Simple Measures for Drastic Guitar Playing Improvement
“I really appreciate all the tips and tricks you have given me. It has already helped me so much. Keep teaching those workshops! I hope you do another tour in Utah soon that i could come to. Your cd Breakfast By Myself is great!”
….. Carson Natter, Park City, Utah 🙂
” Spook made a great impression upon all the participants, regardless of their skill level – not an easy task, but he did it with ease and grace! We really enjoyed having this gifted teacher and performer back for another workshop!”
….. Jean Bayou , President, Songwriters Association of Washington
It’s easy to drastically improve your guitar playing by learning a few simple techniques. Having MCed over 1300 open mics over a 20+ year period – and hearing over 3000 performers of all ability levels – I have been astonished by how many guitar players do little more than strum their instruments and don’t take advantage of simple tools that will make them stand out as accomplished players.
Fortunately, I picked up a few guitar concepts early on from some hot bluegrass players. The fact that I don’t play bluegrass makes these techniques all the more better, because I apply them to genres where they are often overlooked. Now, I want to share these techniques, so I put together this workshop for the beginner and intermediate level performer.
According to individual ability workshop participants will:
* Learn about bass lines, riff lines and chord embellishments
* Learn and practice hammer-ons, pull offs, slides and bends
* Explore chord inversions and alternative chord structures on songs they already play
* Learn and practice simple and intermediate finger style techniques.
* Explore dynamics and contrast
* Learn why knowing a variety of tuning techniques can make your guitar stay better tuned.
This hands-on workshop is designed for the beginner and intermediate level guitar player. Bring your guitar, paper and pencil and the desire to drastically improve your guitar playing.
About the instructor:
Spook Handy has written hundreds of songs and performed over 2000 concerts in his 20+ year career. He performed alongside Pete Seeger more than fifty times in the last ten years of Pete’s life, learning many of Pete’s songs and the stories behind them. But more so, Spook learned who Pete Seeger was and what he stood for. Now Spook is on a multi-year “Remembering Pete Seeger” tour of all 50 U.S. states and all 10 Canadian provinces.
Spooks songs have been covered by dozens of other artists including Pete Seeger. His 5th album, released in 2016, “Pete, Woody & Me, Volume I – Keep the Flame Alive” charted as high as No. 3 on the International Folk Radio Charts with his own song “Vote!” reaching No. 2. He was named “Best Folk Artist” by Upstage Magazine, Gannett New Jersey, The Courier News, The Home News and About.com. His song “Whatcha Gonna Do?” was feature in the BBC documentary “Doomsday Code.” and four of his songs were used in a theatrical adaptation of Pete Seeger’s story “Abiyoyo.”
Since 1985, Spook has organized and/or MCed over 1300 musical events including New Jersey’s longest ever running open mic, “The Spook Handy Show” which ran from 1985 to 2005. He has MCed “Freehold Idol” in Freehold, NJ and “Idol Search” in Little Falls, NJ. In that time, he’s seen over 3000 musicians perform over 10,000 songs and has developed refined eyes and ears for effective stage presence and good songwriting.
Additional notes:
* Each discipline can be taught in a single workshop or a series; compacted to as short as 90 minutes or extended to as long as you’d like; or formatted in any other way to meet your needs.
* Workshops can be offered to the General Public or for Teen Only. “Teens Only” workshops are available in order to help create safe spaces and help build a sense of teen community.
* Private lessons are also offered
Book a workshop and attend for free!
Spook likes to accommodate those folks who would really love to attend workshops but have a limited budget. If you arrange for your musicians or songwriters group or any group to sponsor a workshop Spook would be happy to waive your fee. Contact Spook for more details.