Monday, August 7 Sunday, August 13
Dennis Broughton (San Francisco, CA) Brazilian Percussion Ensemble (1-4) This class features hands-on experience with all the percussion instruments used for the Brazilian bateria (drum ensemble) playing styles such as samba batucada and samba-raggae. (Offered twice this session.) Velzoe Brown (Santa Cruz, CA) Jazz History A Show and Tell Session (1-4) In the 1920's Pollyanna's Syncopators pioneered Women's Lib. Hear the hilarious highlights in the career of a 16-year-old girl trombonist in a travelling dance band. Old photos and posters will help spark class discussion. American Pop Music and How It Evolved (2-4) As we move from plantation cake-walk through Blues, Ragtime, and Tin Pan Alley to Swing and Jazz, the class will play and sing along. Chords and melodies will be provided. John Cephas (Woodford, VA) Piedmont Blues (3) Also known as East Coast blues, this is an alternating thumb and finger picking style. Some of the influences are Blind Boy Fuller, Gary Davis, and Blind Blake. If you have had some experience with the guitar or finger picking, this class should be fairly easy. Delta Blues (4) This blues class will deal with some Delta style picking. This style involves more single string work along with progressions in different tunings. Many (but not all) of the tunes are ones played by Skip James. Susan Erickson (Seattle, WA) Beginning Singing (1-3) Learn about your singing voice and how to make it work for you. This class is for the real beginners as well as beginners who have had some experience singing. We will work on the techniques of singing, building confidence, and removing the fear. Intermediate Singing & Performance (3-4) This class is for the somewhat experienced through the very experienced singer. Bring your songs and we will focus on how to improve both singing and performance skills. Kathleen Fallon (Portland, OR) Beginning Guitar (1) If you are just getting started on the guitar this is the class for you. We will learn some basic chords and chord progressions and by the end of the week each student will be able to back up several songs. Beginning Song Writing (2) This workshop is designed for those who would like to write songs but are not sure how to get started. We will talk a little and work a lot. We will do writing and rhythm exercises that will help you free your ideas and access your creativity. Skip Gorman (Grafton, NH) Beginning Old-time Guitar (2) We will explore the beginning techniques and old-time flavor of flatpicking from basic boom-chuck to Jimmie Rodgers runs and Doc Watson rolls. It's all in the wrist! Old-time Cowboy Songs (2-3) We will have fun with ballads, stories, and poems mostly from the cattle-drive era (1865 1890). You can expect to sing night-herding songs and maybe even a Hollywood cowboy swing number, but no K-mart yodeling. Tim Hall (Seattle, WA) Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar (2) Ready to take on fingerstyle guitar? Yahoo! All you need is the ability to count (to 8) and an opposable thumb. We will start with the very basics and move on from there. Fun? Easy? You bet! Beyond I-IV-V (3) Learn to recognize and use chord progressions more sophisticated than I-IV-V. We will play, transpose, rearrange, and break down lots of pop songs of the 20s to 40s and we will learn to jazz up simple melodies. This is a "hands-on" theory class, meaning we will learn by doing. Piper Heisig (San Francisco, CA) Strong Words Strong Women (2-4) This class will explore self-assuredness through learning songs by and about women who have been around the block more than once. Artists will include Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Beginning Bass (1) Special Section Learn to play the bass in any key. We will learn proper hand placement to prevent injury and a movable system that will enable you to play in whatever key you choose. F? Eb? Ab? No problem. Orville Johnson (Seattle, WA) Rockabilly Song Fest (2-4) From "Mystery Train" to "Don't You Mess With My Ducktail," and all points in between, we will be having a rockin' rave-up. So grab your guitars and rave on, bop cats! Flatpicking Lead Guitar (3) Learn techniques like string-bending, vibrato, cross-picking scales and patterns, and how to incorporate these in the creation of your own solos and lead breaks. Joel Kasserman (Boise, ID) Intermediate Bluegrass Flatpicking (3) We will learn about chord progressions and start connecting chords with bass runs. We will play some melodies, start crosspicking, and talk about transposing songs and ways to use your capo. Advanced Bluegrass Flatpicking (4) We will learn a few tunes and then change them beyond recognition by applying ideas you have learned before. We will put them back together, connect melodies and scales to chord shapes, and transpose without capos. Woody Mann (New York, NY) Fingerstyle Country Blues and Ragtime (3) The basic techniques of syncopated picking styles will be taught through the music of some of the greatest blues and ragtime stylists such as Rev. Davis, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson , and others. Fingerstyle Improvisation (4) Explore syncopated picking techniques and gain an understanding of fingerboard harmony through the repertoire of blues and ragtime music. The emphasis will be on creating your own improvisations. Tom Moran (Seattle, WA) Camp Instrumentalist Carlos Oliviera (Richmond, CA) Basic Brazilian Guitar (3) In this introduction to Brazilian guitar "comping" we will learn the common chord progressions and fingerstyle rhythm patterns used by bossa nova pioneers like Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Brazilian Guitar (4) For students who already know the basic bossa nova patterns, this more advanced class teaches right-hand techniques, chord progressions, and rhythms based on baion, maracatú, and other samba styles. Jeanne Pisano (Studio City, CA) Making the Stage Home (1-4) Developing your stage personality means being able to be at home on stage. We will work on using your natural abilities and qualities, incorporating your own way of talking, type of humor, and physical movements to create that comfortable sense of self on stage. You and Your Accompanist (2-4) Communication is key to this relationship; you need to know what you want from an accompanist, how to ask for it, and how to arrange songs to showcase the best of both singer and player. John Pisano (Studio City, CA) Improvisation (4) We will learn how to create interesting improvisations using the basic elements of improvisation (harmony, melody, and rhythm) and will then develop toward more advanced, modern styles. Comping (4) This class will cover the basic elements of accompaniment: complementing the soloist, playing melodic chord lines, exploring rhythms, listening to the soloist and staying out of the way, introductions, endings, and modulations. Cyd Smith (Seattle, WA) Instigator Tracy Spring (Yakima, WA) Instigator Joe Vinikow (Seattle, WA) Swing Without Tears (3) This step-by-step intro to movable chord forms will steer you safely through the upper atmosphere of frets beyond 3, and chords beyond 7. We will learn jam session standards, turnarounds, chord identification, and sweet swing rhythm. Improvising With Scales and Arpeggios (3) Learn basic major and minor scales and modes and use them in simple improv exercises over a variety of chord changes for blues, country and swing. When they say "Arpeggio!" you'll have more to reply than simply... "Gesundheit!" Linda Waterfall (Seattle, WA) Introduction to the Jam Session (2-3) Each day we will briefly cover some aspect of theory and the mechanics of the jamming situation, then immediately put it into practice playing lots of songs. We will have lots of handouts. Songwriting (3-4) Songwriting is an interaction between words and music. This class will lean toward the instrumental aspects of songwriting and will feature exercises in chord progressions, rhythm, melody, and words, some group and partner work, some work alone, and an ongoing project. Phil Wiggins (Washington, DC) Blues Harmonica (1-2) Special Section Learn the basic techniques of fifth-position blues harp, with emphasis on tone production. Blues Harmonica (3-4) Special Section Study riffs for improvising, and as jumping-off points for creating other riffs. Also delve a little into first- and third-position harmonica.
(psl@acm.org )