Tag: teaching

Categories
Music

Southern California Master Class Featuring Me and Adam Levy

Adam Levy, looking like the 6-stirng zen master that he is.

My friend Adam Levy and I had an incredible time co-leading our first master class/workshop here in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. Now we’ve just announced another event in Los Angeles for Sunday, August 26th, 2018. Details here. Please join us, SoCal pals!

The students at our San Francisco workshop couldn’t have been cooler. Skill levels varied, but everyone was super enthusiastic and quick to comprehend the topics. Judging by some of their comments, they seem to have dug the experience:

“Wonderful class — so worthwhile. Lots to process and apply!”

“It was so fantastic that I found myself looking at my watch a few times and thinking that it was all going too fast—just like a great jam session! Thank you both a thousand times over for such a lovely and inspiring musical event. I feel like you both gave me inspiration and practice material to last at least the next few years.”

“I had a blast and the workshop totally delivered as promised. Thanks.”

“Really inspiring, and tons to process and work on. Thanks so much, both of you!

“I left feeling really glad that I signed up and got the the opportunity to not only learn from musical guitar legends as yourselves, but also just be able to spend time talking to you and other guitar players. That vibe and energy in itself is really cool. I would definitely sign up for another class like this in the future!”

Plus, I always learn volumes by watching Adam teach. He is so calm and reassuring, with an amazing knack for making difficult goals seem attainable. (Note to self: more laid-back, less “squirrel on meth.”)

This was my first return to face-to-face teaching in many years. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and yeah, I was nervous. But it was everything I’d hoped it would be and more.

Hope to see you in August. And oh — there’s a discount for students who sign up by the end of July. 🙂

Categories
Technique

True Guit! A Master Class with Joe Gore & Adam Levy

On Saturday, July 7th, 2018 I will be co-hosting True Guit, a day-long guitar workshop, with my friend Adam Levy at the Blue Bear School of Music in San Francisco.
You can find all the needed details — including cost — at trueguit.com.

I’ve been contemplating such a return to teaching for several years. I taught professionally from ages 13 to 29, but gave it up when I first became a Guitar Player editor. Until I got the editor gig, I’d never filled out a W-2 in my life! (Jim Campilongo, then a fellow San Franciscan, inherited my teaching practice.)

I’ve written many instructional articles in the ensuing years, so I suppose I was a sort of “guitar teacher to the masses.” But I’ve been aching to return to face-to-face contact with students. (It’s in my blood — my parents were both educators.)

Adam Levy: Scholar, gentleman, and world-class guitar educator.

And man, what an honor to collaborate with Adam on True Guit! You may know Adam’s work with Tracy Chapman, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Ani Di Franco, and on his many fine solo albums. Or you might have read the lessons and interviews he’s contributed to all the leading guitar magazines. Not all great players are great teachers, but Adam is brilliant on both fronts. He has profound musical wisdom and a well-honed knack for communicating it clearly. Plus his calm, Zen-like demeanor is a great antidote to my twitchy bursts of neurotic energy.

I had a blast last year conducting master classes for Adam’s students at the Los Angeles College of Music. But this will be the first time we’ve taught side by side, and we plan to make a habit of it.

If you plan to be near San Francisco this summer — or would just like to be — please consider joining us. You’ll be able to hang out in one of the world’s most exciting cities and escape vicious July heat. (Our summers are famously overcast. Sadly, Mark Twain never actually said, “The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco.” But let’s just pretend he did.)

Categories
guitar Music Technique Uncategorized

Tonefiend Book Week 2013
Monday: Theory and Technique

Monday: Theory and Technique
Tuesday: Gear
Wednesday: Repairs and DIY
Thursday: Biography
Friday: Fiction

This week we’re talking about our favorite guitar/music books. The plan is simple: I discuss a few titles I’ve found particularly enlightening, useful, or entertaining, and then you jump in and do the same. I’ve organized the days of this week by subject matter. Today’s topics are theory and technique.

Tonefiend Book Week 2013 is an entirely selfish project. I expect to reap tons of great new info from you, smart readers. So don’t be shy about chiming in.

1. Ted Greene’s complete works

Yes, it's true — I studied guitar with Bigfoot!
This week on Finding Bigfoot, the BFRO team visits Encino, California.

Ted Greene’s jazz guitar books have haunted me since the ’70s. Chord Chemistry, Modern Chord Progressions, and Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing Vols 1 & 2 remain in print, and are available in both paper and digital editions.

Ted’s books helped me understand the fretboard, tackle jazz harmony, and perhaps most of all, grasp the concept of voice-leading — that is, the ability to perceive chords not as static blocks, but as volatile structures resulting from dynamic melodies. Ironically, even though Ted’s books are divided into chordal and single-note topics, they go a long way toward erasing such distinctions. Melody generates harmony, Ted teaches, and harmony generates melody.

Not that I’ve completely digested Ted’s books. Has anyone? These tomes are dauntingly dense and complex. I just cracked open Modern Chord Progressions at random, and this confronted me:

Continue reading “Tonefiend Book Week 2013
Monday: Theory and Technique”