Daniel S. Ro.-

University of Illinois
Champaign, IL
B.S. in Biology 1977

King of Glory Lutheran Church
Carmel, IN
Contemporary Service and Friendship Bible Study
January 2009 - present

Trinity Lutheran Church
Kirkswood, MO
Contemporary Service
November 2006 - February 2007

Bethel Lutheran Church
Contemporary Service
Noblesville, IN
September 1998 - June 2001

Christ the Savior Church
Contemporary Service and Folk Band
Fishers, IN
October 1990 - June 1995

Lutheran Via de Cristo Retreats
Epworth Forest
North Webster, IN
1988, 1991 and 1993

one-one lessons - current, 2002 - 2005

Hi, my name is Dan and I instruct teens in guitar and music theory at King of Glory (KOG) Lutheran Church. Our teenage guitar students have had the opportunity to play Christian Contemporary songs at 3 of our congregational services on April 18, 2010.

We follow lesson plans from “Learning the Guitar from the Bottom Up” (upside down triangle). First, the student can receive a donated guitar from the KOG congregation. Next, the student develops calluses over a 2–3 week period by strategically practicing on their guitar. Chords and strumming follow with more music theory on piano and guitar. Music theory is more often than not visualized better on the piano than on the guitar.

We focus on these guitar skills and subsequent training in:

+ Callusing fingers
+ Learning and Changing Chords
+ Strumming
+ Music Theory (beginning and advanced)
+ Reading TAB (tablature on strings)
+ Acoustic / electric guitar song selection
+ Doodling (playing melodies on guitar strings)
+ Tuning the guitar strings
+ Base string runs

If a new student shows much potential in the first couple of sessions, I challenge them to go up the rungs of our upside down triangle faster. Each rung has more challenging skills to learn and master!

Our KOG guitar ministry reaches inside our walls of King of Glory Lutheran Church (INREACH) as well as OUTREACH to our Community.

I insist that we have FUN first and instruction second during lesson time with our students. The teens in our guitar session (meets every Sunday morning at 11:00 AM in our church’s teen room) can and do make friends with other guitar class teens. Some of the guitar students are in the KOG’s youth group in our church.

There is much potential for a new guitar student to have a lot of fun in our class and feel motivated to learn guitar at KOG!

Parents of guitar students are encouraged to audit classes. They can then witness the instruction and subsequent guitar skills developing in each student.

I always look forward to our guitar class with powerful group dynamics. I permit the students that are farther along this upside down triangle to mentor to the beginning students.

The higher the student climbs on this skills triangle the more they can feel their self-esteem rise. Student attitude can and usually rises sharply for the more experienced guitar students developing advanced skills.

Transferring guitar passion to the students is one of my main class objectives while instructing them.

Happy Guitaring,
Dan