The faculty of the workshop will be:

• Stanley Yates, Director
• Stephen Aron, Classical Guitar Workshop Co-director / Collegiate Competition Chair
• Mir Ali, Classical Guitar Workshop Co-Director / Pre-Collegiate Competition Chair
• Richard Smith, Fingerstyle Workshop Co-Director / Fingerstyle Competition Chair
• Roger Hudson, Fingerstyle Workshop Co-Director

In addition to the classes, the workshop will have competitions for collegiate/post-collegiate classical guitarists, pre-collegiate classical guitarists, and pre-collegiate fingerstyle guitarists. Additionally, there will be concerts each night.

The workshop sounds like a lot of fun. APSU is located about 45 minutes north of Nashville. Housing is available at the college, so if you’re not from this area you can still participate in the workshop.

The intro to the lesson is hilarious, and the lesson itself covers how he plays the entire song, including what pedal he uses to get the dead-battery fuzz tone on the album:

Guitarist Chuck D’Aloia has recently released an instructional lesson set titled Blues with Brains. Unlike other blues lessons that try to teach you basic pentatonic blues licks, Blues with Brains teaches you how to add a different element to your blues playing.

While you do not need to know music theory in order to benefit from the lessons D’Aloia provides, I think you’d get the most benefit from the lessons if you have a basic knowledge of blues progessions (I-IV-V) and a basic knowledge of the pentatonic scales. This is the foundation that D’Aloia starts with, and he then shows you how to take it in a different, slightly jazzier direction.

He starts off with a basic blues progression in A minor and discusses how the notes work over the chords. Some notes work better than others, and D’Aloia discusses which ones work and which ones don’t. After going over examples slowly, he then plays over a jam track to illustrate his ideas. Not only is it helpful to see Chuck play the examples, it’s just fun to hear Chuck play.

After explaining how to work with pentatonic scales, Chuck talks about dominant 7 blues and the diminished scale. Throughout all of the lessons, Chuck’s teaching style is warm and infectious. It’s clear that Chuck enjoys the music he’s playing and that he enjoys teaching it to others.

There’s a LOT of information packed into the 1:15 of Blues with Brains. I think it’ll take a number of run-throughs of the lessons in order to fully grasp the concepts Chuck is teaching, but I’ve already got some new ideas to explore.

In addition to Blues with Brains, Chuck has recently released a CD of jazz/fusion music titled Circle 7. Chuck’s playing is very tasteful and illustrates many of the concepts he goes through in Blues with Brains.

You can purchase Blues with Brains directly from Chuck as either a DVD or a download. Here’s a video sample of Blues with Brains.

Also check out reviews of Blues with Brains on TGP’s Webzine and Guitar Gear Enthusiast.

One of the things that I respect about Joe Bonamassa is the fact that he’s willing to share his knowledge and experience with others. Through his 20 years as a professional musician, Joe has seen a lot and learned a lot, and he’s got a lot of information to share.

One of my favorite clips from the clinic is his discussion of his slide technique and how he really got interested in slide when he heard Ry Cooder’s playing in the movie Crossroads. That was a somewhat cheesy movie, but the guitar playing was top notch. Check out Joe discussing his slide technique:

Also, check out the following videos: (thanks to Patty on Joe’s forums)

Gibson Signature Series
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sgMlH-53WU

Amp, Rig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyubyd68 … re=channel

Influences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X4dFuqD … re=channel

Learning From Danny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd8sTiTW … re=channel

Practicing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfRvZcos … re=channel

Blues Rock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6r9SPUv … re=channel

Building A Following
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLtS0YSW … re=channel

I always want to squeeze the optimum tone out of each note. Guitarists often say that your sound comes from your technique, your guitar or your rig. That’s true to a certain degree, but in my opinion, the finger you fret with and the string you use will also drastically affect your tone. I like all the notes in my lines to have a certain cohesiveness of texture. To that extent, I constantly work out my fingerings, using any and all permutations I can to play my lines. If necessary, I will skip around the strings in order for a passage to maintain tonal consistency; that’s why I might make some fingering choices that seem odd, illogical or simply more difficult to the average guitarist.

The article provides some insight into Johnson’s approach to fret fingering with some nice examples.

Later that night, Tallan got to sit in with Joe at the show. What a day for Tallan!

There is no short cut to becoming a good player. Being constant in your practice is perhaps the main secret. This reminds me of Aesop’s fable about the Tortoise and the Hare. Some talented young players did not reach their potential as guitarists because they were getting by on talent and didn’t put in the daily work. Others have surprised us and reached much farther than we would have expected because they have put in the continued work.

So the only short cut is to practice every day, be constant. With tenacity and perseverance you will be able to make beautiful music on the guitar.

- From David Russell’s Tips for Guitarists

I was impressed with the YouTube videos, so I checked out John’s first video in the slide guitar series: Open E Tuning. The video features 80 minutes of instructional material, plus a PDF file containing tablature of the lessons and backing tracks that you can use to play over.

After watching the video, I like John’s instructional style. It’s clear he’s an experienced teacher. He starts off teaching the basics, including the basics of the Open E tuning. He goes over right and left hand technique in quite a bit of detail. If you’ve ever played slide guitar before, you know that it’s important to get the basic technique down right or you’ll never sound good. I like the fact that John doesn’t rush through the technique part of the video. In fact, he stresses multiple times how important it is to get the technique down before moving on.

After teaching right- and left-hand technique, John discusses the 12-bar blues progression and the major chords involved. Next, John introduces some licks from the major chords and teaches you how to play them. After you get familiar with the major chords, John goes over the minor pentatonic scale and how it can be used with slide guitar. Along the way, he provides examples and gives some helpful tips for how to use the scales in your playing. The scales part of the video is followed by some more technique exercises to help you get familiar with playing the scales.

Once you’ve got the scales down, John shows you 10 licks based on the scales you learned previously in the video. As with all the exercises, tablature is provided for each lick, which is very helpful.

Finally, John ties the lessons together in a sample slide solo. Again, tablature is provided for the solo, which should keep you busy for a little while. I like the fact that John has provided a sample solo to help you get started. Additionally, as I mentioned above, backing tracks are provided so you have some music to play over, which is a nice addition.

Learning Guitar Now’s Open E Tuning slide guitar video is only $19.99, which is a great value considering the quality of the content you get. Nowadays, guitar lessons cost $20-25 per half hour, so you get almost three times the instruction for less than the price of one lesson. Plus, you can rewind and replay parts to help you master it. I think John’s videos are a great value and would recommend them if you’re looking to get started playing slide guitar. Check out a sample video: