Jack Williams Workshops

	ms	...a Wind River artist

The guitar lesson..

Jack’s creatively holistic approach to music is intended to help people at all levels of musical skill and understanding. This includes those who have played music all their lives, but who’ve come up against roadblocks to advancement – which happens even to professional musicians. It also includes beginning musicians and those who’ve attained a modest level of skill. It is even intended to help people who haven’t yet begun making music to get a sense of what playing and writing it are really all about - and to help them find their own sense of musical direction.

Emphasis is on the creative process rather than on the technique of making music (the Fingerpickin’ workshop will address more technical issues). The idea is to teach proficiency in knowing what you want in your music and how to go about getting it, rather than in the technical nuts and bolts of where to put one’s fingers.

The workshops focus on a return to basic listening, and to the sounds of what you’re playing rather than to extensive planning and thinking about music. An effort will be made to familiarize the musicians with the actual notes and chords as if they were “old friends”. So many musicians play on for years having never learned many of the basics of knowing what they’re hearing – and of maintaining creative control over what they’re playing or writing!

The “wheat and the chaff” of music theory will be carefully discussed, with suggestions about what is most useful to serious players, writers, and listeners, and about what almost certainly hampers creativity, especially during a musician’s early growth phase.

We’ll discuss making your escape from habitual playing – where your fingers tell you what to do – and move toward playing what you would rather be playing – the music you hear in your head – even if this process has eluded you for years. For many people, including professional players, this exploration in my workshops has revealed critical phases of musical growth that were overlooked.

The aim of the workshops is to help you make music for your own satisfaction and for that of your family, friends, community, and perhaps, the wider music community, if you choose to go that direction. Emphasis will be on the intrinsic worth of the song, the melody, the lyrics, and your own “musicality”, rather than on any commercial potential the music might possess.

In all of my workshops, in responding to the needs and whims of the participants, our discussions occasionally drift to Performance, Living Well on the Road, Developing a Style (“Finding Your Inner Rubber Chicken”), Songwriting for Love or Money, and other musical topics of interest.

Workshops:

Playing the Music You Hear in Your Head

* Ear training – a return to LISTENING
* Breaking playing/writing habits and getting out of musical ruts
* Connecting you directly to your own music
* Melodic vs chordal thinking – escaping the tyranny of the chord
* Music Theory: separating the wheat from the chaff

The Guitar as Greek Chorus

* The fine art of accompanying yourself
* The fine art of accompanying others
* The delicate art of ensemble playing
* Song circle etiquette
* The guitar as surrogate band

Songwriting
(Disclaimer: Excellent books and workshops are available by fine songwriters such as Steve Gillette and Bob Franke, among others, which steer you toward the basic structure of songs. My workshop will cover topics that don’t always get discussed in conjunction with creating songs.)

* Songwriting from the Right-brain – even for Left-brainers
* Trusting your experiences, observations, and instincts
* Step away from that guitar!
* The rhythm of words
* Melody: exploring uncharted waters or drawing from the well
* Fishing from the stream of consciousness

THE GUITAR AND THE SONGWRITER...

....will consider every aspect of the guitar in the songwriting process - from initial ideas to finished performance. Special emphasis will be upon the "Guitar As Greek Chorus": as accompanist, inspiration, commentator, colorist, comforter, crutch, and as equal partner in songwriting. Although our point of departure will be "The Song", musicians who aren't songwriters may also benefit - as may songwriters who use other instruments, such as mandolin or piano. We'll discuss how and when the guitar can even hinder the songwriting process, as well as how it can add melody, counter-melody, and "glue", which can sustain and propel a song. The development of "relative pitch" - an essential for players as well as writers - will be discussed. Our starting point will be gentle analysis of songs written (or in progress) and presented by attendees, although the group's size and the time allotted will determine whether or not every participant's song can be considered. Bring your guitar and your song - or just bring your ears and a desire to further your understanding of music.

Fingerpickin’

* Anything you choose to do to get the sounds you want is right
* Focus on melody and bass-line – de-emphasis on chordal thinking
* How to draw the music out of your strings
* The pick: an interesting tool for the fingerpicker
* The guitar as surrogate band