Inside Room 1735, music teacher Steven Katz holds a bright orange guitar and conducts from the front of the classroom. The students sit in pairs with their left feet on pedestals. The sounds of strummed and plucked chords fill the room with music. Katz walks by each pair and helps the students tune their guitars. Once the students settle down, they begin to play in unison.

Niles West’s only guitar class is overseen by Katz. In addition to this class, Katz also teaches orchestra. He’s been a musician ever since he was young and hass been working at West for many years. He was interested in teaching the class because he has always had a passion for guitar.

“Guitar is all about accuracy, right time, strum, finger markings, picking, and notes. These are some of the basics I look for from my guitar class,” Katz said.

Besides playing the guitar every day and learning new chords, the students of the guitar class have written tests and music research projects. The tests are about music basics, and the projects are more history-based. These type of assignments help students connect the music they are playing in class with the historic information they have learned.

Freshman Rosie Choi likes how they do not rush into playing but instead take time to learn about the basics first.

“We usually practice together and individually in class, and we take it slow. [Mr. Katz] doesn’t expect a lot of things from us because he knows most of us are beginners,” Choi said

A typical day for eighth period guitar class consists of tuning, warming up, learning new songs and practicing old ones. Students don’t just play guitar, they are also tested on certain songs and are graded on how well they play.

“Every day we start class with tuning out guitars, then Mr. Katz teaches us a song from the book, then we have time to play it on our own, and then we play it all together,” freshman Ligia Velieiu said.

Many of the students in Katz’s class say they took it because they have always had an interest in learning guitar, and they thought that this class was the perfect opportunity.

“I’ve always wanted to learn guitar because it’s such a nice sounding instrument when it is played right,” freshman Brittany Clark said.

Whether one is a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player, all are welcome in guitar class and guaranteed the opportunity to learn how to play the guitar.