It always takes me a bit of time to get back into the swing of things when the annual (now my 6th summer) NGW tour begins. As it has the last few summers we started in McLean, VA at one of my favorite campuses, The Madeira School.
A few of our teachers have already wrote about their experience at McLean. You can check them out here and here.
The week began with a trip to Blues Alley in DC to see Pat Martino with an amazing group that included Tony Monaco on B3 Organ, Eric Alexander on Tenor Sax and Jeff “Tain” Watts on Drums. Of course the music was amazing and the whole run of shows at Blues Alley was recorded for Pat’s upcoming live CD. The whole band was very nice and it was really exciting to see them work out some new material.
Once the faculty and students arrived and the workshop began it really flowed pretty smoothly. The Madeira School always does a great job as our hosts and the view from behind the auditorium is really incredible.
After the shows at Blues Alley ended, Pat came to campus to give an afternoon workshop and then he was going to spend the next day giving private lessons to some of our students. I have seen Pat give 5 clinics in the past, but this one was by far the best. He presented the material in such a clear and easy to understand manner (relatively speaking) that pretty much everyone got something out of it.
The handout for the clinic was an article by Jude Gold from Guitar Player, a leadsheet to his composition “Welcome To A Prayer” and an outline of the chord substitutions he would use on that tune. The clinic was packed full of not only jazz students, but students from nearly every other class as well. After the clinic, Tom Dempsey and I took Pat and his wife Aya out for dinner and we had a great time. Both Pat and Aya are incredible to talk to and spend time with and this was likely the highlight of the week for me.
The other guest we had on campus was Alex Skolnick. You might know Alex from his work in Testament, Trans-Siberian Orchestra or even his jazz trio. Alex has been a longtime friend of NGW and it was great to bring him back this year. I picked him up at the airport and we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the campus. His clinic was a great mix of both his approach to playing metal and his newer jazz offerings. After his clinic I introduced Alex to Pat and we all shared a ride over to Pat’s hotel. Alex was in DC less than 12 hours as he was flying out to Amsterdam to begin a five week tour with Testament.
Overall the week was a great success. I reconnected with some old friends on faculty and was introduced to some of the best guitarists and instructors in DC. After the week ended, I headed back to CT for a few days and then yesterday I flew to Chicago to begin another workshop.
National Guitar Workshop Announces 2009 Season with Special Guests Buddy Guy, Paul Gilbert, Jimmy Herring, Jimmie Vaughan and Pat Metheny
The National Guitar Workshop is proud to announce our 2009 season. This year we will be presenting week long workshops across the country and featuring guest artists such as Paul Gilbert, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Herring, Pat Metheny, Jimmie Vaughan, and many more.
NGW features locations nation-wide with campuses in New York, Austin, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles.Each location offers a wide variety of courses, all taught by world renowned musicians.
In association with Performing Songwriter Magazine, NGW is proud to present the Songwriting Summit featuring David Wilcox and Robert Lee Castleman.In addition, the workshop is offering a seminar on Country Guitar featuring Brent Mason, and a special Modern Acoustic seminar with Ed Gerhard and Peppino D’Agostino.
Events are happening across the country for rock players.The New York campus will hold two Rock Summits featuring Paul Gilbert and very special guest to be announced, while the LA Rock Summit will include a clinic by world renowned shred virtuoso John-5.Also at our LA Rock Summit we are happy to announce that bassist Stu Hamm will be an Artist in Residence during the summit.
The Jam Summit, taking place at our New York campus will feature both Jimmy Herring (Widespread Panic) and Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers Band)giving a special clinic on improvisation and presenting their unique take on the Jam scene.
Taking place in Austin, Chicago, and Connecticut are three Blues Summits, which will include appearances by some of the most influential bluest guitarists in the world.NGW is pleased to have Buddy Guy making a rare clinic appearance in Chicago.Jimmie Vaughan will be giving a clinic on his unique style in Austin, and the New York campus will feature the legendary blues guitarist Robben Ford.
The National Guitar Workshop is very excited to present Pat Metheny at the Jazz Summit in New York.This will be a rare chance to be a part of an intimate workshop with one of the most respected jazz guitarists in history.A great addition to the McLean, VA campus will be the appearance of one of the fathers of modern jazz guitar, Pat Martino, who will be a featured guest in the Giants of Jazz guitar seminar.
Our curriculum has also expanded to also include classes on Pro Tools, Ableton Live and Desktop Music Production.These music technology classes are powered by Apple®.
For a complete list of dates, locations, guest artists and classes offered please check out our website
If you are interested in connecting with other musicians and learning more about National Guitar Workshop from a student’s perspective, you can join our free community site
The National Guitar Workshop is celebrating over25 years of providing high quality music education to students of all ages.The curriculum is wide ranging with courses in Rock, Blues, Jazz, Acoustic, Songwriting, Music Technology and Classical.NGW offers expert instruction for guitarists, bassists, drummers, keyboardists and vocalists.
I just booked Pat Martino for a clinic at our McLean, VA campus. He is going to be a guest in Tom Dempsey’s Giants of Jazz Seminar. Pat will be available for private lessons while he is on campus as well.
I think our jazz lineup this year for National Guitar Workshop will be the strongest it has been in a while. For our Jazz Summit we are looking to have a LEGENDARY guitarist who hasn’t been to the east coast in close to ten years. Look for that announcement soon.
Since the NAMM Convention is coming up, I thought Derek Siver’s article on attending a music conference is very timely.
I get asked by students all the time about how to find the right teacher. This article does a great job explaining how to do that.
I get asked a lot from my students what my favorite recordings are, jazz and otherwise. For the next few days I want to highlight some of the more important recordings that shaped my world as a musician.
I discovered Pat Martino while I was an undergrad at Minnesota State University. What amazed me the most about Pat was his articulation and his never ending sense of swing. In January of 2004 my wife and I went to New York for the first time to the IAJE conference. I was very excited to find out that Pat was playing not far from my hotel at the Iridium Jazz Club. This was shortly after his “Think Tank”album came out. The group at the time included David Kikoski, James Genus, Lenny White and Joe Lovano. Cindy and I had just come from seeing Jim Hall and Charlie Haden at the Blue Note.
I had begun to transcribe “Just Friends” right before I left for NYC. I was really hoping that Pat would play it, but considering where he was stylistically with this band, I didn’t hold out much hope. However the show was great with one highlight being Coltrane’s “Africa”. After the show I managed to meet Pat and have him sign my copy ofEl Hombre. Pat is one of the nicest musicians and people I have ever met.
When I got back to school I finished my transcription of “Just Friends” and then came across Steve Khan’s book of Pat Martino solos. I was embarrassingly inaccurate with my “version”p of the transcription. I ended up playing that solo and head so much that to this day my wife can sing it note for note.
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