Strum & Tune: Guitar Makeover Journey

All grades Project 4 weeks

Strum & Tune: Guitar Makeover Journey

Isaiah G

Content Expertise

Effective Communication

Collaboration

Self Directed Learning

1-pager

Purpose

Explore how modifying guitar components impacts their sound and playability, while connecting your learning to real-world applications such as commissioning work. Collaborate with local guitar experts to deepen your understanding and refine your skills. Express creativity through the personalization of a guitar that reflects your musical style and perspectives. Use feedback and reflection to assess and articulate your learning journey, culminating in showcasing your work and potentially networking with others interested in your craftsmanship.

Learning goals

Learn the fundamentals of guitar modification, including skills such as soldering, wiring, and fret leveling. Collaborate with community partners like Mark's Guitar Exchange to deepen your understanding of being a luthier and improve your techniques based on expert feedback. Develop and showcase effective communication by presenting your customized guitar and the process you followed, highlighting your creative journey and the improvements made. Practice self-directed learning by using peer and mentor feedback to refine your project, fostering personal growth and deeper connections to music. Aim to design a guitar that embodies your musical expression while enhancing sound and playability based on audience insights.

Competencies

Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.

Products

Customize a guitar that embodies your unique music taste and playing style, showcasing the modifications made to improve its sound and playability. Document the entire process through videos or presentations, capturing key stages such as sourcing parts, leveling frets, and soldering pickups. Share your learning journey and the final transformed guitar in a class exhibition, inviting feedback on its playability and sound from peers and mentors. Additionally, create a visual portfolio that illustrates before-and-after scenarios, highlighting how each component modification contributed to the outcome.

Launch

Begin your project by playing a song on your guitar for the class. Then, take your peers through the transformation process of the instrument, highlighting the specific components you plan to modify and the skills you'll learn, such as soldering and fret leveling. Encourage peers to ask questions and discuss what makes a guitar truly unique and personal, fostering early engagement and interest in the project.

Exhibition

Organize a showcase event at your school, inviting peers, teachers, and community members, including mentors from Mark’s Guitar Exchange. Start with a live demonstration of playing your modified guitars, explaining the changes made and their impact on sound and playability. Include a display of your project journey, featuring photos, videos, and reflection notes on the process. Encourage attendees to test the guitars themselves, providing feedback on their experience and engaging in discussions about the craftsmanship involved. Use this exhibition as a platform to promote future commission opportunities.

Rubric

Competency Progression Rubric Competency-first rubric

Category	Learning Goal	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4
Deeper Learning Competencies	Content Expertise	I can play my guitar and explain the basic changes I made to it, like switching components, and how these changes affect its sound I can identify parts of the guitar and talk about what happens when I change them during my project Also, I can show my soldering technique and talk about why it's important for guitar modifications.	I am able to identify and explain how different modifications to a guitar, like changing pickups or adjusting frets, affect its sound and playability, using feedback from my peers and mentors to enhance my understanding and refine my approach.	I can effectively explain the changes I made to my guitar and how each modification impacts its sound and playability, using clear examples from my project to show my understanding of guitar components and modification techniques.	I can confidently demonstrate my expertise in guitar modification by presenting a personalized guitar that enhances sound and playability, incorporating skills like soldering and fret leveling I can articulate how each component transformation connects to real-world applications and showcase my learning journey through videos and presentations, ultimately sharing my craftsmanship with peers and mentors at the exhibition.
Deeper Learning Competencies	Effective Communication	I can play a song on my guitar and explain how I changed its parts to improve the sound and playability, using clear examples that help my friends understand the process I can answer questions and start discussions about how these changes make my guitar special and unique.
Deeper Learning Competencies	Collaboration
Deeper Learning Competencies	Self Directed Learning		I can use feedback from my teacher and peers to make improvements to my guitar modification project, and I can reflect on the changes I’ve made to be able to tell others how my decisions have helped me learn and grow.

Learning Journey

Empathize

You will investigate the needs and preferences of musicians by interviewing local guitarists and observing performances at local venues, so you can deeply understand what modifies the sound and playability of guitars.

Days 1 - 3

Guitar Insights Journal

Deliverable 70m

Define

You will synthesize your research on guitar modifications by collaborating with peers to craft a concise problem statement that addresses how changes impact sound and playability, setting a clear direction for further exploration and customization.

Days 4 - 6

No activities have been added to this phase yet.

Ideate

You will brainstorm and sketch diverse guitar design modifications, exploring creative ideas for altering components like pickups, bridges, and tuners to improve sound and playability while engaging local mentors for feedback.

Days 7 - 10

No activities have been added to this phase yet.

Prototype

You will construct a prototype by modifying key guitar components and test its sound and playability, using insights from community partners and peer feedback to iteratively refine your design for optimal performance.

Days 11 - 15

No activities have been added to this phase yet.

Test/Present

You will present your customized guitar to peers and local musicians, share the transformation process and how the modifications enhanced the instrument's sound and playability, gather feedback for refinement, and celebrate your craftsmanship during a showcase event.

Days 16 - 20

No activities have been added to this phase yet.

Plan

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Strum & Tune: Guitar Makeover Journey

Purpose

Learning goals

Competencies

Products

Launch

Exhibition

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