Dear Guitar Education Colleagues,
It is a truly remarkable time to be in guitar education.
Two separate partner districts wrote me this week with stories of significant, vertically aligned (elementary-high school), program growth. All month we’ve been adding new full time job openings for guitar educators across the country to our new GuitarCurriculum.com Teacher Forum.
Here in central Texas, where we’re based, we helped five new districts add guitar programs this year alone and at least one more will add guitar in the fall. Nearly 50 ensembles with close to 1,000 kids participated in our adjudicated Concert and Sight Reading Contest last month. Last week I spoke with a national rep for a major instrument distributor who told me sales of nylon string guitars is their fastest growth area.
What’s your story? I’d love to hear your challenges and successes. I’d love to know how our network of amazing teachers and resources might be able to promote your wins and help with any losses.
Here at GuitarCurriculum.com and Austin Classical Guitar Education we’re excited about the near release of a new lifelong learning tool for blind and visually impaired students later this month to compliment the Braille adaptation of our classroom resources. We’re focusing now on bringing the best new thoughts and perspectives to our Teacher Training Summits in St. Louis (July 26-28) and Austin (August 2-4). And we’re so incredibly grateful for all the amazing teachers in the world, like you, who bring the magic of music to so many kids’ lives through the guitar each day.
I look forward to hearing from you, and hope to be together this summer.
Thank you for all you do,
Matt Hinsley, Executive Director