[Jump to pics and video.] After several months of scheming and planning the first ever Athens Ohio Guitar Flash Mob finally happened on Saturday morning. We met at 10:15am to rehearse and at 11:00am we encircled the farmers market shoppers in the center of the mall with 28 acoustic guitarists and launched into Don McLean’s epic song “American Pie.” Each verse featured a different singer (listed below) and everyone joined in on the choruses. By the final two choruses we had just about everyone in the mall singing along. I felt it was a great success and hope to organize a similar performance again sometime in the future. Scroll down for more information on the mob and for photos. I’ll put more behind-the-scenes information in a different post.

American Pie Flash Mob Singers
Verse 1: John Horne • Verse 2: Tag Hauschild • Verse 3: Lucas Reilly • Verse 4: Dan Wasserman • Verse 5: Charlie Houtz • Chorus Singers: Peter Babrow • Sarah Clary • Jordan Dean • Marcus Fakler • Craig Garrelts • Sydney Hardy • Zach Hitchcock • Brad Huffman • Erin Malone • Carter McCutchan • Brytton McGuire • Emersynn McGuire • Misha Mochanov • Matt Oviatt • Zach Quillen • Kyle Reynolds • Rockin’ Reggie Robinson • Sam Terkel • Madison Vassari • Nick Weckman • Mike Witter • Kevin Xiao • Ben Ziff • (Please let me know if I missed anyone!)

Following the flash mob performance I held a short student recital. The program is below.

Student Recital Program – Saturday January 28 2012

Charlie Houtz
Rock Riff Medley: Sweet Home Alabama • You Really Got Me • Back in Black • Crazy Train • I Love Rock and Roll
Star Wars – John Williams

Zach Hitchcock
Volga Boatman – Traditional Russian Folk Song
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Johnny Marks

Peter Babrow
Readymade – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Jordan & Milena Dean
I Love Rock & Roll – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

Tag Hauschild
Crossroads – Eric Clapton

Eme McGuire
Alchemy – Girls Dead Monster

Kevin Xiao
Home – Jack Johnson
Across the Universe – John Lennon

Justin Dowler
Layla – Eric Clapton
Blues Jam in A

Pics & Video

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Sometimes I can’t believe how much music my students haven’t heard. So I made this list to help point them toward some of the best guitarists of all time. With the advent of youtube, grooveshark, spotify and other services checking out new music has never been easier. Or cheaper. So pick an artist, go to YouTube, and start listening!

70 Guitarists You Really Should Know About *

Rock
Jeff Beck
Chuck Berry
Eric Clapton
The Edge (U2)
Paul Gilbert
Jimi Hendrix
Eric Johnson
Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits)
Alex Lifeson (Rush)
John Mayer
Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
Pete Townshend (The Who)
Steve Vai
Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen)
Angus Young (AC/DC)

Jazz
George Benson
Gene Bertoncini
Lenny Breau
Larry Carlton
Charlie Christian
Bill Frisell
Frank Gambale
Grant Green
Jim Hall
Allan Holdsworth
Pat Martino
Pat Metheny
Wes Montgomery
Joe Pass
Django Reinhardt
Lee Ritenour
John Scofield
Mike Stern
Martin Taylor
Frank Vignola

Acoustic Fingerstyle
Tommy Emmanuel
Michael Hedges
Pete Huttlinger
Leo Kottke
Adam Rafferty

Folk
Indigo Girls
Joni Mitchell
Peter Mulvey
Paul Simon
James Taylor
David Wilcox
Neil Young

Blues
Robben Ford
Buddy Guy
Robert Johnson
Albert King
B.B. King
Freddie King
Gary Moore
Jimmie Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan

Country/Bluegrass
Chet Atkins
Jimmy Bryant
Maybelle Carter
Danny Gatton
Tony Rice
Merle Travis
Brad Paisley
Jerry Reed
Doc Watson

Classical
Julian Bream
Eliot Fisk
Douglas Niedt
Christopher Parkening
Andres Segovia
John Williams
Andrew York

*This list reflects my personal tastes. I’m attempting to recognize both musicians that are often overlooked by casual listeners and musicians that young listeners may have not yet been turned on to. Many artists cross genres so don’t get too hung up on the labels. Yes, one could argue that I left so-and-so off the list. Whatever, just listen…

I’ve been enjoying working with the music therapy students at Ohio University for the past couple of years now. One thing we’ve never fully addressed in class is when and how to change their strings. I’ve purposely avoided dealing with this in the past because I felt that no matter how well I explain the process, unless the students receive have hands-on experience they’re not likely to remember it when they change strings down the road. Eventually I realized that many of the students were playing on the strings that came on their guitar when they purchased it. In at least one case this meant the strings were over two years old – yikes!

