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

New Year - New World

As of a few weeks ago, something has begun moving for me that I intend to build on.

I am, obviously, not alone in having had a very strange, and even stressful, 2016. It has also been quite a ‘dry’ year in terms of the deep creative work that I strive for. And while I tend to trust the bigger processes, I can’t help but feel like my own self may have gone off course a bit this year. In the same way I feel like the world has — at least from some perspectives. Judging the world is hard for me to feel any objective sense of. So I’ll just stick with myself...

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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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Indiegogo> Trey Gunn score book

I have just launched an Indiegogo campaign to get funds together to produce a score book of my compositions. Full scores with tabs in both 4ths and 5ths versions of the tuning. Including a very special version of King Crimson's "The ConstruKction of Light."

This has been in the back of my mind for many, many years; and now, it is finally coming to birth."

Go here to see the video and read all about it.

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Nik Bärtsch workshop (Part Two) -- Val Mesocco, Switzerland

Continued from Part One

A bit more about the aikido practice.

As I mentioned before, our aikido work was mostly with weapons and led by Andrea. I say ‘mostly’, because it was often hard to say when we were doing aikido and when we weren't. Many of the games and bodywork bridged across the music<>aikido spectrum.

Though once we had weapons in our hands we were definitely practicing aikido. One of the interesting things for me was that Andrea and Nik’s weapon work was different from what I was used to. It wasn’t far away, but it seemed to come from a different line.

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Nik Bärtsch workshop (Part One) -- Val Mesocco, Switzerland

July 30-August 5 Nik Bärtsch workshop -- Val Mesocco, Switzerland

I had been thinking about coming to this workshop for over two years, ever since Henry Kaiser first told me Nik was doing this kind of thing. Aikido + Music + Meditation. Perfect for me. Thankfully, I was able to be in the vicinity (Europe) close enough to the dates so that I could extend my trip and come here.

The short-story-take-aways:

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Zurich, Switzerland - Club Exile with Nik Bärtsch and Mihai Balabaș

Zurich, Switzerland July 29, 2013 -- performance with Nik Bärtsch & Mihai Balabaș at Club Exil.

I ended up blowing off my flight from Munich to Zurich and taking the train directly from Innsbruck. It was a much, much nicer way to travel through the Alps. Tobias went with me, which was great. We got to debrief the tapping workshop and do a fair bit of gear-geek talk.

I arrived in Zurich very weak and immediately went to sleep for another 18 hours. Nik (Bärtsch) had asked me to join him in his weekly performance at Club Exil the next day (Monday, August 29). Nik’s band Ronin has been playing a weekly Monday night gig in Zurich for years. If you want to know how to get good as a band, look no further than this: play a weekly gig, year after year after year. When I met David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet he told me that they rehearsed 5 days a week. Why is Kronos so damn good and how do they learn so much material so quickly? They rehearse regularly and have been doing so for decades.

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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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Tapping Workshop - Austria

I’m back home and settled in from the European Tapping Seminar. This took place in the majestic Alps of Innsbruck, Austria. Markus Reuter and I were the hosts/leaders of the week. Though huge kudos goes out to Markus’ very dedicated team of players who have been working with him over the years.

The week was quite amazing. For all of us. I saw some outstanding improvement in the players present. And, for myself, I gained some tremendous insights. Not to mention that my playing was lit on fire for a good chunk of the week.

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Original Voice

My presentation on "Original Voice" that I gave for the Seattle Office of Film and Music mixer.

I have a bias

I have a newly noticed bias.

I realized, during a coaching session yesterday, that I was working with a personal bias.

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David "Fuze" Fiuczynski & the Musical Toolbox

A friend of mine passed this over to me and I send it out to one or two people. But seeing part two now, I think everyone should check it out:

Part one:

Guitarkadia Session: David "Fuze" Fiuczynski

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The Gap of Frustration

I don't usually share insights from particular meetings with my coaching clients but, following on from the Ira Glass quote above, I did see something the other day worth sharing.

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Sweden: Coaching and Performance

I am just on my way home from ten days in Sweden. I was invited over by Thomas Olsson as part of the music education IB Expo. Also along for the journey were guitarist Henry Kaiser, drummer Morgan Ågren and the Swedish group Midaircondo.

We basically set up camp in Varberg in this fantastic hotel and traveled out to different cities each day. The hotel was probably the nicest place I have ever stayed. Not because it was a fancy place – it wasn’t. But it was just right. Small nice rooms, open buffet for breakfast 6-10am and for dinner 6-10pm. It had a wonderful open dining area around the entire main floor. There was a whiskey bar and smoking room. And the ‘special sauce’ on the place was a bathhouse on the first floor that was a remake of Lenin’s favorites bathhouse in St. Petersburg. More than a wee bit strange to have busts and photos of Lenin all over the place, but it was very, very nice being down there. See the photos:

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The Coaching<>Instruction Spectrum

I recently received a very thoughtful email asking more specifics about how I define 'music coaching' as distinct from 'music instruction'. Here was my reply.

<<<

Basically, there is a kind of spectrum with Instruction on one end and Coaching on the other end. Only two people I am currently working with fall completely on the "coaching end".

I think I can explain it like this.

The instruction end of the spectrum is where one needs to work on facility and there may not be a burning drive to realize some clear vision. The coaching end is where there IS a very clear aim/vision but there is either uncertainty about how to realize it or the spiral of the process is putting blocks in the way.

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