Caroline Springs guitar SCHOOL

Our program has been developed over the last quarter of a century by master musician, ANZCA examiner and former tertiary educator (VCA, Melbourne Uni and NMIT) Brendan Hains F.Dip.A.

 

 

 

All of our guitar student's progress is closely monitored by Brendan and our administration. Feel free to speak to us at any time on any matter. Our guitar teachers are drawn from the finest available in Melbourne, all teachers are highly qualified and have working with children checks. We do not accept 2 year diplomas as adequate teaching qualifications and neither should you.

All of our guitar teachers at Caroline Springs School of Music have extensive professional performing experience, they will not however cancel teaching in favour of gigs, our teachers are committed to your music education before any other consideration, they perform in their own time not yours!

 

The main focus of our guitar program is fostering correct technique – if followed correctly and with regular practice, students can make what would normally take seven years of regular lessons in one year on our program.

We have a number of exercises and scale practice routines that help develop highly facile technique. This does not make our practice boring, rather you are presented with the opportunity to become a guitar great. We have taught a number of this countrie's leading guitarists and successful pop/rock artists.

Since 2001 we have thrice produced the VCE top cat for guitar in Victoria. Students are encouraged to learn songs of their own choice along with some guidance and recommendations from our teachers of all the guitar classics. Students are also encouraged to learn repertoire from the superb ANZCA guitar exam syllabus.

At Caroline Springs School of Music, we teach all styles of guitar from Rock, Pop, Heavy Metal, Jazz, Classical, Flamenco, Blues, fingerstyle, acoustic guitar and electric guitar.

 

All students enrolled in guitar lessons at Caroline Springs Guitar School are welcome to join our guitar ensemble. Featuring students of all ages and levels of experience, our guitar ensemble performs regularly at local events and throughout Melbourne. Students in our guitar ensemble have made great progress on their instrument reaping the benefits of performing in groups with 4 of our guitar instructors assisting the students at all times. Our guitar ensemble is regularly asked to perform at major events throughout Australia and has been invited to perform at Parliament House.

We ensure that all students learn to read music notation not just tabs (you can do that at home on the net!) Aural (ear) training exercises are conducted for a minute or two every lesson. General knowledge and appreciation of guitar history including the finest exponents of the instrument are taught regularly. 

 

Although exams are not compulsory we encourage all students to sit for ANZCA guitar exams – Our results have consistently been the highest in Australia for over a decade. If you do not wish to sit exams, that’s fine we can tailor a program to help you achieve your goals.

We have compiled a list of the top 100 guitarists of all time and we teach the styling's of all these greats. Who knows, maybe one day your name may be on the list? We accept guitar students from the age of 4 years (on assessment)

 

All guitar students at Caroline Springs School of Music are prepared to perform at our midyear and end of year concerts. 

We also have a large number of mature age guitar students. It’s never too late to learn!

 

At Caroline Springs School of Music we have many guitar students with autism. We have had great success teaching kids with ASD, all of our teachers are trained in how best to teach music to these students. We have found guitar lessons to be of great benefit to kids with ASD and positively impacts them in the rest of their lives, particularly in behaviour, communication and cognitive skills. 

 

We stock a range of guitars in the shop that we recommend for student use. For beginners we recommend Valencia or Sanchez nylon string guitars. Full size $99 3/4 size $89 1/2 size $79 1/4 size $69. All students are entitled to a store discount. You can also hire guitars from $10 per week. If you would prefer to go to the next level of quality in guitars we recommend Cordoba and Alhambra prices starting at $300. Electric guitar kits start at $299 for Casino and SX models.

 

We urge all students to bring a music manuscript book and text book to each lesson. For younger beginners (ages 4-8) we recommend Progressive Guitar Method for young beginners. Children aged 9 and over are best suited to Progressive GuitarMethod book 1 Beginner or  A modern Method for Guitar Book 1 by William Leavitt. Other optional books are ANZCA guitar Technical Work and ANZCA guitar Sight Reading (both great books by Michelle Nelson)

 

We encourage all students to prepare for guitar exams. Our teachers are always preparing you for exams without too much talking about the exam itstelf. The material on ANZCA exams is there for good reason, you can rest assured that your guitar playing will be well rounded and secure at all times whilst preparing for exams.

 

As a number of students and parents can be confused as to what is actually on the exams, the following is an example program from the first (preliminary grade) guitar exam:

 

Technical work: (20 marks) C major scale, G major scale and A natural minor scale, G, C Am Em and D7 chords.

 

List A -  (18 marks) Aura Lee

 

List B - (18 marks) Singing Strings

 

List C - (18 marks) 12 Bar blues in G

 

Sight Reading (10 marks) A very easy 4 bar passage - mainly on the first 3 strings

 

Aural (8 marks) Rhythmn, Pitch recogntion by ear

 

General Knowledge (8 marks) basic notes, terms, signs and definitions from the exam pieces 

 

* We regularly upload exam material (particularly list piece performances) to our Youtube Channel. 

If you choose to take guitar lessons at Caroline Springs School of Music you will not look back, make no mistake, we are the best in the business.

 

The following is our roster of Guitar teachers at Caroline Springs Guitar School. (permanent staff) (We always place students with the most appropriate teacher). 

 

Head of senior guitar studies - Jayden - Classical guitar, Heavy Metal guitar, Jazz guitar.

 

Head of junior guitar studies - Kostas - Jazz guitar, blues guitar, rock and progressive rock guitar. Junior guitar lessons.

 

Simeon - Jazz, rock, blues, fingerstyle. world music, Progressive rock.

Ben - Jazz, rock, pop, classical guitar. 

Ruby - Rock,pop,alternative, junior guitar lessons

Tim S - Jazz, rock, classical guitar, flamenco guitar

Josh - Jazz, rock, Progressive rock. junior guitar lessons.

Manuel - Jazz, Latin Jazz, rock, classical guitar, flamenco guitar and bass

James - Jazz, rock, blues, progressive rock, classical guitar. junior guitar lessons

Caroline - jazz, fingerstyle, rock guitar

Tim M - Rock, Jazz classical guitar lessons.

Michael - Jazz, Blues and Rock guitar lessons. 

Stuart - Jazz, blues, classical and Rock guitar lessons. 

 

Guitar lessons run Monday to Friday 2pm until 10pm Saturday 9am-5pm.

Half hour guitar lessons (one on one) $27 plus GST

GROUP LESSONS ONLY $5 - Cash/Eftpos/Mastercard/Visa