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Consonus Music Institute

Professional Development & Curriculum for Classroom Guitar

Professional Development and Curriculum for Classroom Guitar
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Improvisation with the Major Pentatonic Scale

March 18, 2019 by Mike Christiansen 4 Comments

Guitar Improvisation with the Major Pentatonic Scale

To improvise over major chords, a very popular scale of choice is the major pentatonic. Read More.

Filed Under: Blog, Guitar, Our Latest Blog Posts, Playing Tips, Teacher Training, Uncategorized

How to Teach Composition to Guitar Students, Part 4 – How to Write A Melody

May 28, 2018 by Mike Christiansen 5 Comments

how-to-write-a-melody

There are probably dozens of approaches and techniques for writing a melody. The technique I would like to focus on works well with young students and offers a step-by-step approach to early endeavors in composition. Read More.

Filed Under: Blog, Guitar, Our Latest Blog Posts, Teacher Training, Uncategorized Tagged With: composition, guitar composition, writing melodies

How to Teach Composition to Guitar Students, Part 3 – Composition Form

April 9, 2018 by Michael Christiansen Leave a Comment

music composition with guitar

In this installment of How to Teach Composition to Guitar Students, classroom guitar expert, Mike Christiansen, discusses composition form, the form of the song you are writing. Writing a song is like writing a story. Like writing words, the melody and the chords have to work together to make sense and have direction…Read More.

Filed Under: Blog, Guitar, Our Latest Blog Posts, Teacher Training, Uncategorized Tagged With: composition, guitar composition

How to Teach Composition to Guitar Students, Part 2 – Chord Progressions

February 26, 2018 by Mike Christiansen Leave a Comment

How to teach music composition to guitar students - chord progressions

In the first blog on composition, Classroom Guitar expert Mike Christiansen talked about finding the chords in major and minor keys by using the chord clock found in the Consonus Guitar Fundamentals: Beginning Guitar Complete book. In this post Mike talks about chord progressions…Read More…

Filed Under: Blog, Guitar, Our Latest Blog Posts, Uncategorized Tagged With: composition, guitar composition

How to Teach Composition to Guitar Students, Part 1

January 29, 2018 by Mike Christiansen 2 Comments

music composition with guitar

How to Teach Composition to Guitar Students Some of you may have been to one of my sessions at an MEA conference where I discussed methods of teaching music composition in guitar classes. In this series of blogs on composition I’m going to go into more detail on how to sequentially present composition skills to Read the Rest…

Filed Under: Blog, Guitar, Our Latest Blog Posts, Uncategorized Tagged With: composition, guitar composition

Beginning Guitar: Getting Rid of the Buzz

November 14, 2017 by Mike Christiansen 1 Comment

beginning guitar - finger placement

Classroom Guitar expert Mike Christiansen gives tips for beginning guitar students to get rid of string buzz. String buzz comes from a number of common…Read More…

Filed Under: Blog, Guitar, Our Latest Blog Posts, Playing Tips, Student Tips, Uncategorized

Teaching Beginning Composition

October 2, 2017 by Mike Christiansen 2 Comments

Beginning Composition for Guitar and Ukulele

Classroom Guitar pedagogy expert Mike Christiansen gives tips for teaching beginning composition with guitar and ukulele. Read More…

Filed Under: Blog, Guitar, Our Latest Blog Posts, Playing Tips, Student Tips, Teacher Training, Uncategorized

Basic Ukulele – Announcing the Release of a New Consonus Ukulele Method

June 27, 2017 by Mike Christiansen Leave a Comment

Basic Ukulele - A Classroom Ukulele Method

Basic Ukulele is a new Ukulele Method authored by Consonus Music Institute Director of Curriculum Mike Christiansen. This method is particularly appropriate for Classroom Ukulele teachers and students. Read More…

Filed Under: Blog, Our Latest Blog Posts, Uncategorized

Classroom Guitar Curriculum Change Up

May 29, 2017 by Mike Christiansen Leave a Comment

Change Your Classroom Guitar Curriculum

Classroom Guitar Pedagogy expert, Mike Christiansen, discusses reasons to change to Consonus Music Institutes Blended Learning curriculum for classroom guitar and ukulele.Read more…

Filed Under: Blog, Our Latest Blog Posts, Uncategorized

Teaching Classroom Guitar – Flipped

January 10, 2017 by Mike Christiansen Leave a Comment

Teaching Classroom Guitar with the flipped method by Mike Christiansen

Consonus Music Institute’s Classroom Guitar and Classroom Ukulele curriculum provides everything you need to “flip” your class. In fact, this is one of the most productive uses of technology in the classroom. We asked David Jackman, a teacher in the Apline School District in Utah to tell us about his experience using CMI’s classroom guitar curriculum to “flip” his guitar class. This is his story. Read the Rest…

Filed Under: Blog, Guitar, Our Latest Blog Posts, Uncategorized

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