So last night I gave a presentation to the Ohio University chapter of AMTAS. The good folks at D’Addario Strings sponsored the event and provided strings for everyone in attendance and enough string winders for those who wanted help changing their strings during the workshop. The left over strings were donated to the music therapy department and will be used for student and client guitars as needed.

I was a little chagrined by the students eating pizza while changing strings, but there’s only so much I can control.

In a recent blog post, Adam Rafferty asked: “Where do you think fingerstyle guitar is heading next?”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since Adam’s post and wanted to share some of my own thoughts about it. Because I spend a lot my time teaching, my comments are chiefly in regard to the way I’d like to see the education field evolve.

Adam is correct that until Andres Segovia came along, most music conservatories did not consider the guitar worthy of the kind of in-depth study that is offered for say, piano or violin. Even today many schools do not offer the guitar as an applied area of study. With the exception of a few schools that focus on contemporary music, most guitar programs that exist today are fairly conservative and offer guitar programs that focus primarily on traditional classical or jazz repertoire and technique.

I completely agree that students must familiarize themselves with history of the instrument and its music and that having a structured approach to the discipline in place is necessary. In addition to music fundamentals, this will include learning benchmark pieces from the classical or jazz repertoire and mastering techniques that will enable the student to execute solo guitar material in a musical way.

On the other hand, I believe that there must be room in the schedule to help students to develop their own individual approach to the instrument and a repertoire that is at least somewhat unique. One way to do this is to have students choose some music that they love and help them to create their own unique arrangements.

Let me give you an example of the type of assignment I’ve given to several students in the past:

Before getting creative, the student would be assigned a piece of music selected by me that I feel will challenge them and help them to learn certain concepts, but that they can master with some diligent practice. Since I primarily teach jazz, let’s say that I have them learn Barry Galbraith’s arrangement of “Our Love is Here to Stay” from one of my favorite books: Barry Galbraith Guitar Solos by Jim Lichens. In addition to simply learning to play the arrangement we’d analyze the arrangement in two ways. First we’d look at the technical side of the arrangement exploring the fingerings in detail to make sure that everything lends itself to giving the most musical result. If we find that a new fingering seems to make more sense than the ones indicated in the book we can try it out and decide whether or not to implement it. Then we’d analyze the musical choices made by Barry Galbraith. In this arrangement he uses a variety of techniques such as: contrary motion, block voicing, walking bass lines, and chromatic planing.

Okay, so hopefully the student enjoyed the piece, has practiced it and has learned a thing or two. Once they’ve completed a couple of pieces in this manner, I’ll challenge them to choose a piece of music from a fake book and use some of the concepts to try their own hand at arranging. If the student is fairly new to jazz, a little direction may be needed – obviously jazz tunes are likely going to make better use of walking bass lines and chromatic planing than a rock or funk tune, but who knows?

Over the past several years I have been pleasantly surprised by students who have come back with really lovely solo guitar arrangements of jazz standards. Other times I have encountered students who seemed at a complete loss as to where to begin and needed more help along the way.

I believe that it is not enough to teach students only the standard classical or jazz repertoire. We have to challenge our students to not only be guitar players but to be creative arrangers and composers. This is what is going to get them noticed and ultimately what will pay the bills. Think about it: Segovia was the first player to be taken seriously as a classical guitarist not just because he was a fantastic guitarist, but because he played works by J.S. Bach, which he had transcribed and arranged himself!

Today we have access to thousands of performances from players all over the world via the Internet. If you’ve discovered artists such as Tommy Emmanuel, Pete Huttlinger, Adam Rafferty, Ulli Boegershausen, Sungha Jung, or Andy McKee in the past few years, I’ll bet you they weren’t playing pieces by Dowland, Bach, or even Gershwin when you first heard them. These guitarists have gained a worldwide audience because not only do they play beautifully, they play material that the vast majority of the public can identify with. The arrangements they play are not taken from any book but were created by the artists themselves.

Now I’m not suggesting that it’s my goal to create the next hot YouTube guitarist, but if a young guitarist is hired to play specific material they had better be prepared to work up an arrangement or two. If they can’t then I didn’t prepare them well enough. And if that material includes songs by top 40 artists, then so be it. I know that the future of fingerstyle guitar will continue to embrace the accepted repertoire but I sincerely hope that we can start to leave behind the notion that contemporary pieces are only novelty pieces and are not worthy of serious study. Depending on the arrangement, these pieces can be just as difficult as any classical piece, and – they can actually help you make a living!

