Gabi Gans greets Günter Geier
No melody without words! In the new teaching book "Alles Gitarre!" by Burkhard Wolters, each piece is provided with a suitable text.
This generously designed booklet is aimed at young primary school children in individual or group lessons. Most of the lyrics - even for well-known folk tunes - are written by the author himself and relate in some way to the musical content. For example, Gabi Gans and Günter Geier like each other on the g-string, while Doris Dackel on the d-string is constantly thinking of fat Dieter Dachs. All the melodies not only want to be played, but also sung.
There is a whole page available for almost all pieces, so that the overview is always maintained despite graphic aids, polyphonic arrangements, additional accompanying teacher parts and colored illustrations. Each guitar string is assigned a specific color. (In lessons, corresponding highlighter pens can be used in parallel). The children are introduced to the world of tones, rhythm and song accompaniment with great care and didactic thought. After an initial phase of thumb playing on the notes g-d', the alternate beat is demonstrated. Reduced chords are used as accompaniment, which are struck with the index finger on the three melody strings. The thumb and alternate stroke are combined into a non-simultaneous two-part attack, and the "free" attack of the index finger is also introduced alternately with the thumb - as a pendulum attack.
The relatively quick introduction of different touch techniques opens up various combination possibilities in group playing. But the volume also offers attractive material for individual lessons. The order of the notes to be learned does not follow any particular scheme, but is pragmatically adapted to the characteristics of the guitar fingerboard. For example, although the pupils learn the D-sharp and G-sharp, some lower root notes are missing; a suitable follow-up course by another author might not be so easy to find. We are therefore eagerly awaiting a second volume!
Burkhard Wolters, Alles Gitarre! School for group and individual lessons; without CD: ED 21710, € 14.00; with CD: ED 21710-50, € 19.50; Schott, Mainz 2014
