Martin Taylor Guitar Retreat New York
Fri, 09/01/2017 - 2:35pm
I've just spent four fantastic days at the Full Moon Resort, Big Indian, NY, holding my annual guitar retreat in the Catskill Mountains.
Robben Ford was also holding his Dojo Guitar Camp at the same venue, so it was great to catch up with Robben and his co-teacher Jeff McErlain.
Martin Taylor Guitar Retreat New York 2017
Wed, 09/06/2017 - 9:14am
The Martin Taylor Guitar Retreat New York 2017 was another amazing success. This is the 4th year we've held the retreat at the Full Moon Resort, Big Indian, NY, and this year was probably the best yet. It was good to see we had five ArtistWorks students there, and I was assisted by my guest teachers Laurence Juber, Scott Perry, Jim Cunningham (Guitar Repair & Maintenance), Alison Burns (Vocal Coach) and James Taylor (Music Business and Creativity)
We all let our hair down on the last night with a good old fashioned sing-song lead by Lorna Cunningham on ukelele (See this month's Home Message Video!)
Full Moon Resort is an amazing place in the Catskills Mountains and just the perfect location to chill out with guitar playing friends, take classes during the day, jam at night, and take your playing to the next level while having a great time too!
Many thanks to all the guitarists that attended and made this such a special retreat. See you next year!
Bluegrass All-Stars Live at RockyGrass
Fri, 09/08/2017 - 2:44pm
Topics: andy hall, bluegrass, bryan sutton, darol anger, mandolin, michael daves, mike block, mike marshall, missy raines, Tony Trischka
Good News: We have some exclusive new videos for anyone in our bluegrass schools. It's the ArtistWorks Bluegrass All Stars performing live at RockyGrass 2016!
The two songs are played back to back: "The Puppy Belly Dance" and "Fox Chase". We also uploaded their performance of "State Line". There's a fun impromptu dueling guitar portion between Michael Daves and Bryan Sutton in that one, very entertaining! After that Mike Block leads the gang in "Johnny B. Goode". Next we have their performance of "Chief Sitting in the Rain". For anyone who plays mandolin, Mike Marshall teaches a great version of this in his school.
We added "I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome", a classic bluegrass tune that Bill Monroe wrote with Hank Williams a long time ago. Michael Daves teaches how to sing both the lead and tenor vocal parts in multiple keys in his intermediate curriculum for those interested in adding this to your jam list.
Next we added another classic: "Way Downtown" by Doc Watson*. It's sung here by Bryan Sutton and Michael Daves in this lively performance. For the fiddlers out there, Darol Anger teaches this tune in his Beginner and Intermediate curriculum. For Mandolin pickers, Mike Marshall teaches this in his Beginner curriculum.
Then Darol Anger kicks off a great fiddle tune titled "Cherokee Shuttle". There's some fantastic soloing by Darol, Mike, Tony, Bryan and Andy in this installment and another all around team effort from the All Stars as they rock another tune with only minutes of prep time before taking it live to a full house. Next we added the classic "John Hardy" - don't miss it!
Update: Thought the show was over? Not yet! After the crowd erupted in cheers and a standing ovation, the begging for one more tune convinced the Bluegrass All Stars return to the stage for this awesome encore performance of "Deep Ellum Blues" lead by Andy Hall on vocals (who also teaches this tune in his Intermediate Dobro lessons).
You can find all this great exclusive content +Music section of the Learn area!
'In the Spirit of Django' - Martin and the SNJO
Tue, 09/19/2017 - 7:15am
This weekend I will be celebrating the music of Django Reinhardt with three concerts with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra under the musical direction of Tommy Smith.
We'll be playing new arrangements specially commissioned for these concerts, recreating those wonderful iconic big band recordings that Django recorded in Paris in the 1940's.
This was around the time when Django "went electric" so I'll be playing a big vintage archtop through an old amp to keep it more authentic!
Fri 22nd Sept - Inverness, Eden Court Theatre
Sat 23rd Sept - Edinburgh, Queen's Hall
Sun 24th Sept - Glasgow, City Halls
If you live in Scotland and would like to come along you can get further information at...
https://snjo.co.uk/concert-series/in-spirit-of-django/
Pick Muting For Rock Guitarists
Thu, 09/28/2017 - 1:03pm
As guitarists, we should strive to incorporate expressive techniques into our playing. After all, music is an expression of the soul. Having a well rounded toolbox of techniques will help you be more articulate as you transfer your ideas to notes on the guitar. With that in mind, we wanted to take some time to feauture an old favorite techique rock guitarists use: pick muting.
Read on to see how it differs from other types of muting techniques.
Comparing Classical Guitar to Rock Guitar
Fri, 09/29/2017 - 11:03am
As guitarists, we explore new and different styles of music in an effort to satisfy our curiosity, utilize our creativity, and improve our technique in the process. In this blog we’ll compare the genres of rock and classical guitar in an effort to understand some of the foundational techniques that can inform our own playing.