Tonight I finished a mini-residency at West Elementary here in Athens Ohio. I taught two third-grade and two fourth-grade classes helping the students to understand the common 12-bar blues form and how it has influenced rock, country and jazz styles. I then coached each class in writing their own original lyrics which would become a class song with a central theme. As we rehearsed for this evening’s performance they also learned about concepts like stop-time and tag endings. The kids did a great job and it was a pleasure to work with them. Their lyrics are below…

Animals Blues by Grade 3 Huffman
Bright Bluegrass Feel in C

I like to braid, like to braid my pony’s mane
I like to braid, like to braid my pony’s mane
Riding my pony is fun as any game

There’s a big fat whale swimming in the ocean
There’s a big fat whale swimming in the ocean
It might spray you with its blowhole when it gets in motion

We see those monkeys swingin’ through the trees
We see those monkeys swingin’ through the trees
Swingin’ through the trees is how Monkeys do p.e.

Polar bears live in cold and snow
Polar bears live in cold and snow
They don’t even mind when it drops down to zero.

All About Us by Grade 3 Louthain
Medium Shuffle in E

Her name is Micaiah – she likes kangaroos
Her name is Micaiah – she likes kangaroos
When she thinks of the way they hop, it sounds like the blues

His Name is Kyle – he likes to eat broccoli
His Name is Kyle – he likes to eat broccoli
He’ll never turn it down ‘cause it’s so green and tasty

Her Name is Sydney – she lives out among the trees
Her Name is Sydney – she lives out among the trees
She wishes that cheese would grow on the trees

Avery here, he thinks skunks are so cute
Avery here, he thinks skunks are so cute
And the smell pretty funky when they go toot toot toot

Her name is Kierra – she’s a big ol’ Elvis fan
Her name is Kierra – she’s a big ol’ Elvis fan
She likes to hear “Baby Don’t Leave Me” any time she can

Now Cassidy likes to build with star wars legos
Now Cassidy likes to build with star wars legos
He takes Darth Vader with him wherever he goes

Her Name is Ellie – she’s got a schnauzer dog
Her Name is Ellie – she’s got a schnauzer dog
JJ is his name, and he likes to chase the frogs

His name is Jackson – he likes to eat blueberry pie
His name is Jackson – he likes to eat blueberry pie
If you put some pie on his plate, you can say goodbye

Her name is Autumn – she’s got a puppy named peanut
Her name is Autumn – she’s got a puppy named peanut
That dog is just a tiny little pup

The all of us blues (4xs)
There’s something special about each of us
The all of us blues

Pesky Pet Blues by Grade 4 Hansen
Medium Shuffle Blues in E

My dog’s so lazy, he sleeps all through the day
My dog’s so lazy, he sleeps all through the day
My dog’s so lazy, he doesn’t even go out to play

My funky ferret’s so hyper, runs all through the house
My funky ferret’s so hyper, runs all through the house
My funky ferret’s so hyper, runs around and knocks stuff down

I know a real crazy cat, his legs are always pumpin’
I know a real crazy cat, his legs are always pumpin’
That cat’s so crazy, he’s nearly always jumpin’

My sneaky snake slithers all around
My sneaky snake slithers all around
My snake’s so sneaky; he doesn’t even make a sound

We got the pesky pet blues
We got the pesky pet blues
We got the pesky pet blues
We got the pesky pet blues
We got a dog and a ferret and a cat and a snake
We got the pesky pet blues

Random Food Blues by Grade 4 Sloan
Straight Rock Feel in G

I like some peanut butter, cause it’s so sticky and tasty
I like some peanut butter, cause it’s so sticky and tasty
It could be crunchy or creamy, and you can put it in a pastry

I like my pizza with cheese and pepperoni
I always order my pizza with cheese and pepperoni
With sausage and thick crust, but never with bologna

I left my ice cream sitting out in the sun
I left my ice cream sitting out in the sun
It melted on my homework, detention is not gonna be fun

I got the random food blues
I got the random food blues
I got the random food blues
I got the random food blues
Peanut butter, pizza, ice cream and more
I got the random food blues

In addition to the blues we talked about how song are often borrowed and new songs can built on the foundations of old ones. I also talked about how some artists like Weird Al Yankovich create hilarious parodies using well-known songs. This led to one class writing a parody of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird:

Frisbee by Grade 4 Hansen
Parody of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird

If you throw me tomorrow
Will someone still catch me?
‘Cause I’m a free-flying Frisbee
Spinning circles endlessly
Spinning circles endlessly

Dogs leap up and try to catch me
But I sail beyond their reach
As I fly higher and higher
Everything looks small down on the beach

I fly onward and upward
Until I float in outer space
An alien hand reaches out and grabs me
And throws me back the other way
And throws me back the other way