Methods and Music for the Guitar Classroom and Studio

by Bill Swick

Clark County School District in Las Vegas, NV will be starting the 2010-11 school year on August 30, 2010.  CCSD has 62 classroom guitar teachers with an expected 6,000 classroom guitar students.  Guitar is offered at the Middle School and High School levels.  The majority of the students are enrolled in a beginning level guitar class.  This will be the fifteenth year guitar has been offered in Las Vegas, NV.

This will be the ninth year for guitar to be offered at the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts.  This award-winning, high school guitar program received the first Gibson Award for an outstanding high school guitar program, has been featured at three National Association of Music Merchandisers (NAMM)  national conventions, two bi-annual Music Educators National Conferences (MENC),  eight national guitar festivals, and numerous conventions held in Las Vegas.  To learn more about this outstanding guitar program, visit www.classroomguitar.com.

June, 2010 Bill Swick performs in the Brian Head Guitar Orchestra at the Guitar Foundation of America Convention in Austin, TX.

June, 2010 Las Vegas Academy hosts the second annual Summer Guitar Festival featuring Corey Christiansen, Raymond WIlliams and Mel Hallam.

May, 2010 Las Vegas Academy receives the 7th Gold GRAMMY and the 9th GRAMMY Signature School Award.

April, 2010 Bill Swick is selected to conduct the New Mexico All-State Guitar Ensemble in January, 2012 see The New Mexico Musician

March, 2010 Las Vegas Academy Varsity 3 guitar ensemble performs at the Loyola Marymount Guitar Festival.

November, 2009 Las Vegas Academy purchases the largest Yamaha Silent Guitar Lab ever assembled with 32 stations. see article 1, article 2, article 3

September, 2009 Las Vegas Academy Varsity 3 guitar ensemble attends the LaGuitarra California 2009 Guitar Festival in Santa Maria, CA

June, 2009 Las Vegas Academy hosts the first annual Summer Guitar Festival featuring Michael Chapdelaine, Robert Conti, Raymond Williams and Mel Hallam.

June, 2009 Bill Swick performs in the Andrew York Guitar Orchestra at the Guitar Foundation of America Convention in Itheca, NY

April, 2009 Las Vegas Academy Varsity 3 guitar ensemble performs for Avid at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel for the National Association of Broadcasters National Convention

April, 2009 Las Vegas Academy wins 6th Gold GRAMMY and 8th GRAMMY Signature School Award.  "And the GRAMMY Goes..."

March, 2009 Las Vegas Academy Varsity 3 guitar ensemble performs at Loyola Marymount University Guitar Festival in Los Angeles, CA

March, 2009 Bill Swick appears on the cover of School Band & Orchestra magazine with a featured article entitled; "Guitar:  the other stringed instrument."

February, 2009 Las Vegas Review Journal publishes a feature story on Bill Swick see Music to the Ears

January, 2009 Las Vegas Academy Varsity 3 guitar ensemble performs at the Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA

August, 2008 Bill Swick speaks at the international Guitar Foundation of America convention in San Francisco, CA.

April, 2008 Bill Swick speaks at the Bi-Annual Music Educators National Conference in Milwaukee, WI.

October, 2007 Las Vegas Academy Varsity 3 guitar ensemble performs at the international Guitar Foundation of America convention in Los Angeles, CA in the Youth Showcase.

April, 2007 Bill Swick speaks at the Nevada Music Educators Association state convention.

October, 2006 Bill Swick speaks at the international Guitar Foundation of America convention in Columbus, GA.

April, 2006 Las Vegas Academy Varsity 3 guitar ensemble performed at the Bi-Annual Music Educators National Conference in Salt Lake City, UT.

April, 2006 - Las Vegas Academy guitar senior Rebecca Neher is awarded DownBeat Magazine's annual DownBeat Magazine Award for outstanding classical soloist.  Rebecca went on to study at the University of Arizona with Thomas Patterson.

June, 2006 - The first guitar students with four years of classroom guitar at LVA graduate from the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts in Las Vegas, NV. 

June, 2005 - LVA student Kylee Andreasen is the first student to graduate in the state of Nevada having completed seven years of classroom guitar.  She went on to study guitar at Utah State University with Mike Christiansen.  Kylee has since graduated and has a degree in music education and a state teacher's license in Utah.

Spring, 2005- Review Journal publishes an article on Bill Swick and the Music Department at Las Vegas Academy see Hitting the High Notes