Lead Guitar has a 24-year history of success establishing local operations in major urban areas and positively impacting outcomes in struggling schools. We have served more than 37,500 students and earned the consistent support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Illinois Arts Council.

Lead Guitar’s Four Pillars of Service include:

Co-Teaching and Curriculum: Lead Guitar has assembled an international team of Teaching Artists: global concert musicians, Fulbright Scholars and professors with a passion for mentorship. They collaborate with certified K-12 teachers to co-teach in-school guitar ensemble classes using Lead Guitar’s proprietary curriculum and Lead Guitar Digital: a library of instructional videos, lesson plans, and extension activities accessible from any device.

Professional Development: Our Teachers’ Workshops offer K-12 teachers formal PD towards promotion and recertification as they master the Lead Guitar curriculum and improve their own playing.

In-School Assemblies & We Are Guitar: Global touring guitarists perform for, dialogue with, and inspire students in person, right at their own school, while our interactive We Are Guitar YouTube broadcast (in partnership with Guitar Salon International) provides an online forum for students nationwide to learn from, interview, and perform with guitar celebrities.

Student Performances: Middle and High school students perform and are celebrated in front of family and friends at annual Showcase Concerts at their local college campus. Our elementary school families come together at school to perform, celebrate and share food in an atmosphere that supports community building.

In short, Lead Guitar delivers “tangibly better student outcomes in terms of dropout rates, behavioral issues and academic achievement” (US News & World Report).