Guitar Lessons in Boulder & Longmont, CO with Joseph Brenna

One of the most difficult things about guitar playing is visualizing harmonic and melodic relationships across the strings and up and down the length of the neck. Jimi Hendrix solved this problem by using simple triads and pentatonics as a framework for his music, as did the Nashville studio musicians who pioneered the CAGED method. Jazz guitar greats including Joe Pass employed CAGED as the kernel they used to master complex harmonic and melodic music on the guitar.

Understanding tonality as a mandala – a situation in which each note has a unique quality and function in relationship to the key center, and to all other notes of the key - brings greater meaning and utility to the forms employed in the CAGED method.

In this workshop, master guitarist & composer Joseph Brenna will introduce participants to the Mandala of Tonality and the CAGED method, and demonstrate how to gain mastery of melody and harmony on the guitar through the application of these principles & forms to rhythm guitar, solos, chord-melody, and composition.

Joseph Brenna has been recognized as a virtuoso guitarist and composer whose unique voice incorporates music from jazz and blues to classical, folk, rock, and world music. He is a recording artist on the What Are Records? label, and a Naropa University faculty member since 2000. Joseph has toured extensively in the US and received critical acclaim for both his performances and recordings.

For the past couple of months I’ve been teaching a student named Jenn who is in Boulder temporarily to take an 8-week class. The class goes from 8am to 6pm, and we have a guitar lesson once each week in the evening. Unfortunately, that schedule doesn’t leave her much practice time, which means that she is having a hard time assimilating the lessons and being ready for new material. So are the lessons worthwhile?

We’ve found a solution, to make these lessons as accessible when she returns home as they are now: videotape. Last night, Jenn brought a camera to her lesson and videotaped me going through all of the material that I’ve presented in each lesson. I explained and demonstrated all of the exercises, rhythms, fingerpicking patterns, and songs that I have written down for her each week. Now when she goes home, she can have total recall of everything we’ve covered, and the ability to see, hear, and even play along with everything we’ve done. She can take all the time she needs to study and learn the material. And if she has questions from time to time, I’ll be available by email to answer them for her.

I’ve had many students make audio recordings of their lessons in order to aid their recall of what we’ve done together. Videotape is an even better medium for this. I recommend it for everyone who is taking guitar lessons, and welcome it in my studio!

updated 4/15/2007

Show information is subject to change. Always check with the venue.