Intro To Modes Course 2019

October 14 - December 14, 2019

Work directly with Trey Gunn in this 9-week group course. We will break down one the basic building blocks of music – the modes -- into digestible parts, both sonically and theoretically, so you can use them with ease.

Don't let the title fool you. If you think you already know the modes, be prepared to think again. "Intro" simply means we start with the fundamentals. But you can take any of these practices as far as your ear will lead you.

This highly successful course ran last year and it is being offered again. A follow-up Intermediate Course (coming in February 2020) will take everything learned here and go further.

Modes Course info HERE

Inner Hearing, Micro-twitches and the Breath

This is a longish story. It includes some muso-materials that may be unfamiliar territory for the non-musician. But the pay-off is well worth it, I believe. So, thanks for bearing with me here.

I have begun working with a new system of ear training and the repercussions of it are mind/body/ear boggling. As of three weeks ago I was not prepared to go out on a limb and recommend it. But now I am. I'll even put this in the strong recommend category.

Background:

Ear training is a big part of my musical work. It is also something that I believe leads up into the depths. The doorway to something well beyond us. For the non-musician reader, ear training is the work of being able to recognize what is happening in the music. And recognize it by hearing alone. An almost preposterous thing for some to consider – how could a musician work in any other way? Well, the answer is we can cheat not using our ears all over the place. Buy looking at sheet music or focussing on our fretboards or on our fingerings. We can easily make sound without connecting to, and hearing, that sound.

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Trey Gunn "Scores" - now available

Buy Here

Touch guitar freak and music coach Trey Gunn (King Crimson, TU, KTU, Quodia, Three Below) draws from his performing and recording catalog for this pioneering book. Notated down to the fine details, this collection will open doors for any tapping musician, or for those curious about how this music is constructed.

Thirteen compositions from Trey's catalog, plus a bonus transcriptions of his parts from the King Crimson piece "The ConstruKction of Light." Beautifully spiral bound in a 12"x9" text.

 

for more info go HERE

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Ear Training / Dave Douglas

From a letter I sent out to my coaching clients 2.15.2014

This post references a recommendation I made about a composer's workshop in NYC led by trumpeter Dave Douglas.

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Great freed back from Alec who made it to the second day of Dave Douglas' workshop in NYC. I had a hunch that Dave's vibe would resonate with some of us here. Dave's sense, and practice, of putting intention into a single, simple line goes well beyond his genre and beyond most musicians I know.

I have probably mentioned this before, but I will again.

Dave's article on ear training>

http://www.greenleafmusic.com/the-practice-of-ear-training

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European Tapping Workshop 2013 -- Inzing, Innsbruck, Austria

This is a ridiculously beautiful place. Sadly, I am missing my son’s 16th birthday, but he and I did get to spend nearly two weeks traveling through Navajo land last month. (High points: Canyon de Chelly, Grand Canyon, and Chaco Canyon in midnight moonlight). 

This was our second annual tapping workshop and a huge leap beyond last year’s course. A leap in terms of what we were able to tackle, but also in the level of improvement in peoples' playing. And in only 5 days. We even had two people come who had never played a touch guitar before. By the end of the week they were playing music along with the rest of us. Quite amazing, actually.

This year’s course was held in a different location and with no kitchen staff. Our quarters were much closer and we cooked for ourselves. Both these things could appear to be a drag. But, in fact, they were huge bonuses. This is something proved again and again in the world of Guitar Craft: work well together in the kitchen and you can clearly work better together onstage. Work on either one and both improve.

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Quiet Listening

I have been experimenting with a new kind of listening over the last year.

For reasons partially, but not completely, clear to me I am finding that my ear has developed a kind of threshold. This threshold is not just volume oriented, it is also information oriented. Once I cross this threshold my ears shut down -- both internally and externally. Meaning that not only does my inner ear shut down and I cannot bear to listen anymore, but my physical ears don't want any more sound either. They kind of stuff themselves up.

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