The Individual and the Group

You are expected to consistently work at a high level in the Harrison Guitar Department. You should spend time practicing daily, individually outside of class. The result of this individual practice is two-fold: first, you will become a better musician; second, the entire ensemble will improve.

You are part of a group: when you don’t produce, it hurts everyone.

Guitar Ensembles

Instrumental Technique

I. Grades

Weekly Performance Grades

Students will receive a weekly performance grade for technique class based on an appropriate rubric.  Performance grades will alternate between scales and arpeggio juries, repertoire juries, and sight reading quizzes.

Guest Artist Activities:

Individual improvement is a key to improvement of our group as a whole. In order to achieve this goal, guitar students are afforded the opportunity and expected to participate in Master Classes and Coaching Sessions run by Guest Artists. Guitar students will attend and perform at these sessions/seminars. In addition, most visiting artists will give an after-school master class.  Attendance at these master classes is mandatory (excused absences will require a parent’s note), although not all students will play in master classes.  Attendance will count as an exam grade (an excused absence will count as an excused grade), for which the only possible grades are 100 and 0. 

Private Guitar Lessons

Students are required to take 4 hours of private classical guitar lessons from an approved guitar teacher per semester. It is strongly recommended that students take one 60-minute lesson every week, however, it is also understood that the cost incurred may make this prohibitive for some students. For this reason, we have allocated $144 per school year for each student as a supplement toward paying for 8 one-hour private lessons. At $18 per hour it is also understood that this amount may not offset the cost of lessons sufficiently to allow for weekly lessons. In the event that the student is unable to take weekly lessons, it is recommended that scheduling of the lessons be distributed more or less equally over the two semesters. Students may take 8 thirty minute lessons per semester, which is approximately one every other week. This is the most highly recommend course for students unable to take weekly lessons. (Students who are unable to meet this requirement due to economic hardship must see me in order to develop an alternate plan.)

Guitar Program Curriculum

Freshman Year (Guitar 1)

Sophomore Year (Guitar 2)

Junior Year (Guitar 3)

Senior Year (Guitar 4 – Honors)

General Rules and Policies