Songcrafting and Country Blues Guitar Essentials Workshop
This workshop includes a variety of hands-on exercises aimed at building songs and arrangements with fingerstyle guitar embellishments. We develop a set of musical tools based on the CAGED system (including chord inversions, passing chords, and licks typical for a given chord position) that may then be employed in giving color and individual personality to cover favorites (possibly drawn from Hot Tuna, John Hurt, Gary Davis, and some familiar standard folk tunes) as well as for building original songs.
Specific songs are taught that demonstrate these principles and can then be used as laboratories for variations and accompaniments. We also address the development of a song from a poem or original lyric set, considering how lyrics "speak " in various keys, along with creating groove and feeling with refrains, wordplay and defining riffs. Note that the Toolbox is extended to the concepts underlying effective lead soloing and improvisation.
Specific songs are taught that demonstrate these principles and can then be used as laboratories for variations and accompaniments. We also address the development of a song from a poem or original lyric set, considering how lyrics "speak " in various keys, along with creating groove and feeling with refrains, wordplay and defining riffs. Note that the Toolbox is extended to the concepts underlying effective lead soloing and improvisation.
NOTE: This Workshop can be tailored to a version lasting 1-3 hours as well as the full weekend session typical of Furpeace Ranch Guitar Camp
"Marjorie's Songcrafting workshop was just the kickstart that I needed for this next part of my fingerstyle journey. We've all heard about the CAGED methodology to learn chord inversions--Songcrafting used the CAGED methodology not in dry technical exercises, but in real songs. Songs like "Let Us Get Together" by Reverend Davis, "San Francisco Bay Blues" by Jesse Fuller, and even "You are My Sunshine".
Marjorie lays the groundwork for letting us learn how each inversion has it's own sound, it's own advantages and disadvantages in reaching for melody notes that are both part of and not part of the chord, cool passing chords to get from one position to the next, and a continued reminder that as performers that the chord positions, chord quality (major, minor, dominant, etc), and substitutions are our artistic decisions to make. She left us with a wealth of reference material on these chords, corresponding scale patterns, and some ways to use them. She's not just a top notch university educator, but a darn good musical educator as well. She really wants all of her students to succeed.
- Allen Martin
Testimonials from Workshop participants"Marjorie's Songcrafting and Country Blues Guitar Essentials allowed me to challenge my own comfort level on the fretboard. The assignment of taking a familiar song and transposing it into an unfamiliar chord progression based on the CAGED system was a great guide for breaking out of all of my self-inflicted boundaries on the guitar. Not only did the workshop give color to favorite and familiar tunes, it dared you to color outside the lines."
- Kathleen Sullivan
"Marjorie's workshop is wonderful. Marjorie is a talented, engaging and, most of all, patient instructor. Marjorie's workshop opens the mysteries of the fret board and teaches how much life exists beyond the fifth fret."
- Robert Goldberg
"Not all chords are created equal. Marjorie's class showed me that there may be many ways to play the same chord but the different finger positions that she taught allowed me to get the right nuanced sound for the song."
- Alan Rafterman
"A wealth of practical advice that I continue to use two years after taking the course."
- Rob Stirling
Copyright © 2005-2009, Marjorie Thompson. All rights reserved.