Session 1 of the Accent On Music 2007 Guitar Seminar at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, was a rousing success. Al Petteway and Chris Proctor joined Mark Hanson in regaling the attendees with cool fingerstyle tunes and exercises throughout the week. All the students took away plenty of material to work on.
A highlight of the week was a scintillating Tuesday evening performance by reigning national fingerpicking champion Doug Smith. Mark joined him for a half-hour of their intricate duets. An eye-opening Saturday morning blues and ragtime session featured Portland blues maven Mary Flower.
Thursday evening's student recital was great fun for everyone - if a bit nerve wracking for a few! - with the instructors backing up many of the students in their performances. All attendees are encouraged to perform, but not required. This year, all the attendees performed. Congratulations to them all!
Friday evening included an open mike at Sydney's Cafe in downtown Portland, with many attendees repeating their performances from the previous night. Greta Pedersen steamrolled the crowd with her stirring vocal rendition of "My Baby Thinks He's a Train," accompanied by Al Petteway and Mark Hanson on flatpicking guitar.
Speaking of plectrums, the alliterative abilities of all attendees were animated by the postulating of the Proctor/Petteway plectrum police. The P/P posse proceeded to prosecute all those in Portland possessed of plectrums, pronouncing that the plethora of "plectrums" produced by the indigenous digits of the human hand positively possesses more flexibility than any flatpick of plastic persuasion.
A note from attendee Larry Damon to preacher Proctor: "Your anti-plectrum pontification, while positively pompous and perhaps preposterous, was probably proper given the perplexing placement of plectrums in our presence."
This was all done in good fun, of course. Al is a blazing flatpicker from his electric Gibson days, and Mark spent years flatpicking and singing with Greta.
The Saturday evening public performance at Flanagan Chapel on the L&C campus featured solo sets by all three instructors, plus trio versions of "Hey Jude," "Si Bhig Si Mhor" and "Heard it Through the Grapevine."
A good time was had by all!
- Mark Hanson July, 2007
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