What a blast!

My ever tolerant wife wanted to know how my weekend went... I told her I was in a room filled with people that carry around with them a pocket full of picks... since she finds this habit odd (to say the least) she understood immediately.

Other than the obvious, it's cool to spending 8 hours picking with like minded individuals, I'm still pretty much digesting. It's a lot of information in what certainly appears to be a somewhat unstructured framework. It will take some time to put all that information to work, at which point I'll be in a much better position to judge if it really was as unstructured as it seemed, and just how much I learned. My instinct is that I learned quite a bit more than I realize.

Highlights...

The people... Steve and Mike were great hosts, and the class was filled with great folks, so that has to be one of the best things.

Sitting in the hot seat was a highlight I suppose, though not for my playing... it was nearly impossible to concentrate on what I was trying to play because I was trying to see what Steve was doing... note to self, next time let the tape recorder handle that part and just pay attention to what you are playing! Second note to self... sitting in the hot seat is probably not the best time to try to figure out new variations on a theme.

The cross picking exercise was interesting! As a teacher myself I am constantly looking for ways to help my students make better use of their practice time. So I'm feeling pretty dumb since the three minute drills thing just never crossed my mind. Bounding any exercise like that has to be a great tool. I'm going to try it myself and if it works I'll be using it with my students too.

And it was SO REFRESHING to see a guitar teacher that did not enforce his way as the only way! I won't say it is common, but it happens too often, a teacher loses sight of the fact that what's comfortable for them may not be comfortable for the student. We're all built differently, and Steve shares how he picks, and suggests that as a starting point, but I heard him explain to a student sitting next to me that his grip might not work for the student. I can't say enough about how impressed I was to hear that.

Another thing I really liked was Steve's approach to improvisation. I start my students with scales and licks, but I try to encourage them to improvise from the chromatic scale to avoid repeating themselves. Steve's approach of borrowing motifs or licks or ideas from songs is very similar (probably two ways of looking at the same thing really), and I have to give it a try as a teaching tool.

The songs at the end were fun, and if anything I guess I wish we'd have looked at more of them. The presentation approach seems a bit risky, but hs'e been doing this for a while, so I guess it works. It leaves the student with a ton of room, which is good, but it could also lead to frustration, which isn't as good.

Other than the songs about the only thing I wish we'd covered in a bit more detail was chord substitutions. My background is somewhat theoretical, and my approach to substitution is probably mostly informed by jazz texts that I've read and recordings that I've listened to. In the case of a swing tune much of that is still applicable, but I still can't figure out how to apply it to bluegrass fiddle tunes. At least I have some new ideas though.

All in all a very pleasant way to spend 8 hours... and hopefully I learned something!!