|
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Hey! . . this is coming UP soon!
Howz it all go'in??? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 5332
Location: Bluffton, SC | Mike's going to be in NY later in the year - I'm trying to get the local guitar group here to sponsor a workshop.
Maybe I can work the door... |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 651
Location: Australia | ....I'd love to come but as usual it's a bridge too far
....I'll have to make do with my Mike Dowling video |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | I still have 4 solids from the OFC and three locals plus me. I got room for 4 or 5 more. It's going to be a great time.
Don't make Cliff send you the big YOU SHUDDA BEEN THERE email. Call before midnight tonight..... |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15682
Location: SoCal | Bill, I'll go if you can make me a long term loan to finance it...... $200/day plus expenses only takes you so far. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 651
Location: Australia | Originally posted by moody, p.i.:
$200/day plus expenses only takes you so far. it was good enough for Jim Rockford ! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 799
Location: Athens, GA & Gnashville | Wow! I just saw this. I want to do it...I need a couple of days to see if I can pull it off. Sounds great, Bill! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I had just gotten my State TaxRefund, and I came THIS close t'just calling the airline, . . but something else (as it always DOES) came up . . .
. . . being "responsible" sure sucks the BigOne . . . |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Toss it, come anyway, won't be the same with out you, you shudda been there, (how am I doing?) |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | YBBD. Ya Betta Be Dare ....
The agenda, let's see ... we hang out in a beautiful place, learn some cool guitar stuff from a good teacher, hang with folks we know and get to meet some new ones. Booze, cigars, music, food, sunshine, scooters, kummer ...
Yeah, this is really gonna suck.
Dave |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | bastids . . . |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | We'll take a picture of the empty seat and post that. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I'll have his shrimp. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | You got it! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 1133
Location: Parrish, FL | I'd love to be there. I'll even be in FL, just north of Ft. Meyers and on vacation. Family commitments will have to take priority on this one though.
It would be great to meet you guys and have the opportunity to learn alot, but I'll have to pass. I've got some work to do before I'd consider myself even an intermediate player, but I'm sure I could get my moneys worth.
Maybe next time.
Brad |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | SO...........
To bring this one to a close, it was a great weekend even if we made it through without Cliff somehow. Cliff, Bob ate your shrimp.
Thanks to Dave, Bob, and Al for making the trip down here. Thanks to the locals, Davis Turner, Guitar Store Mike, Cole and Brandon and Willie.
An extra Thanks to Mike Dowling for being a very patient and good teacher. I know we all learned a ton. The trick wil be to practice it soon and often so it doesn't evaporate. As Jason pointed out Mike does a lot of these and if you're so inclined, go to one. You won't regret it.
Again, thanks to all who made it happen. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | y'mean it was THIS weekend?????
aw, SH!T!! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | just got homw
more on this tomorrow |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Add my 2 pesos: YES, this was a great experience. Mike is a really talented teacher and I know everyone in the clininc came away with some new tips, ideas, tricks, and a whole lot to practice. For me it was time VERY well spent. If you get the chance to attend one of his events you will not be disappointed.
The whole week long experience was wonderful as well. Met some great new friends around the island. What a wonderful place. Always assumed I'd retire to Boca Del Vista, might have to reconsider. Very cool place, again if you ever get the chance this is a great place to experience. Wife and I had a few days of vacation prior to the guitar clinic and we realized that this was actually the first vaction we have had alone without the kids in 23 years! Stolling on the beach, cruising on scooters, fishing, hiking around Fort Clinch, great little boutique shopping, some really good restaurants. Just a wonderful time.
A HUGE thanks to Bill for making this happen. He was a super gratious host and made everyone feel right at home. I suspect I have not seen the last of guitar-shop Mike, Willy, T-Ray and the rest. Also great to spend some time with the old OFC friends Al and Bobbo. Thanks for making the trip. Felt like a band of brothers.
Here's some links that might interest you. I imagine we'll have some photos and stuff to post at some point as well.
Mike Dowling
The Frisky Mermaid Bar
Florida House Inn B&B
Amilia Island |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | Well
months ago Bill sent me an e mail asking if he can promote the Mike Dowling climic on the OFC. I had no problem with it and I took the time to check out Mike's website and was really interested. A great player with a interesting background and his main focus is slide and fingerstyle guitar.
Well as many of you know I am not a fingerstyle player, really just a hack, so I did not think twice about going to the clinic.
As some time went by and some other e mails were circulated, Witko called me and tried to convince me to go. I still held that I am not a fingerstyle player and I just "mess around" on slide and don't have the time or energy to go any further with it. As witko does he can be very persistent.
After a bunch of phone calls and e mails back and forth although I thought "I could not afford the time or expense to go" he made me realize that " I could afford NOT the expense or time to go"
Another factor was an old college buddy moved to Jacksonville and I would try to meet him for lunch to relive old drunken days, bimbos and college professors.
