2024 Seminars

Our 2024 Seminars include:

Acoustic Overdrive (San Diego Session) With special guest Laurence Juber

This is the course for acoustic guitar players of all levels who want to prime their chops and send them into overdrive. If you ever wanted to explore ways to transform the acoustic guitar from a simple accompanying instrument into something much more, then this is the seminar for you. Aside from flatpicking, fingerpicking, chord harmony, scale theory, altered tunings, ear training and general applied music theory, students will forge onward into the realm of ornamentation – left hand rolls, cuts, grace notes, and more. This course is a must for those who would like more ways to bring the acoustic guitar to the forefront as a solo and accompanying instrument

Modern Blues/Rock Guitar Improvisation (Nashville Session) With special guest Eric Gales

Designed for intermediate to advanced-level players, this will be a personalized and detailed course laying out a clear method for blues and rock improvisation. Although this workshop will offer strenuous and intense chops–building exercises, the main focus is to develop a set of tools to help you expand your vocabulary when improvising. Topics covered include fretboard geometry–a new look at pentatonic, rhythmic and thematic development, analysis of chord progressions, modal improvisation, arpeggios, alternate pentatonic, creative expression and much more. Students registered for this course will enjoy a visit and learn from one of the hottest players on the scene in recent years, Eric Gales

Stand Alone Rock Guitarist (Toronto Session) With special guests Gary Hoey and Larry Mitchell

This seminar will give you the tools to create your own style. Influences are important in a player but learning to cut your own path will give you longevity and get you noticed amongst your peers and listeners. Topics include creating your own guitar lines and phrases by thinking outside of the box and breaking stale practice routines of scales and chords, being able to move freely around the guitar when chording and creating riffs, user-friendly theory that can be applied right away, fretboard visualization, and target notes. Techniques such as legato, tapping, and various picking styles will also be covered. There will be lots of in-class jamming and plenty of examples that you cantake home and practice. Guitar greats Gary Hoey and Larry Mitchell will visit and work with this class!

Deep Blues (San Diego Session) With special guest David Grissom

Are you looking to up your blues game?  Whether you are looking to develop a deeper understanding of the traditional blues grooves or to create your own, this will be the course for you. We’ll not only be looking at different progressions of the 8, 12 and 16-bar blues, but we’ll also be deepening our chord vocabulary. We’ll shuffle, swing and even funk out. If you are looking to take a step out of that standard blues box, you’ve come to the right place! We’ll look at how to expand our knowledge of the pentatonic scale and its different positions as well as explore the use of modes and arpeggios to outline the changes. This will be a week filled with knowledge that will take you a year to digest. Blues/rock great David Grissom will be a guest in this course!

Planet Acoustic (Toronto Session) With special guest Andy McKee

Look no further if you have been searching for a class to lift you and your acoustic guitar right off the ground and out of this world. This seminar takes you on a transformational journey, exploring avenues to help you morph your instrument into a three-dimensional “Band-in-a-Box” creating the spellbinding sound of a full band coming from just one guitar and one player. The class will examine fingerstyle and flat-picking techniques, vocal accompaniment, altered guitar tunings, two-handed rhythmic tapping, harmonics, specialized right-hand techniques (eg. tapping harmonics), stylistic genre, scales and arpeggios, ensemble play, and applied music theory. From the legendary stylings of Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel to the modern acoustic stylings of Michael Hedges and Andy McKee, this course will teach you ways to bring the acoustic guitar to the forefront as a solo and accompanying instrument. Modern acoustic great Andy McKee will visit and work with students in this course!

The Art of Solo Guitar (Nashville Session) With special guests Muriel Anderson

The art of solo guitar playing is spellbinding. The sound of a full band coming from just one guitar and one player. Guitar greats like John Knowles, Lenny Breau, and Muriel Anderson have left audiences around the world speechless with their ability to play multiple parts of a song with just one guitar. In this seminar, you’ll be able learn the tricks and techniques to become a complete guitarist. With a focus on techniques used by fingerstyle and classical guitarists, students will explore a variety of ideas to master the art of solo guitar playing including harmony, chord voicings, combining melodic and harmonic ideas, bass lines, and more. This seminar is for players with nylon or steel string acoustic guitars. Students enrolled in this course will enjoy time spent with very special guest artist, Muriel Anderson. Her mastery of the instrument will offer techniques, concepts, and insight that will elevate your playing to a new level.