VanderCook College of Music
FretWire
FretWire: An online comprehensive learning management system for middle school and high school class guitar
Based on Joe Sweet and Matt Hudson’s proven method, this product includes curriculum, instruction, and assessment all in one. Get your guitarists performing at a high level without the stress.
What’s included:
Over 300 instructional videos with professional demonstration of all the examples from every chapter of the workbook
All materials organized in daily folders (180 days of lesson plans)
Contemporary approach that will lead your students to performance styles of the genres they enjoy, rock, R&B, pop, blues.
Regular assessments to keep students accountable
Access to materials via VanderCook’s easy-to-use Schoology platform
pdf materials and paper books available for all course materials
- Fun and engaging method with proven results.
Sample a day of lessons in the FretWire classroom
Authors
Matt Hudson
Matt Hudson (MMEd ‘10) is a jazz guitarist from Erie, PA, currently teaching guitar and band at Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. Hudson began his formal music studies at the University of Pittsburgh in 1999. He won the Mellon Bank Jazz Scholarship, which gave him the chance to study with saxophonist Nathan Davis and world-renowned guitarist Joe Negri.
Hudson has a voracious appetite for jazz improvisation and studied many eras of the form with a particular emphasis on blues and bebop. He became a regular fixture at jam sessions in Pittsburgh and by the time he graduated in 2003, he was performing in many top venues with artists such as Gene Stovall, Reggie Watkins, The Marvelettes, Jay Willis and Curtis Fuller. By the end of that year, Hudson decided to settle in Chicago to pursue creative opportunities that blended r&b, hip hop, jazz and rock. This began a fertile period for Hudson marked by collaborations with William Kurk Enterprise, Siji, Aaron Getsug, Scott Hessy and Karl E.H. Siegfried.
In 2006, Hudson met producer and DJ Anthony Nicholson and his son Quincy Nicholson. This began his affiliation with the jazz recording group Scientific Map. Over the course of five years, this group recorded and toured in support of releases for the Imaginary Chicago Records label.
Joe Sweet
Joe Sweet teaches Guitar at Lane Tech College Preparatory High School in Chicago. Mr. Sweet is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has taught graduate courses at VanderCook College of Music on his guitar book, Introduction to Guitar for Ensemble and has a Masters degree in Elementary Education from Northern Arizona University. In his 29 years as a public school music teacher, he has taught A.P. Music Theory, Jazz Band, Music Appreciation, Beginning Orchestra, Beginning Guitar, Intermediate Guitar and Advanced Guitar classes.
Joe started the Guitar program at Lane Tech 18 years ago; it now features nearly 400 students annually earning Honors credit in 6 Beginning Guitar classes and 3 Advanced Guitar classes.