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My goal is to have my 4th and 5th grade students learn the basics of playing the guitar. They will experience playing another type of instrument that potentially they could play the rest of their lives.

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Guitars for Success

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School:
Lake Park Elementary 
Subject:
Music 
Teacher:
John Stein 
Students Impacted:
170 
Grade:
K-5 
Date:
September 11, 2022

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

 

Lucie Jenny MacCarthy Music Fund of the Collier Community Foundation - $1,893.77

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Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 170

This is a grant that was used for both 4th & 5th Grade music students at Lake Park Elementary School.  Our 5th grade students learned basic hand positions and learned to both pluck and strum.  They learned to play from chord symbols.  If you look at the pictures, you can see we were working on the D, G and A7 chords at that point.  By learning just three chords in a key, students were able to see that they could literally play hundreds of simple songs right away.  The students learned to play along with trying to sing.  I believe they developed an appreciation for what performers do.  With gaining the understanding of reading chord symbols, the students learned they could help themselves and figure out a chord if they did not know it.


The experience for the 4th graders was a little bit different.  These students focused on the ukelele in the beginning.  I feel this is a bit easier than starting younger students on guitar.  They eventually toward the end started to play the guitar.  The were able to right away see the similarities to the ukelele.  Learning to read a chord symbol with 6 strings was different for them, but yet recognizeable since they had done something similar with the 4 string ukeleles.  Some of their basic skills they learned transferred to the guitar.  This was encouraging to see.  Our current 4th graders will only play the guitar next year as 5th graders.

 

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Working on the D chord

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More D chords

 

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Great left hand technique

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Nice concentration

 

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Working hard!

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Great posture

 

Original Grant Overview

Goal

My goal is to have my 4th and 5th grade students learn the basics of playing the guitar. They will experience playing another type of instrument that potentially they could play the rest of their lives. 

 

What will be done with my students

The students will learn the basics, for example learning how to hold and strum the instrument. I will also teach them how to care for the instruments so that the guitars can be used at Lake Park Elementary School for years to come. The students will learn how to play simple melodies on one string and then play the same song on each of the strings.
Finally, the students will learn how to finger several chords. This will allow them to strum chords in a common progression. The students will be able to apply these chords to play simple accompaniments for things such as the blues and multiple other simple songs.
 

 

Benefits to my students

Learning to play the guitar would have a life-long impact on the students. As a music teacher, it is wonderful to see the students apply things learned in the classroom to their own lives outside of school. Guitar is something that students, regardless of age or ability, can enjoy for the rest of their lives. 

 

Budget Narrative

This is a medium quality beginning guitar good for a classroom learning environment. 

 

Items

# Item Cost
1 (8) Yamaha 3/4 Scale Classical Guitar $1,119.92
2 (5) Yamaha 1/2 Scale Classical Guitar $649.95
3 Sales Tax $123.90
  Total: $1,893.77

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Special Thanks to Our Presenting Partners

Suncoast Credit Union