TURN the clock back a few years

and the class-room request “Miss will you play the guitar?” would almost certainly have fallen upon unresponsive ears.

But not any more. Miss – and, indeed, Sir for that matter – is just as likely to oblige, thanks to a course in guitar playing which has started at the Bideford teachers’ training centre at Grenville Street, Bideford.

The idea, it has been said, is to “enrich life in school.” Once upon a time, teacher played the piano while the children sang: the new image, it seems, if that of teacher playing the guitar.

Fewer people, it appears, play the piano nowadays, whereas it is relatively easy, provided some natural aptitude is present, for a few basic chords to be learnt on a guitar – and let’s face it, it is much cheaper and more portable!

NO AGE BAR

Nearly 30 teachers, both men and women, are taking advantage of the once-a-week beginners’ course at their Bideford centre and an age range from the early 20s to around the 60-mark shows that there is no age bar to being “with it” as far as the latest teaching methods are concerned.

Not that there is any question of pop music – not even a Bideford version of the current hit “Guitar man” – being heard in the classrooms of the area. Mostly, folk songs and spirituals will be taught, and instructor Mr. John Dunning, who during schooltime teaches primary children at Marwood, reports that his adult guitar pupils at Bideford are “very keen.”

In two years time, he says, most will have reached the stage where they will be able to teach the basic principles to the children of their own classes – an invaluable addition to their teaching repertoire at a time when participation is becoming more and more the keynote in music lessons.

A great deal will depend, it seems, on how well the teachers do their homework ....

Gazette article 20 October 1972