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2007 Accent on Music
Guitar Seminar Session II: July 30 - August 5, 2007, Portland, Oregon 2007 Seminar Session II Wrap Up |
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| Like the earlier session, Session 2 of the Accent On Music 2007 Guitar Seminar at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, was a great success. Grammy winners Ed Gerhard, Doug Smith and yours truly, Mark Hanson, provided the students with plenty to think about, and plenty of material to work on. The session started off with a Monday evening get-to-know-you barbecue, and a mini-concert provided by the three instructors. There were many cool tunes and good laughs that night! Tuesday was the first day of class. During the first session in the morning, the teachers discussed their thinking processes for arranging guitar solos. Each year this session is educational for all involved, including the instructors! After dinner Tuesday evening, perennial blues fingerpicking award winner Terry Robb wowed the audience with his screaming licks and fun stories. Classes went as scheduled Wednesday through Friday, with Doug and Mark providing tunes to play, exercises to work on, and enjoyable sessions. Ed took a more individual approach, zeroing in on each student, making suggestions about how to better play a tune or passage, or how to interpret the music. The student recital started on Thursday evening at Lewis & Clark. As always, all attendees were encouraged to perform, but not required. About two-thirds of the students played in the 2.5-hour session. The student recital continued on Friday evening at Sydney's Cafe in downtown Portland. Our good friend Tim Cox, the proprietor of Sydney's, closed his doors to the public but opened them to us, so we had a wonderful private evening finishing up the recital performances, and enjoying the additional playing and singing provided by many of the attendees. Saturday morning former music editor Andrew duBrock (a new Portland resident, we are happy to report!) and group publisher Dan Gabel from Acoustic Guitar Magazine discussed the ins and outs of their monthly publication work, and how it relates directly to fingerstyle guitar. A lively discussion ensued about the merits of balancing art with commerce. The Saturday evening public performance at Flanagan Chapel on the L&C campus featured solo sets by all three instructors, plus trio versions of "Shallow Brown" and two of Marks' Hawaiian slack key-style tunes, "Waimea Canyon" and "Spouting Horn." Ed played slide on his Breedlove Weissenborn-style lap guitar on the trios. It was difficult to say goodbye at the end of the week. Everyone had a great time! - Mark Hanson, September, 2007 |
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