Sensible Guitar: For Teachers: LINKS

This website is a companion to the book Sensible Guitar, an instructional method book for all guitar students...written primarily with teachers in mind. Most of the site is dedicated to providing supplemental material for students and teachers using the book. All of the material is provided by the book's author, Chris Cass, a long-time music educator who teaches guitar in Southern Connecticut. Any subjective viewpoints or recommendations are the author's own. Your questions, responses, or differences of opinion are welcome via email. (Click on the "contact" button at left.)

Teachers: If you find the following information useful, helpful, informative or well presented, please consider using Sensible Guitar with your students.

I'm using the pages designated "for teachers" to offer some tips and ideas about guitar teaching. There are also links to some other recommended resources, and an opportunity to submit your own comments. I hope you'll find this material useful, and that you'll consider using Sensible Guitar . ~C.C.

Links

Not the most links...just a few of my best recommendations:

Misc. Links

The Zen Guitar website is a companion to the highly recommended book Zen Guitar. Buy the book. Read it. Assign it to your students. Visit the website. Read the book again.
http://users.maui.net/~zen_gtr/

Forums

If you're looking for a good teacher's discussion forum, good luck. I haven't found a really great one...please let me know if you do. The best I've found is the Acoustic Guitar Magazine Teacher's Forum. It seems to be knowledgeable, informative teachers discussing relevant subjects. But it's not all that active...just a small on-line community of (apparently) dedicated instructors. If you're looking to pose a question to other teachers or review their esteemed opinions on a variety of subjects, I'd start here.
http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=9

The most active and insightful music forum I know of is at the Mudcat. Not really a teacher's forum; its main focus is traditional folk music and blues. However, their threads have covered a vast area of musicology and education. Their database is easily searched, and quite large and unique. And should you need to post a question, you're likely to get a quick, reasonable response.
http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm

Teacher's Websites

Of course, practically every guitar teacher has some form of online presence these days. However, I've selected a couple of teachers' sites I feel are especially informative and well presented. These sites offer most or all of their information for free or at a nominal cost. From a design standpoint, they are nice looking and easy to navigate. They make good use of web technology for teaching purposes, and are practical, professional resources. And they're not maintained by superstars...just regular teachers who aren't all about selling something. It's surprisingly hard to find nice little homegrown sites like these...

John Horne http://www.johnhorneguitar.com/

Justin Sandecoe http://www.justinguitar.com/

Self-promotion: I also hope that you find this web site helpful and well presented. If so, please check out a copy of Sensible Guitar. Guitar teachers: use Sensible Guitar as a method book with one student, and I'm sure you'll decide to use it again. Thanks! ~C.C.

Here's what else you'll find within the sections of this website designated "for teachers":

My thoughts about assigning practice material;
A list of 10 bits of advice I feel are important but sometimes overlooked
A discussion of recommended books, and some tips on using them effectively
A few words on the teaching of technique; avoiding formation of bad habits
Some thoughts on teaching young beginners
(CURRENT PAGE) Links to some other websites I feel are helpful
An invitation to submit your own comments, thoughts, ideas or opinions

Please remember: Playing and teaching the guitar are art forms which have many "right" approaches...even to the extent that what's best for one student or teacher may be contradictory to what's best for another. I'm offering my own opinions and observations here, which I feel may be beneficial to the broadest number of "typical" students and teachers. Alternative viewpoints may be equally correct. I welcome input from any guitar instructors, and will keep any correspondences confidential, or post them on this website at your discretion. Please feel free to submit your thoughts via email. (Again, it's chris@sensibleguitar.com).