Now Offering Banjo and Fiddle Lessons!

We are very excited to announce that Max Godfrey is now teaching banjo and fiddle at Guitar Shed. Lessons are subject to availability in 30 or 60 min. time slots. Below is a list of the current times available.

Fridays – 3:00-4:30

Sundays – 1:00-4:00

Read more about Max below…

Max Godfrey is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and music teacher who performs southern roots music with several groups: Max and Maggie, Sourwood Honey, and The New Millennium Jelly Rollers.  He also records as a solo artist, and and has performed and led call-and-response singing workshops at farms, colleges, music venues and community centers all over the east coast.

/by
, , , , , ,

Summer Recital – Sunday, June 11

Join us for our 2nd annual Summer Recital at the Red Light Cafe! Featuring Guitar Shed students of all ages playing a wide variety of instruments and styles. Music begins at 5 pm with our youngest students performing first.

5 pm – Kids Set
7 pm – Teens and Adults Set

Free Raffle during setbreak!

$5 at the door for non-performers

Guitar Ensemble will perform at the end of the Kids Set and our Adult Band will perform at the end of the Teens and Adults Set. RSVP here.

Summer Recital

/by
, , , , , ,

Songwriting 101 – Sunday, May 21

Want to write songs but don’t know where to start? Anyone with a basic knowledge of music can write a song! Learn how to put together a chord progression, a melody, and lyrics to create a lasting piece of art to call your own. We will discuss common song forms, study some techniques of the great songwriters throughout history, and every student will leave the workshop with their own original song!

Brandon has been writing songs for 10+ years, both as a solo artist and with various bands over the years. He has approached songwriting from both a self-taught perspective and under the systems of the classical tradition. We will learn some of the basic “rules” for songwriting, and in true rock ‘n’ roll fashion, learn how to break them.

$30 for Current Students
$40 for Non Students

Sign up in our online portal at www.guitarshed.wpengine.com or email [email protected]

/by
, , , , , , , , ,

Student Showcase Recap

Big thanks to all of the performers and attendees at our first Student Showcase! Piano, guitar, violin, voice and ukulele were all represented along with a variety of age groups.

It takes courage to get up in front of an audience and perform. Several internal and external distractions have the ability to derail any performance. A musical mistake or error can be defined as a difference between the intended and actual musical outcome. How we deal with these unexpected outcomes is up to us. In my private lessons, a lot of what we work on is how to recover from these mishaps. How do you pick yourself up and move forward? Most of the time, the audience is unaware of a mistake and the only time they notice is when the performer makes it obvious.

To quote Zachary Poulter in Teaching Improv in your Jazz Ensemble, these “experiences prepare students for a world of increasing ambiguity by enabling them to confront and transcend uncertainty.” Every time you get up on stage to perform, you are one step closer to becoming a better musician and a better human. So keep learning, keep shedding and keep performing!

Thank you to our neighborhood pub, The Pullman for hosting!

 

/by

Student Showcase – Saturday, March 25

We are hosting our first STUDENT SHOWCASE on Saturday, March 25 at The Pullman from 2-4 pm. This showcase will be a great venue to perform in a relaxed environment. Just let us know if you would like to play and we’ll add you to the list of performers (you can also sign up in the student portal).

One of the things that I have learned over the years is that informal performance opportunities can decrease performance anxiety. So even if you are not performing at the showcase, pull aside one of your loved ones and perform something for them. You will both feel better afterwards. Click here to RSVP!

/by
, , , ,

Guitar Ensemble is Back!

We are excited to announce the return of Guitar Ensemble! Begins Sunday, March 5. Register in our student portal or email [email protected]

/by
, , , , , , ,

Cayamo

In a few weeks I will be embarking on my first Cayamo cruise. Cayamo is one of many music festivals at sea organized by Atlanta based production company Sixthman. Sixthman has been creating music festivals at sea since 2001 and I first attended one of their cruises playing guitar for Eric Dodd in 2010 on Zac Brown’s Sailing Southern Ground Cruise.

Since first hearing about Sixthman, I have always had my eye on Cayamo. Each one of their cruises has a different theme and Cayamo has been dubbed the “singer-songwriter” cruise. This year’s lineup includes Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Shawn Mullins, Jim Lauderdale, North Mississippi Allstars and more. Previous lineups have included Lyle Lovett, John Prine, John Hiatt, Jason Isbell, Bruce Hornsby and The Wood Brothers. No shortage of talent on this boat!

I am honored to be offering three guitar workshops throughout the week….

  1. Strumming & Finger Picking Patterns (Beginner)
  2. Alternative Songwriting Techniques (Intermediate)
  3. Exploring the Fretboard – Lead Guitar and Songwriting (Intermediate/Advanced)

I will be out of town from February 19-26 but our new office manager, Rebecca will be taking good care of the Shed. Keep an eye out for some of these workshops coming to the Shed soon and stay tuned!

/by
, , ,

Lanta Gras

Next weekend Lanta Gras will be back in Kirkwood for some Mardi Gras celebrations! Join us in supporting live music, music education and our community on Saturday, January 28 at noon. There will be a parade and post-parade festivities in downtown Kirkwood. Live bands and DJ’s from Scratch Academy will be providing the music!

Read more about Lanta Gras on their website here.
“Lanta Gras is a parade with purpose. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit with the mission to build community and opportunities for children through the common bond of music. Our goal is to establish a program offering brass and percussion musical instruction to middle school and high school children within the historic Atlanta neighborhoods of Kirkwood, East Lake and Edgewood. We hope to provide the instruments, mentorship and instruction to start local Brass Bands, highlighting our children at festivals, events and parades throughout Atlanta. We would love to walk down our streets and hear the echoes of trumpets playing!”

/by
, , , , ,

Winter Recital Photos

Click on the Facebook album below for pictures from our Winter Recital. All of the performers did a great job and the recording is available for download in our student portal. Enjoy!

/by
, , , , , ,

Acorn Amplifiers

Christmas came early for us this year at the Shed! Last week our friend, Tyler Petito (founder of Acorn Amplifiers) hand delivered a prototype of a new amp they are working on. Many of our students have Acorn Amplifiers stickers on their guitar cases, but what they might not know is that they are one of the premier amp builders in the country. They are located in nearby East Atlanta Village and also repair all of our amps here at the Shed.

As you can see, this amp is a beauty! The woodwork, grill cloth and logo make for a unique vintage vibe. With an open back design, this amp has plenty of space to fill up your room with soaring, tube amp tones. Look a little closer and you’ll see a penny embedded in the upper right corner of the amp from the year 2016 (the year the amp was made). Personal touches like this are what sets Tyler and co. apart. The vintage design is matched by classic tube amp tones that break up right where you want them to. We can’t stop playing this amp, and hope you enjoy playing it during your lessons here at the Shed as much as we do. This Acorn may be young, but it is maturing nicely.

 

/by