Submitted by Ellen S. Schlindwein, Arvada, Colorado
Idea posted December 4, 2002
I am doing guitars with 3rd - 6th at one of my schools. The PTA bought 14 brand-new guitars. I have them tuned in D right now, and it couldn't be easier to sound good. I also add the barred instruments with them and have even tried teaching them a riff that they play on the barred instruments. One thing I have stressed is the chromatic scale, because each fret is 1/2 step higher than the previous one.
Here is my version of Row, Row, Row.
Strum, strum, strum the strings,
Strum them to the beat.
Sing the song and strum the strings,
then take a repeat.
then take a repeat.
We play open chord D whole note strums for the whole song, then 1/2 note strums, then quarter note strums. I add bass bars on D and A, Bass and altos on D and A, and on the second "then take a repeat," we play the riff A,G,F#,E,D. We also learn that riff on the guitar as 7th fret, 5th fret, 4th, 2nd open.
Eventually we will go to standard tuning and I will also add autoharps. I'm having a blast with this unit.