The Application for the Summer Guitar Workshops is now available.

Application Link

Add A New String Section To Your School Orchestra

Some kids may never take part in a traditional school orchestra or band but they'd still love to play music. Guitar Class is the answer-and yours. It expands your school's music program and upgrades your status to "coolest teacher on campus." GAMA and NAMM will show you how to establish a guitar course during our summer Guitar Teaching Workshop, and we'll get you started with:

• a FREE Guitar

• Various guitar publications and accessories

•Three Graduate College Credits (from Duquesne University)

GAMA (Guitar & Accessories Marketing Association) and its partners, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants), and MENC (Music Educators National Conference), have already helped over 950 teachers and 400,000 students put guitar education in a class by itself. So Explore our website for more information on how to get Guitar in your school!

Our Mission...

The guitar is an ideal vehicle for lifelong active music making. It is a highly motivational instrument that can help school music programs reach many of the students not now involved in music classes.

The GAMA/NAMM/MENC Guitar Task Force is committed to establishing and expanding school guitar programs. The Task Force is dedicated to teaching guitar in the classroom using a broad, multi-style approach that includes diverse techniques and methods.

The first three Teaching Guitar workshops (in Lake Geneva, Pittsburgh and Atlanta) were held in the summer of 1995. Over the ensuing years a demand for the five-day program has gradually led us to the 2004 offering of eight workshop sites. Why the demand? Over the years, enthusiastic workshop participants have gone home to every state in the union, built programs which positively impacted their schools and communities, and shared the impact of all these experiences with other music educators.
It has been a humbling, exciting, life-changing opportunity for me, a garden-variety classroom teacher, to serve on the Guitar Task Force since 1995. As the new chair, I’m challenged to ensure that we maintain the highest quality of instruction and service to the education community that was begun by previous chairs Bill Purse and Will Schmid. As all Task Force members continue to plan, teach and improve the Teaching Guitar sessions, we must also keep abreast of new or expanded needs in guitar education in order to provide ongoing support to current programs and teachers. With the support of GAMA, NAMM and MENC we commit to do so. You can count on it!
If you haven’t yet taken a Teaching Guitar workshop, we’ll hope to see you this summer or next. You’ll be glad you did!