Ph.D student to launch online guitar class

Lucas Finney, a doctoral student in music at IU, has been playing guitar for 20 years. For 10 of those 20 years, he has also been teaching.

“If I’m not playing, I’m teaching,” Finney said. “It’s either one of the two, and both are great.”

Finney plays guitar in a local group, the Clayton Anderson Band, which has opened for Kenny Chesney. Lately, though, his time has been focused on a new experiment that involves his passion for teaching.

“Teaching is most rewarding whenever you see a beginner start to develop,” Finney said. “It’s a good feeling.”

With Finney’s latest project, he plans to teach an intense eight-week beginner guitar course allowing student interaction via webcams. He said his hope is to utilize modern technology and increase his student audience.

“There is a lot of new technology and web platforms not being used a lot to interact with a wide audience,“ Finney said. “I’m kind of running a big experiment with this and testing the waters for a guitar webinar.”

Freshman guitar player Michael Hoffman said the idea has been attempted before via Skype and YouTube.

The difference is that Finney will be making himself available for the viewers’ immediate questions and building a network of about 100 participants.

“This will be a great way to meet people with the same interests, and students will be able to hear questions from others, which they might have not thought of on their own,” Finney said.

The sessions will consist of weekly half-hour lessons and will be followed by a one to two hour question and answer forum.

The sessions will be free and recommended for people in their teens and adults who are interested in beginning guitar.

No musical background is necessary; however, if interested, people are suggested to act quickly because there will be a 100-student cap.

“This is a completely independent endeavor,” Finney said. “I have set up a website where people can sign up, and those who do not make the cut will be placed on a waiting list.”

Since the new course is Finney’s independent campaign, he also wants to talk with anyone who has had experience with guitar and is interested in assisting with the project.

“I’d like to get as many people on board with this as I can in order to make online lessons a huge reality and making everything more versatile for both the students and the teachers,” Finney said.

Sophomore Chris Thompson has been playing guitar for six years. Though he was self-taught, he said he believes taking a formal class would likely help most people.

“It might be hard online if there was a delay or lag with the video streaming,” Thompson said. “However, it would be cool because you wouldn’t have to travel much and you could practice in your own room.”

Another benefit of the online approach is that students will be able to go back and view the archived lessons. Finney said he also sees the benefit of online classes for those that live far from guitar educational resources.

“As a teacher, I’d really like to see people in rural communities who might not have access to a professional teacher take advantage of this,” Finney said.

Finney said his responsibility as a teacher is to be readily available
to his students, regardless of their skill levels, and to answer any questions they might have.

“I really think that using this technology for a music class is going to be very beneficial since it’s interactive,” Finney said.

The class will be at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and will start Feb. 1 and continue through March 22.

In order for the “webinar” to be fully effective, mandatory attendance is recommended.

“It’s like a personalized virtual meeting room in the capacity of your own home,” Finney said. “I’d like to get as many beginning students as possible and see how it goes.”



How to Join: Both interested students and teachers can visit www.guitarfuze.com to register or contact Finney at info@guitarfuze.com.