About Bill Swick
Bill Swick, the creator of the Swickster Fingerboard method, studied the philosophy and educational tools of Karl Orff while in graduate school. As a guitarist, Swick wanted to make playing the guitar easier for his beginning students and remove the embarrassment of hitting wrong notes when trying to improvise. He came up with the idea of mapping out the fingerboard using black and white markers to represent the keys on a piano keyboard. At last, a guitarist can now visualize the fingerboard similarly to a pianist. In the case of the Swickster Improvisational method, a student just focuses on playing the white keys. Watch this video and see for yourself.
click Watch PBS Broadcast about the Swickster Guitars click
click Watch Swickster being used in a concert setting click
Swick teaches guitar full time at the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts in Las Vegas, NV and is the director of one of the nation's top high school guitar programs. For more information about this program, visit: www.classroomguitar.com. Swick is also the owner and operator of www.BillSwick.com, a paperless publishing company specializing in educational materials for the guitar classroom.