642229-0-6, Lyra House Music Publications. Class Guitar I: Course Syllabus is a sample document, but has been prepared so that it can be photocopied and used as an “instant” syllabus. This Syllabus and Supplement present this writer/teacher’s experience and style of teaching a beginning course offered to the general public.
The course includes introductions both to music reading and chord / chart playing on guitar. This format is the practical outcome of teaching at schools with no specified guitar curriculum, and no assurance that the second semester followup course would always be available.
Fourteen class sessions are outlined in the Syllabus, though some schools have fifteen-week semesters. It may be stretched easily to a fifteenth week by doing “catch-up” or additional harmonizing/transposing work at the end of the semester. The thirteenth session may be devoted entirely to class work, with the fourteenth and fifteenth scheduled as the written and performed final exams respectively.