On Sat 25th July I spent the day at KGS in Denby Dale for the Summer Experience Day workshops. The day comprised three guitar focussed strands with ‘Play in a Band’, ‘Songwriting’ and Introduction to The Blues.
Attendees were split into three groups, A,B & C with the latter being the group that I was assigned to. Each group progressed through the three parallel running workshops. Overall another well spent day that packed in a lot of learning with lots of learning and inspiration to follow-up
Playing in a Band
Our group focussed on learning and playing ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac and ‘Wishing Well’ by Free. Using a mix of chord / lyric sheets and Guitar Tab we learn the basics together then refined to have each guitar contributing different chord fingerings and playing styles.
Our tutor, George Loveridge, took to the drums and vocals for the later play-throughs. Thoroughly enjoyed that exercise.
Songwriting
Although I’ve been trying to write a few songs since 2010 this was a refreshingly different approach. Our tutor, Andrew Beal, chose the Key of C and provided a set of associated chords to choose from. Two students were assigned to work on the Intro and Verses and I got to work on the Pre-Chorus and Chorus. I introduced the unexpected twist of making my parts start with relative minor Am chord and use the sequence Am, F, C & G. So the expected lift for the chorus came from playing and vocal dynamics. For example arpeggio chords in the pre-chorus, stronger strumming with higher neck position chord fingerings. For choosing the lyrics and song story we used headlines from two newspapers with mixed success. With the lyrics for the Pre-chorus and the Chorus being a little bit dark and reflective the minor chords were quite appropriate.
In practice the lyrics would need refining to deliver a storyline but that’s certainly an interesting idea generator.
Introduction to The Blues
James took us through some Blues history and exploration of different sub-genres like Chicago Blues and Delta Blues along with some of their practitioners and song examples. We covered the 12 bar blues in two keys, shuffles, off beat and the use of turn-arounds. This differed from the improvisation workshop that I attended back in June.
