Local guitar instruction flourishes
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Advanced-guitar instruction at Foxcroft Academy (FA) marked a milestone with the graduating Class of 2015. The seniors were freshmen when course offerings expanded to include Guitar 2 (G2) four years ago. There was already an Introduction to Guitar (G1) class back then. But G2 created a stairway of individualized, higher-level instruction to students, available on a repeat basis at no out-of-pocket expense to students.
About 10 members of this year’s senior class took full advantage of that opportunity, according to the program’s creator and instructor, Peter McGuire of Guilford. Two students in particular, Adam Baird and Aaron Provost, both of Dover-Foxcroft, plan to pursue a degree in music education at the University of Southern Maine this fall. Baird plays classical guitar, Provost bass guitar.
Baird agreed to perform “Alone Together” in connection to this article. See him online at Youtube by typing “Adam Baird, Alone Together” in the search bar.
Other guitar standouts in the Class of 2015 cited by McGuire include Alex Provost, Annie Rich, Abby Simmons, Alex Bayerdorffer, David Grenon, Gino Villavicencio, Karmen Grant and Paul Grant.
G2 and G-Zone students performed their pieces this past May at a school-wide assembly, the FA Spring Concert, and a recital at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church. This year, they also hit the road and performed for music students at Bangor Christian, Piscataquis Community Secondary School and Greenville High School. The G-Zone group played, too. It was a total of five gigs in seven days. All of those schools want FA to return next year and perform at student assemblies, says McGuire.
McGuire, who took over the guitar program from Russ Hewitt in 2010, applied for, and received, a grant from the Maine Community Foundation in 2012 to launch G2. The $3,500 supported the acquisition of four guitars, music, supplies and private instruction. Since then, five more guitars were acquired through gifts and donations.
FA got behind him by providing a dedicated physical space, treating G1 and G2 as courses, and striking a fee of students once had to pay. Courses are available during school hours, so transportation is not an issue.
Interest mushroomed. McGuire thinks it is because guitar is the most significant instrument of our time. “People want to play guitar,” he says. “It is a service to the community to offer it.” The material play is from the 60s, 70s and 80s and its popularity holds students’ interest.
McGuire creates arrangements that bring songs within students’ reach. He divides the arrangements into parts so the songs are not too intensive on one person. They do not play by ear but, instead, learn to read music, mark it up and develop technique.
Each fall, student requests for G1 routinely outpace the number of available openings, usually by more than double. He teaches two G1 classes in the fall and caps enrollment at about 12 per class to maintain quality. In the spring, there are two classes, one G1 and one G2.
McGuire estimates that about one third of the student body, which was nearly 430 this past year, has taken G1 or G2. McGuire’s classes are in addition to a class called Rock Band offered by music director Josh Guthrie.
A lot of guitar students are also in band. About fifteen students of each incoming freshman class do band, estimates McGuire. So, in any given year, roughly 60 students in grades 9-12 are in band.
What McGuire is noticing about guitar, however, is that it is also attracting a kind of non-band kind of student, thus exposing them to reading and performing music for the first time.
Scheduling conflicts barring kids from G2 prompted McGuire two years ago to create a third offering: Guitar Zone, or G-Zone for short. It takes place during Pony Time, from 7:30-8:25 a.m., before classes when kids get help from teachers. G-Zone is akin to a performance class. This year, it had six students, including some from G2. They tend to be the kids who have improved past the norm. G-Zone became an official offering last fall. It is considered an independent study and can be taken for credit as a musical elective.
Students can re-take G2 without sacrificing class time in other subject areas. Repeat G2 students are not given a G3 or G4 designation, but the instruction is individualized to remain challenging.
The cumulative, ever-expanding demand for guitar has now got McGuire thinking of offering Music History, Music Theory, and Composition. He earned a B.A. in music with a focus on education from the University of Maine at Augusta this spring. His principal occupation was builder, mostly in south Florida, but he always kept his hand in music.
McGuire predicts this program might result in professional guitar performers, like Sebec resident and FA alumnus Dave Mallett, and individuals who have careers in other industries but are serious about guitar and make recordings, like Sid Stutzman of Sangerville.
The FA guitar program is likely having an impact on student academic achievement in other areas, too, he believes. He carries around with him research linking music training to improved brain function, IQ and academic achievement. That research can be found at the National Association of Music Merchants website,nammfoundation.org, under the Why Music Matters tab, scrolling down to “Read more about music research” and clicking on “Research Briefs: Did You Know”.