Learn How to Play the Guitar with Self-guided Lessons

Table of Contents

Needs Analysis……………………………………........................................3-4                      

Task Analysis ……………………………………………………..................5-6

Survey Format……………………….………………………………………..7-8

Survey Results…………………………………………………………..........9-11

Target Audience Interviews…………………………………………………...12-13

Target Audience Observations………………………………………………....13

Group Member Roles………….……………………………………………....14

I. Needs Analysis

1. Need for educational product 

 Traditionally, music lessons were given by teachers at schools or in private settings to groups or single students.  Due to the busy lifestyles maintained by many today, traditional music lessons may not be practical.  This course will allow students to learn to play the guitar in the comfort of their own homes.  This low-cost alternative to traditional lessons will give students the basics they need to play simple songs. 

This course will offer students a self-paced, guided learning experience.  Although this course will lack the traditional face-to-face guidance of an instructor, students will have opportunities to assess their own learning as they proceed through the modules.  This course is best used by a student wanting the foundations of proper guitar playing.

On the internet, and in music stores, there are a myriad of guitar learning programs. Many of these programs are confusing and very involved. On the internet, most guitar learning programs are based on pictures that can be difficult to see and understand. They throw every chord and note in the book at you. Many guitar learning programs based around video can be time consuming because they want to solicit information from you and use your information (such as email) for spammers.

Our guitar learning program is free and very user friendly. In just a few lessons, you will learn the basics of playing guitar with easy-to-use links, graphics, and videos. Our program teaches a handful of chords and scales, the most important ones. In just a few lessons you will be on your way to playing the guitar. Our guitar learning program is straightforward, easy, quick, and fun!

2. Form of need 

We developed and administered a survey with the intent to measure five characteristics: 

Intrinsic Motivation (IM) – Degree of interest and anticipated enjoyment to learn to play guitar.

Instructional Technophobia (ITP) – Level of discomfort in working with technology. 

Guitar Anxiety (GAnx) – worry and apprehension associated with learning to play the guitar. 

Guitar+Software (GS)- feelings towards learning to play guitar via CBT

General Interest in Music (GIM)

Our results from this survey revealed that users within the age range of 11-18 would benefit the most from our tutorial because they were most comfortable using technology and exuded the most confidence in their ability to learn a new instrument.  In search of more detailed evidence, we conducted interviews with our target audience, which gave us detailed evidence to support our conclusions.

3. Audience 

The target audience consists of males and females from ages 11-18.  The CBT is designed so that everyone in that age range is capable to learn the fundamentals of guitar.  We aim to educate all users with the same information, but we also emphasize the importance of self-paced lessons.

4. Necessity of CBT 

CBT will be necessary for cost reduction of guitar lessons, self-paced instruction, and facilitated access of information.  Our CBT is meant to facilitate and enrich a student's guitar learning experience.

5. Data Collection Methods 

1. Survey: A survey would help analyze results statistically, especially when it comes to gathering information from large groups of people. 

2. Interview:   An interview would be recommended in order to find out the details such as personal opinion that a survey would not be able to prove.  Interviews would help better analyze why there is a need and what those needs are. 

3. Observation: An Observation would also be recommended in order to find out the details that a survey and interview would not be able to prove.  Observations would be utilized to back up interview results and to gain results through visual methods.  To actually physically see what the needs are for the student.

6. Outline of steps to obtain information

1. Develop survey

2. Administer survey

3. Analyze data

4. Compose results

5. Obtain more detailed information via interviews of our concluded target audience.

 6. Summarize

II. Task Analysis

Outline for Learning the Fundamentals of Guitar-

I.                    Preparatory Phase

A. Purchase guitar, picks, and other necessary materials

B. Tuning

C.  Become familiar with your guitar

II.                  Conducting Phase

A.      Hand placement

1.       Matches with written music

2.       Take note of look and feel

B.      Strum/Pick

1.       Establish correct pattern

2.       Listen and reflect upon the sound

3.       Learn associative chords

4.       Learn associative scales

C.      Practice and Drills

1.       combine different hand placements

2.       combine different sounds

3.       follow along with proper timing

D.      Play Song

1.       Cognitive ability taken to a higher level

2.       Recognize music and play accordingly

III.                Finishing Phase

A.      Basic rule memorization

1.       Basic skills no longer require revisiting

2.       Playing becomes systematic  

Survey Format

Demographic Questions

1.       Sex – F or M

2.       Age - _____

3.       Race: African American, Asian, Hispanic, White (Caucasian)

4.       Prior experience playing other musical instruments– None, A little, Some, Quite a bit, A Great Deal

5.       List one or more reasons for choosing computer based instruction:

A. It better suits my schedule.  B. I like working independently.  C. Face-to-face lessons are too expensive.  D. Other

Instructions: Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each statement below using the following scale.

