Meet Lead Guitar

Music education improves grades, graduation rates and critical thinking, but it’s not available to five million American children. That’s why Lead Guitar builds free guitar ensemble classes in partnership with neighborhood schools nationwide. Daily mentorship, classroom connections with global artists, and college campus experiences empower students to grow academically, socially, and emotionally.

Lead Guitar’s vision is to engage every learner with an instrument that appeals across genres and generations, using music from a broad range of traditions, and differentiated materials like Adaptive and Spanish-language curricula. We focus resources on children with the least access to arts education by collaborating with schools where 80% or more of students are eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch.

In 2022-23, Lead Guitar served more than 94 schools in five states. While we make our home in Tucson, Arizona, Lead Guitar has active programs that serve large urban areas, remote rural locations, and any place in between with low access to the arts--including Tucson, Phoenix metro and East Valley, Page, AZ; Aspen and Denver, CO; Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta/Athens, and Detroit (starting Fall 2023).

Our curriculum has been refined over the 20 years since our inception in 1999. It includes two method books, a state-of-the-art online learning ortal, and accommodates neuro-diverse learners through our Adaptive Curriculum as well as Spanish-language editions of our curriculum.