Four members of WAGS are part of the six-person band Willapa Hills. They just performed a concert with music from their latest CD, and they have another scheduled. It will be a fundraiser for the St. James Family Center on Sunday, March 13, at 2:30 at St. James Church. Follow the link to hear some soundclips from the CD. The CD's theme is music from the Columbia Pacific region; they've written much of it themselves.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/willapahills
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
March 2 at Twin Gables
WAGS convened 2/23 at the Pioneer Community Center with the core group in attendance. The stories were as good as the songs.
The next session will be chez Kathleen Morgain, Twin Gables Bed and Breakfast, Skamokawa. The Sk. Grange is still having heating issues. That's March 2, 7 p.m.
The next session will be chez Kathleen Morgain, Twin Gables Bed and Breakfast, Skamokawa. The Sk. Grange is still having heating issues. That's March 2, 7 p.m.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Report on International Guitar Night
by Rick Nelson
My wife and I attended the International Guitar Night Feb. 5 at the Columbia Theater in Longview. It was a fabulous show featuring guitarists from the US, Europe and South America. I've included a link to their website at the end of this post.
Ticket holders were invited to an afternoon workshop with the four players. They each spoke about their art and offered insights. Here are some of the points that I remember:
A. Brian Gore, San Francisco, tour organizer: Brian spoke about the three aspects of the art. Two points I remember are: 1. Melody--always try to have an interesting melody around which you build your songs. 2. Practice/learn--If you want to incorporate something from some song or if you want to compose something that's different, then break it down to a slow pace and find the best way to play it, and then practice over and over to master it. That's good advice we've all heard before. 3. He also demonstrated use of the spider capo that can capo single strings and hinge on and off of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q2xLWIFsrg&feature=related
B. Pino Forestiere, Rome, Italy: Initially trained as a classical guitarist, Pino wanted to explore new sounds on the acoustic guitar and has evolved his art from there. He said he makes tunings to fit the sounds he wants to create. He is a tapper. All those tapping songs you saw in the move August Rush, he does them, and more, like harmonics. He says to keep the nails short to do the tapping.
(Link to video)
C. Alexandre Gismonti, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: The son of a famous composer/conductor, he studied classical guitar and plays a classical and modern Brazilian music (a whole world foreign to us). He had a nice Arias guitar. Event organizers had invited workshop participants to bring their guitars, so I showed him my old beater. He really liked it and played a beautiful bossa nova on it, a thrill for a fan! What I remember from him was his recommendation for melody: Incorporate extended chords--those using 9ths, 11ths and 13ths--and use those notes for the basis of your melodies.
D. Clive Carroll, London, England: His style zipped all over the place--Celtic, classical, blues, rock and Gypsy jazz. He also told lots of stories--he would fit right in with the WAGSters. He invited a young player to demonstrate a song and showed him how to add more chords to the music by finding the chord corresponding to the note in the scale of the key in which he was playing. He also showed how to develop speed in picking scales: Start picking four times for each note up and down the scale, then three times, then two times, then one time for each note. He was blistering fast. I would have enjoyed visiting with him for hours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Jy9L8KXMk
International Guitar Night: http://internationalguitarnight.squarespace.com/
On YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=International+Guitar+Night&aq=f
My wife and I attended the International Guitar Night Feb. 5 at the Columbia Theater in Longview. It was a fabulous show featuring guitarists from the US, Europe and South America. I've included a link to their website at the end of this post.
Ticket holders were invited to an afternoon workshop with the four players. They each spoke about their art and offered insights. Here are some of the points that I remember:
A. Brian Gore, San Francisco, tour organizer: Brian spoke about the three aspects of the art. Two points I remember are: 1. Melody--always try to have an interesting melody around which you build your songs. 2. Practice/learn--If you want to incorporate something from some song or if you want to compose something that's different, then break it down to a slow pace and find the best way to play it, and then practice over and over to master it. That's good advice we've all heard before. 3. He also demonstrated use of the spider capo that can capo single strings and hinge on and off of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q2xLWIFsrg&feature=related
B. Pino Forestiere, Rome, Italy: Initially trained as a classical guitarist, Pino wanted to explore new sounds on the acoustic guitar and has evolved his art from there. He said he makes tunings to fit the sounds he wants to create. He is a tapper. All those tapping songs you saw in the move August Rush, he does them, and more, like harmonics. He says to keep the nails short to do the tapping.
(Link to video)
C. Alexandre Gismonti, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: The son of a famous composer/conductor, he studied classical guitar and plays a classical and modern Brazilian music (a whole world foreign to us). He had a nice Arias guitar. Event organizers had invited workshop participants to bring their guitars, so I showed him my old beater. He really liked it and played a beautiful bossa nova on it, a thrill for a fan! What I remember from him was his recommendation for melody: Incorporate extended chords--those using 9ths, 11ths and 13ths--and use those notes for the basis of your melodies.
D. Clive Carroll, London, England: His style zipped all over the place--Celtic, classical, blues, rock and Gypsy jazz. He also told lots of stories--he would fit right in with the WAGSters. He invited a young player to demonstrate a song and showed him how to add more chords to the music by finding the chord corresponding to the note in the scale of the key in which he was playing. He also showed how to develop speed in picking scales: Start picking four times for each note up and down the scale, then three times, then two times, then one time for each note. He was blistering fast. I would have enjoyed visiting with him for hours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Jy9L8KXMk
International Guitar Night: http://internationalguitarnight.squarespace.com/
On YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=International+Guitar+Night&aq=f
February events
WAGS has lots of events this month. Here's a list from Communications Master Jerry:
Feb. 12, Valentine Day Dinner fund raiser,6-9 p.m. If you are going to the dinner and play guitar and would like to play some music after the dinner, bring it. Contact Becky Ledtke for tickets or Bank of the Pacific.
Feb 18 WAGS will play at Zojos coffee house in Longview 5 to 8. If you need more info contact Rick Nelson or myself.
Feb 19 Willapa Hills will do a concert at the Pioneer Church, 7:30 p.m., in Cathlamet. Tickets at the Bank of the Pacific, and kudos to the Bank of the Pacific, they really support this community.
Feb 23. WAGS will converge at the pioneer Church in Cathlamet at 7 p.m.
Feb. 12, Valentine Day Dinner fund raiser,6-9 p.m. If you are going to the dinner and play guitar and would like to play some music after the dinner, bring it. Contact Becky Ledtke for tickets or Bank of the Pacific.
Feb 18 WAGS will play at Zojos coffee house in Longview 5 to 8. If you need more info contact Rick Nelson or myself.
Feb 19 Willapa Hills will do a concert at the Pioneer Church, 7:30 p.m., in Cathlamet. Tickets at the Bank of the Pacific, and kudos to the Bank of the Pacific, they really support this community.
Feb 23. WAGS will converge at the pioneer Church in Cathlamet at 7 p.m.
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