Another of Wayzata’s brand new classes for the 2025-2026 year is the Guitar class. This course is unique to the rest of the music program at the High School in that it is designed to teach complete beginners how to play. This provides a new opportunity for students who are new to the guitar or to playing an instrument to get that chance to learn and grow in the classroom, without the expectation of already being a Mozart in the field.
“It’s something that the school community has wanted for a while,” says Guitar teacher, Mr. Clifford. “At the time I was part time teaching here, and so I had the opportunity to take on some more responsibility, and we decided that guitar was the way we wanted to go.”
Mr. Clifford actually learned to play the guitar in order to teach the class. “I took a guitar class in college, because it’s part of a music education degree requirement, but I really didn’t start learning how to play until about a year and a half ago,” he says. “I taught myself most of what I know, and took some workshops.”
Having learned recently gives him an advantage as a teacher, since all the things he learned when he just started are still in his mind, allowing him to easily identify students’ mistakes and help correct them. Mr. Clifford explains, “You make mistakes, and you learn from those mistakes, and then you can help people avoid making those same mistakes the first time.”
Mr. Clifford also spent time writing the curriculum specially to fit beginners in high school. He diverted from the regular path of choosing a method book that walks students through a very structured curriculum, making it more engaging for students in their teen years.
“[Method books] tend to be more folk song playing, stuff that would be better suited for an elementary or middle school,” he reflects. “My assumption is that high school students really want a space where they can learn how to play music that they love, with people that they like, and get a foundation for being able to pick up an instrument later on in life.”
Through this switch in the type of music played in class, there are now about 20 newer songs from a variety of genres that people can learn and play in class, including the highly requested “Halo” by Beyonce.
“So that was the big decision that I made, rather than sticking with the elementary/middle school method-book folk song model, moving it towards more popular styles,” Mr. Clifford reflects. “We still include some work from method books, so we still work on reading classical notation and playing melodic exercises, but that is less of a focus than chord songs and just jamming together.”
The turnout of the class proved that his assumptions of what the student body wanted were correct.
Mr. Clifford says, “The beginners saw an opportunity to start something that they’d been interested in for a while, or maybe just saw on a whim and decided, ‘Hey I’m going to try something new’.”
It wasn’t only beginners though, as a lot of veteran guitar players signed up for the class too. “This term actually was a little surprising to have the number of students that have that experience, and I think that they saw the class as an opportunity to build something that they love into their daily schedule,” states Mr. Clifford.
A student in the term one course, sophomore Miles Mauritson, reflects, “I expected it to be a more advanced class, but it was really good. It was pretty easy for a beginner to do.”
With the surge of experienced students coming into the class, Mr. Clifford has made a few adaptations to the curriculum to suit the group. The new structure includes more independent work time to allow for more advanced work while newer students still get the mentoring they need. The daily schedule is flexible to fit the skill level of the student body taking each class, therefore it may change a bit again in the future.
Despite all the students with higher skill level taking the class, Mr. Clifford still says that he would recommend it to people with little to no experience. He says, “I would most strongly recommend it to students with either limited or no experience, but it will continue to remain open to students with a variety of backgrounds.”
He also mentions, “If there is a student that has pretty significant guitar experience and is interested in taking the class, I would want them to know that where we start is from the ground floor.”
This being said, students have wondered if an advanced guitar class is a possibility for the future. “It’s certainly not out of the question,” Mr. Clifford reports, “there’d be a lot of logistical things to figure out from a department staffing standpoint and scheduling. But it’s something that students have asked about, and something that certainly over the next number of years is a conversation that will continue to be had as a department.”
With the current class in place, students and teachers have loved it.
Miles reports, “My highlight was when towards the end, we got to go and pick our own songs to learn. I picked ‘Hotel California’.”
Mr. Clifford reflects as well, saying, “My favorite thing is when we’re playing a song together, and I look out and I see students singing along, because it means that they’re really engaged with the music, they’re having a good time, they’re head banging.”
As a class, they play collective songs every day. Students are given some choice for songs that build certain skills, and get to play them.
“I’ll put a chord chart up on the screen, play a recording loud enough that the fourth floor office can hear it (I appreciate their tolerance), and we just play through the songs together, and we have a good time,” Mr. Clifford says. “My favorite song has been ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Luke Combs. I just learned about it this past summer, and when I realized it was actually pretty easy to play, I put that in the curriculum, and students seem to enjoy it. Last term, that was one that kept coming back week after week, even when we moved beyond the cords that were used in the song.”
In general, the new Guitar class at Wayzata High School has been a success. Students love it, and it provides a unique opportunity to start learning an instrument at a time that is sometimes considered late in life in other music programs.
