Great job in the Fall Student Showcase at The Pullman everyone! At Guitar Shed there is a performance opportunity for each season. We have a Spring and Fall Student Showcase as well as a Summer and Winter Recital. Keep an eye out for more performance opportunities in addition to these soon!

At our Fall Student Showcase this past weekend we had some first time performers as well as seasoned veterans. All of our Guitar Shedders played beautifully! Thank you for having the courage to perform in front of a live audience. I encourage you to treat each performance as a unique learning opportunity and treat them objectively. It takes some effort to be able to objectively view both the positive and negative aspects of your performance. Make sure to use all aspects of your playing as a tool to keep your ego in check.

There is much to be learned from the performance process and a variety of internal and external factors can affect your desired outcome. By performing regularly, you are able to diminish performance anxiety and grow exponentially as a musician.

Keep Shedding!

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]

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 Ensemblethese “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!

 

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!