Archive for October 18th, 2008

Songwriting Clinic

Will Dick, led a great clinic on Songwriting today.  He talked about some typical & atypical song forms.  

Some key topics: 

  • The 32 Bar Form
  • Verse / Refrain Form
  • AABA Form
Will showed us some Beatles, Bruce Cockburn, John Denver, & Paul Simon tunes that ranged from traditonal uses of the songform, to very unusual interpretations of standard songwriting. 
Will also showed how understanding this common songforms can help in writing our own music. 
Thanks for the guitawesome clinic Will!

Duet Clinic Assets

Brendan & Valerie at the old House of Blues, Boston

Brendan & Valerie at the old House of Blues, Boston

Valerie & I had a wonderful time at the Duet Clinic today.  The theme of our presentation was on “listening.”

When it comes down to it, playing duets is same as having a conversion with someone.  There are ways to be considerate and ways to be rude.  Listening to the other player, and giving support when needed is crucial.  Having a clear statement when you are the lead voice is also important.  Thinking about what you have said and what you want to say in a solo is the same concentration that you use when telling a story about what happened during your day.  

We also talked about some concrete guitar techniques.  Chord inversions, Tiny Triads and Ranges of Instruments, were just a few of our Guitober Clinic topics.  Resources files for the class can be downloaded here:

 Thanks for coming out!
- Brendan Burns

Garageband Clinic Assets

Scott’s Garageband class was a wonderful success last night.  He led a great tutorial about the incredible possibilities that Garageband can offer to guitarists.  We all learned ways to use this powerful software to help with our practice, recording and composing.  

Thanks Scott!

Class Assets: 

And remember, Scott teaches Garageband classes at school:  Tuesday nights at 5, 6 & 7pm.  
Guitober!

Scott demonstrating recording techniques

Scott Pittman is Guitastic!