I e mailed bill and asked him to send me some charts to learn so I did not feel like a complete dork in the class. He told me that Mike would take the class where he felt they should be after talking to us and finding out our interests. No problem then I said I would not bring a guitar but just observe. Bill insisted that it was ok he had plenty of guitars to use.
Well, after an interesting experience with a TSA agent and one of matt smith's home blown slides, I made it to JAX and was met by my old college buddy we had lunch talked about the old days and luaghed for a few hours.
later in the day met up with witko, bill, bob and mike.
thurs am the clinic started, witko, bob and I were late, apparently it takes much longer to prepare breakfast when grits are involved, I digress.
we get into the clinic room and mike is doing some turnaround in open tuning. wow, never learned these always wanted to sorta did them half/a**ed but what a cool thing.
next we tune to open D here is where it got tough for me. we started with slide and fingerpicking. new territory for me and something that always facintated me. Mike makes it look easy and has a very good way to go about teaching it.
(jeff w take note I realized as I was doing this that this is the key to playing all those richard thompson tunes you and I both love) although frustrating this was fun and interesting to learn.
i need more practice.
saturday started off with more d tuning and slide. Mike integrates the lessons with basic tunes and makes sure that all the skills are taught in context something that teachers are expected to do in the classroom all the time. being an x teacher I was happy for the good form.
by the time saturday afternoon rolled around my head felt like it was going to explode. Mike started on swing chords in standard tuning and this is a personal area that I need to work on. I really need this chord melody work and turnarounds but unfortunately my brain and my fingers were not cooperating. I started playing in half time just to form the chords and make the shapes. more practice was needed but somehow it just was not making sense to me. dimished this, flat 5 that, root, third, 5th, my head was spinning.
practice? no forget it I give up I will sell all my guitars.
That evening we had the priviledge to see mike play about a half dozen tunes and it was pure magic. what a player! what a great guy! what an inspiration! OK I will pick up the guitar again sunday morning and give it one last whirl.
as we came in that morning I asked mike about the G9 chord without the root. I was confused as to how you can name the chord by a note that was not even contain the root. then he showed how we were playing a II V pattern and resolved it to a I DING DING DING DING DING DING. the light bulb went on. well I played the same sequence on barre chords. "I have been playing these chords all my life" I told mike except that I never played them on the inside 3 note freddie greene chords. later I figured out how to play these chords in all positions and not just the first. Now it all fit in together.
we ended the workshop with all of us playing some original tunes, something I refused to do the night before and did not figure I would do, but suddently I felt comfortable again once the synapses in my brain started firing and I played the tune I submitted for the last ofc cd.
the end came too quickly, Now that I was making sense of some of this I wanted more, but in actuality I really need to practice what I learned.
My theory has always been that if I suck in standard tuning why should I learn some open tunings....well, because there are just some sounds that I hear in my head that cannot be made in standard tunings and why fingerpick? if I want to learn those richard thompson tunes, then I need to do that.
chord theory always fascinated me because I know that i need to know that and I do it instinctively in some of my own wiritng and it would be good to know why and how to explain it to others.
I also realized that I have not really learned any guitar for a long time. I learn songs and chords and notes to fit certain pieces of music but really there is not any theory or new things going on and I need that for my personal growth. we all get stuck in a rut with our playing and sure life gets in the way, jobs, relationships, family, construction projects, but as musicians we really need to grow and learn new things.
although I had 8 hrs sleep and am home, I still can barely keep my eyes open. I have some instruments to pack up and send etc today but I really think i am going to go upstairs pull my national out of the case and tune it to open D and just practice that alternating bass line....
thanks to Mike for some great inspiration and lessons, to my new friends mike, davis, branden and cole and old friends bob and witko. special thanks to bill, always the gentleman, gracious and hospitable. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | WOW, Al that has got to be the longest message you have ever sent!
Thanks for the detailed experience....makes me wish I had been there with the rest of you. Maybe next time. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I am REALLY kicking myself, now . . . . |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 5332
Location: Bluffton, SC | We've got two clinics coming up locally in the next couple of months, Laurence Juber and Tommy Emmanuel, and, though I normally stay away from them, you've got me rethinking that, Al. Great review. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | A really good teacher really takes away all of the apprehension you might have about attending one of these.
At last years's OFC Tour, Al arranged to have MattSmith do a class. I was REALLY apprehensive at first, but Matt allays alot of those fears RIGHT off the bat, and it was easy going from then on.
Sounds like Mike is the same way . . . |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I'm bummed I had work conflicts. If I learn just one RT tune before I die, I consider my time here well spent and to have a good teacher toward that end, well, as I said, I'm bummed I couldn't make it...
I'll hit you up for some tips Al at the tour...
Glad y'all had a good time... And congrats Bill for pulling it all off so successfully. |
|
| |
OT: Mike Dowling Clinic
