The Mendocino Guitar Workshop - July 15-21
Posted: May 29, 2019
The Mendocino Guitar Workshop is a week-long, all ages, intensive guitar retreat for intermediate and advanced guitar players interested in fingerstyle and classical guitar technique, performance, and composition.
www.mendocinoguitarworkshop.com
The workshop takes place every July at the Albion Field Station where the Albion River flows into the Pacific Ocean on the scenic Mendocino Coast of Northern California. Alex and Andrew share their insights into their unique styles via master classes, lecture demos, one-on-one lessons, and an opportunity to perform in the workshop ensemble.
The workshop is open to all ages and now offers 6 tuition-free scholarships to qualifying students under 25 years made possible by scholarship sponsors Strings by Mail, Elixir Strings, Lowden Guitars, Tropo Records, and Diana Coryat & Ashok Khosla. The Arts Council of Mendocino County serves as the workshop’s fiscal sponsor and Classical Guitar and Acoustic Guitar Magazines provide media sponsorship (please see the workshop feature in the July/August edition of Acoustic Guitar).
The 2019 Mendocino Summer Guitar Workshop with Alex de Grassi and Andrew York will be taking place July 15-21 at the Albion Retreat and Learning Center in Albion, just 7 miles south of the historic town of Mendocino on California’s stunning north coast.
This is a hands-on interactive workshop for intermediate and advanced guitarists and for singers who play guitar. The workshop will focus on performing, arranging, and composing for fingerstyle and classical guitar, but we welcome players of all backgrounds.
Alex and Andrew will share their insights into the techniques and inspiration that have become an integral part of their unique styles.
Participants will also have the opportunity to perform a piece with the workshop guitar ensemble at the Mendocino Music Festival, and on the Friday afternoon, students will have an opportunity to perform informally at one of the Mendocino shops and galleries participating in our Guitars in the Village event.
Overview
The workshop will focus on performing, arranging, and composing for fingerstyle and classical guitar. Andrew and Alex will share their insights into the techniques and inspiration that have become an integral part of their unique styles.
Dynamics, articulation, phrasing, tone, polyrhythms, right/left hand technique, cross-string technique, extended techniques, and alternate tunings and more will be covered in a very hands-on approach.
This is an interactive workshop designed to improve your playing and ability to arrange music for guitar, whether you are an instrumentalist or a singer who plays guitar as accompaniment.
The four-part format will consist of:
a master class
lecture demo
one-on-one time
an optional ensemble rehearsal for those who wish to participate in a public performance
Evenings after dinner will be devoted to informal performances, jam sessions, and free time.
Guitarists of all backgrounds are welcome, but should be at least intermediate to advanced fingerstyle players. The workshop is limited to 20 participants. Each participant should be prepared to perform one piece in the master class and another piece informally with the group and/or during the one-on-one session with Andrew or Alex. You should arrive prepared to play:
A composition or arrangement by a known composer or fingerstyle performer, or an original composition;
An original composition or an arrangement of a theme to be assigned by Alex at the time of registration.
The ability to read music is not absolutely required, but will be useful. Alex and Andy will hand out music and written exercises in standard notation and/or tablature, so some experience with one or the other will be a plus.
Scholarships
With generous support from our sponsors below we offer tuition-free scholarships to qualifying students under 25 years old who can demonstrate financial need.
