Are you ready to take your guitar playing to the next level? Whether you want to play guitar for your family and friends, desire to be a professional performer, or just love playing music, this course is a great place to continue your journey towards musical excellence. You will build on the fundamentals of music and the basic skills necessary to play a wide variety of music styles. Student guides, Carlos and Ariel, will guide you through each step of this journey towards becoming a skilled guitarist and musician. This course can be used as a performing/fine arts credit to meet the requirements for certain high school graduation tracks.
Prerequisites:Guitar 1A and Guitar 1B
Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to...
- Module 01
- Identify common guitar types, basic guitar parts, and ways to care for your guitar.
- Understand how to hold the guitar, tune your guitar, and use proper form with your right and left hands to play the guitar.
- Identify three forms of notation; standard music notation, tablature, and fretboard diagrams.
- Play new drills using shifting and string-crossing techniques.
- Understand basic music theory concepts, including half steps, whole steps, keys, key signatures, and the circle of fifths.
- Identify and play a variety of pentatonic scales, blues scales, major scales, and modes on the guitar.
- Strum chord progressions in guitar-friendly keys.
- Identify chord quality by listening.
- Improvise over a power chord progression.
- Read and play rhythm studies in 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4 time.
- Read and play melodies in first position using standard music notation.
- Module 02
- Identify and play notes on the sixth, fifth, and fourth strings up to the twelfth fret.
- Identify and play movable pentatonic scales and movable blues scales.
- Understand and play melodic intervals on the sixth, fifth, and fourth strings.
- Identify and play movable power chords using the sixth and fifth strings and the fifth and fourth strings.
- Play 12-bar blues chord progressions in the keys of A, G, and D.
- Improvise a chord accompaniment to a blues solo.
- Module 03
- Read and play scales in the keys of A major, E major, A natural minor, A harmonic minor, A melodic minor, E natural minor, E harmonic minor, and E melodic minor.
- Build triads, power chords, and seventh chords in the keys of A major, E major, A minor, and E minor.
- Play the A major, B dominant seventh, and D minor chords.
- Play primary chords in the keys of A major, E major, A minor, and E minor.
- Module 04
- Read and play syncopated strum patterns.
- Play the I-vi-IV-V7 chord progression in the key of G major.
- Play a variety of right-hand finger techniques.
- Read and play right-hand finger patterns.
- Play a classical guitar solo.
Course Outline:
Module 1: Guitar and Music Essentials
Module 2: Rock and Blues Legends
Module 3: Expanding Your Chord Skills
Module 4: Expanding Your Accompaniment Skills
Resources Included: Online lesson instruction and activities, opportunities to engage with a certified, online instructor and classmates, when appropriate, and online assessments to measure student performance of course objectives and readiness for subsequent academic pursuits.
Additional Costs: You will need a playable six-string guitar and a way to record and submit a video performance to your instructor. A guitar is “playable” if it is the correct size for the guitarist, has strings that can be pressed down easily against the frets, and plays in tune up and down the fretboard. There are three common types of six-string guitars: classical, steel string, and electric. If you do not already have a guitar, you may want to seek the advice of an experienced guitarist, a guitar teacher, or your local music store. Most guitars are built to be played right-handed, so that the right hand would pluck the strings and the left hand would press the strings down against the frets. Many left-handed guitarists play right-handed guitars. Many guitarists and teachers recommend that left-handed students try playing on a right-handed guitar when first learning. There are some guitars available that are built to be played left-handed. This course is taught using a right-handed guitar. Students choosing to use a left-handed guitar will need to adjust accordingly.
Scoring System: Michigan Virtual does not assign letter grades, grant credit for courses, nor issue diplomas. A final score out of total points earned will be submitted to your school mentor for conversion to their own letter grading system.
Time Commitment: Semester sessions are 18-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1 or more hours per day in the course to be successful. Summer sessions are 10 weeks long: Students must be able to spend a minimum of 2 or more hours per day, or about 90 hours during the summer, for the student to be successful in any course. Trimester sessions are 12-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1.5 or more hours per day in the course to be successful.
Technology Requirements: Students will require a computer device with headphones, a microphone, webcam, up-to-date Chrome Web Browser, and access to YouTube. Students will need a means of video recording themselves and sharing the video file or link to the recording for instructors to view.
Please review the Michigan Virtual Technology Requirements: https://michiganvirtual.org/about/support/knowledge-base/technical-requirements/
Instructor Support System: For technical issues within your course, contact the Customer Care Center by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.
Instructor Contact Expectations: Students can use email or the private message system within the Student Learning Portal to access highly qualified teachers when they need instructor assistance. Students will also receive feedback on their work inside the learning management system. The Instructor Info area of their course may describe additional communication options.
Academic Support Available: In addition to access to a highly qualified, Michigan certified teacher, students have access to academic videos and outside resources verified by Michigan Virtual. For technical issues within the course, students can contact the Michigan Virtual Customer Care by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.
Required Assessment: Assessments can be in the form of video performances, self-checks, multiple-choice questions, essay writing, small projects, discussion-based assessments, collaborative assignments and numerous strategies for practicing, performing, analyzing, and composing music. Instructors evaluate progress and provide interventions through the variety of assessments built into a course, as well as through contact with the student in other venues. Students will need a means of video recording themselves and sharing the video file or link to the recording for instructors to view.
Technical Skills Needed: Basic technology skills necessary to locate and share information and files as well as interact with others in a Learning Management System (LMS), include the ability to:
- Download, edit, save, convert, and upload files
- Download and install software
- Use a messaging service similar to email
- Communicate with others in online discussion or message boards, following basic rules of netiquette
- Open attachments shared in messages
- Create, save, and submit files in commonly used word processing program formats and as a PDF
- Edit file share settings in cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
- Save a file as a .pdf
- Copy and paste and format text using your mouse, keyboard, or an html editor’s toolbar menu
- Insert images or links into a file or html editor
- Search for information within a document using Ctrl+F or Command+F keyboard shortcuts
- Work in multiple browser windows and tabs simultaneously
- Activate a microphone or webcam on your device, and record and upload or link audio and/or video files
- Use presentation and graphics programs
- Follow an online pacing guide or calendar of due dates
- Use spell-check, citation editors, and tools commonly provided in word processing tool menus
- Create and maintain usernames and passwords
Additional Information: The student is required to obtain his/her own guitar as well as to have access to hardware and software necessary to record video of personal performance of the instrument to submit to instructors for scoring student work.