July 2009

Shock! Horror!! Jazz violinist attends jazz guitar workshop.

July 15, 2009 13:42

The weekend after next I will be going to a weekend workshop dedicated to jazz guitar. One tutor is John Etheridge, esteemed jazz/rock guitarist, who has worked with (inter alia) Soft Machine, Stephane Grappelli, and currently has a duo with British jazz violinist Chris Garrick. The other is Peter Oxley, who, as well as being a superb jazz guitarist, makes bows. They are a fiddle friendly pair, so I hope I will feel at home.

I have been playing guitar for many years (1976 - date, with a ten-year gap '82 - '92), but I "haven't had a lesson in my life". I can play half-decent single line stuff, but I hope that I will gain an insight into chord work this weekend.

I went on such a jazz weekend back in 1982. I took my double bass, and studied intensely for two days with Peter Ind. Those two days have stood me well for the last 27 years. How do the colleges manage to stretch it out for three years? We went through all the fundamentals, and took it further. Doing that on bass gives you the core knowledge of what is going on in a band, because the bass holds everything together, harmonically, rhythmically, and melodically.

Thinking about the music through the guitarist's mind should give me yet another approach.

So, I hope to return re-enthused, and ready for more music.

Oh, and I will take the fiddle as well. Rather silly not to...

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