1.      I am a big fan of music (GIM)

2.      I am comfortable working on computer. (ITP)

3.       I am interested in learning to play the guitar. (IM)

4.      I am put off by having to learn to use new computer software (ITP)

5.      I am worried about how hard it will be to learn to play guitar (GAnx)

6.      I can usually figure out how to successfully use new computer software (ITP)

7.      I feel that I would easily learn from a guitar tutorial (GS).

8.      I would rather take guitar lessons from a computer program than face-to-face (GS).

9.      I don’t like taking online courses (ITP)

10.  I have a large music collection (e.g., CD’s, music downloads) (GIM)

11.   I love guitar music (IM)

12.  I think learning to play the guitar would be a lot of fun (IM)

13.  I’m concerned about how well I can learn to play using this software (GAnx)

14.  I’m not looking forward to the effort of practicing the guitar (GAnx)

15.  Music is a very important part of my life (GIM).

SCORING

Simply sum the items that comprise a scale and divide by the number of items in the scale to compute an average level. Note that some items are reverse scored in order to assess lower levels of the characteristic; these items are in italics. To reverse score an item, simply subtract the respondent’s score from 6 (i.e., 6 – response score = actual item score).

SCALES 

The following characteristic are assessed:

Intrinsic Motivation (IM) – Degree of interest and anticipated enjoyment to learn to play guitar.

Instructional Technophobia (ITP) – Level of discomfort in working with technology 

Guitar Anxiety (GAnx) – worry and apprehension associated with learning to play the guitar.

 Guitar+Software (GS)- feelings towards learning to play guitar via CBT

General Interest in Music (GIM)

INTERPRETING SCALE SCORES

SURVEY RESULTS

TARGET AUDIENCE INTERVIEWS 

We concluded that teenagers 11-18 should be interviewed.  Interview evidence proves that teenagers would love to learn guitar through computer-based lessons and that there is a need for computer-based guitar learning:

Chelsea, age 18 stated that she "has been using software programs her entire life and has mostly learned from friends, family, and educational classes."  She says that she is "used to figuring out many parts of software programs on her own also."  The examples she gave was word, PowerPoint, publisher, flash, and AIM. She also stated that she "was not intimated by the idea of learning how to play guitar from a computer tutorial."  Bryan, age 18, said that "he and most of his teenage friends would have no problem learning the guitar from a computer-based program".  He also stated that he was "excited by the fact that he could learn at home at his own pace and not have the pressure of practicing and knowing his lessons like he has to do for his piano teacher."  Tara stated that "she and many of her friends now take at least one online class through the Florida Virtual School" and that because of this she "was not intimidated by learning guitar through a computer tutorial and also believed that "her friends that have taken online classes through the Florida Virtual School would not be intimidated either."

Josh, age 17, stated that "guitar is probably one of the coolest musical instruments you can play".  He also feels that "girls love guys who can play guitar, especially if they can sing."   Spencer, age 18, backed up Josh's views; he stated that "at this year's pep rally Rob and Nick became very popular after playing several rock songs on stage."  Spencer said, "Rob and Nick played songs that kids loved" and "even played the school's theme song Eye of the Tiger, which sounded exactly like the original!"

Interview evidence proves what teenagers would learn:

Sarah, age 17, has played the flute in the school band since seventh grade (5 years) and at this stage in her life feels very confident that she could learn to play a variety of other instruments because of her musical background.  She stated that "after playing the flute and reading music for so long, I think I could easily learn how to play the guitar". She also said, "I may not be good a picking, strumming, and finger placement but I would be good at rhythm and reading music."  She felt that "it would just take a lot of practice to become good at picking, strumming, and finger placement."

Josh, age 17, has no experience at playing musical instruments, but said he "has a vast mp3 collection and air jams to music all the time."  He feels he "has natural rhythm" and would "love to put that natural rhythm to use by playing guitar."

We concluded that children younger than their teens and adults should be interviewed.  Interview evidence proved that children under 11 years of age and older adults are more intimidated by the notion of learning how to play guitar through computer-based lessons and that there may not be a need for computer-based guitar learning:

Jake, age 10, was very worried about using computers and computer software.  He stated that he felt "he was too young and was not ready to learn guitar through a computer program." 

Jake's friend, Logan, age 9, felt that he "had to have a personal guitar tutor is order to learn guitar." He said "a tutor could show me where to put my fingers.  He also said, "I would learn more because I am not very good at learning many things on my own."

Glenn, age 52, was also very anxious about learning guitar through a computer program.  He stated that he "was not very computer savvy" and would "rather learn in a face to face setting" and that he was "too old to try and learn computers at his age." 

TARGET AUDIENCE OBSERVATIONS

During the interviews, students were also given a guitar and were asked to "show what they could do" based on parts of our task analysis.

Josh, age, 17, proved that he had good rhythm.  His potential was obvious.  When a guitar was put in Nick's hand (Nick has experience), Josh was singing to many of the songs Nick played, thus proving that he had good musical timing and that he knew a lot of songs. His mp3 collection most likely was vast.  With a few easy and effective lessons, Josh would be on his way to playing guitar.

Dave had a little experience at playing guitar.  When given the guitar he knew a few chords and a few scales, but he needed much more practice.  He was another example of someone who could quickly improve with a few easy and effective lessons.

Sarah, age 17, has played the flute in the school's band for the past five years.  She had no idea of where to place her arms, fingers, etc.  But after a few minutes of tutoring, she was catching on quickly.  Sarah was another example of someone who would benefit from easy and effective lessons.

ROLES OF GROUP MEMBERS

LeAnne Selman-survey and scale development, needs analysis, task/goal analysis

Jim Korycinski-Target Audience Assessment, designed and conducted interviews and observations, conducted surveys

Erin Cox-final composition of FEA summary, application of statistics to visual output (graphs/charts), conducted surveys