Workshops
Mark O’Connor - Love and Mastery of the Violin
This is a special presentation workshop open to the general public. Everyone is encouraged to attend!
Mark O’Connor is hailed worldwide for his composing, his violin playing, and now the groundbreaking O’Connor Violin Method. During his special 90-minute presentation workshop, he along with his band will discuss theory, history, ear training, and more, with examples borrowed from genres ranging from Gypsy Jazz to bluegrass, folk, ragtime, Texas Fiddle, American Classical and more.
This presentation workshop has been opened to the general public because the content is as important to the discriminating listener as it is to the avid musician. As Mr. O’Connor says, "It is my firm belief that the new Method will embrace the totality of our rich history of string playing, and it is my sincere hope that my method will further this process and perpetuate love for string instruments."
Don’t miss your chance! Hear firsthand from this great American violinist and composer. Legendary guitarist Chet Atkins said of O’Connor; "I believe he and Itzhak Perlman are two of the greatest musicians on the planet today." Legendary violinist Stephane Grappelli said of O’Connor; "He’s not what you would call ... human." Wynton Marsalis called O’Connor a "national treasure." The presentation will be held on the Michael Nutt Main Stage, providing excellent viewing and superb sound acoustics for every seat in the house.
Stochelo Rosenberg (with Denis Chang) - Playing the Gypsy Way!
This is a special presentation workshop open to the general public. Everyone is encouraged to attend!
This Master Workshop will focus on lead guitar. From Stochelo’s early days picking Django’s solos by ear and practicing restlessly the Gypsy method, to his accomplishment as a legendary guitarist, blending Django’s work with Latin influences, all things Jazz and his unique touch and vibrato, Stochelo has become the incarnation of the Gypsy jazz guitarist. With the help of Denis Chang, who has conceived and produced Stochelo’s first-ever tutorial DVDs, this workshop will combine Stochelo’s guitar mastery and Denis’ unrivalled teaching skills. Stochelo will demonstrate and explain picking, improvisation, left / right hand techniques and more, according to participant’s wishes. With both Stochelo and Denis teaching the workshop, this is the best of both worlds: pure Gypsy virtuosity and down-to-earth explanations of where the magic comes from. Don’t miss the rare change to learn directly from these two great teachers.
Michael Horowitz - Guitar Workshops
Gypsy Picking Workshop - Right Hand Technique
Right hand picking technique is one of the most demanding aspects of playing Gypsy jazz. This workshop will teach you the rest-stroke picking technique used by Django Reinhardt, Stochelo Rosenberg, Bireli Lagrene, and nearly every other Gypsy jazz guitarist. Learning to play with rest-strokes will give you the "Gypsy sound" by dramatically improving your volume, speed and tone. To help put the rest-stroke technique in context, students will learn several of the most commonly used Gypsy phrases, arpeggios, and chromatic runs which do not appear in my book Gypsy Picking. Students will also learn basic principals of efficient left hand fingerings which, when used in conjunction with the rest-stroke picking technique, allow one to play with improved speed and articulation. These examples will be included in handouts written in both standard notation and tablature.
Rhythm Changes Workout
Rhythm Changes (i.e. the chord progression for "I Got Rhythm") is one of the most common chord progressions used in jazz. A full understanding and mastery of this chord progression in a prerequisite for any jazz musician. In this workshop you will learn how gypsy jazz legends Django Reinhardt, Bireli Lagrene, Stochelo Rosenberg, etc approached accompaniment for Rhythm Changes. We will discuss Django’s more traditional sounding pre-war approach to Rhythm Changes as well as the more modern devices and chord substitutions used by contemporary players. By the end of this class you will have the tools to play Rhythm Changes like a pro! These examples will be included in handouts written in both standard notation and tablature.
Gypsy Jazz Waltzes
Before the arrival of jazz, the accordion driven musette waltz was the predominant form of popular dance music in pre-war Paris. Django Reinhardt and other Parisian Gypsy musicians first honed their technique performing this challenging and beautiful genre. In this workshop we’ll discuss both traditional and contemporary accompaniment techniques for waltzes. Jazz waltzes, Latin waltzes, the flat three waltz, and numerous other variations and embellishments will be covered. You will also learn three waltzes, one traditional musette, a jazz waltz, and a Latin waltz. These examples will be included in handouts written in both standard notation and tablature.
Latin Gypsy Rhythms
This workshop will focus on Latin Rhythms such as the Gypsy Bossa, Bolero, Tango, Gypsy Samba, and Latin waltz. The Bolero is one of the most misunderstood of these rhythms and we’ll look at exactly how Django and other Gypsies really play it. We’ll also discuss the Gypsy style chord substitutions, comping, turnarounds, accent patterns, and other advanced Latin rhythmic devices used be Django, Bireli Lagrene, Stochelo Rosenberg, Nous’che Rosenberg, etc. These examples will be included in handouts written in both standard notation and tablature.
Unaccompanied Django Workshop - Gypsy Jazz Solo Guitar Techniques
Django Reinhardt composed more than a dozen compositions for the unaccompanied guitar throughout his career. These pieces, many of which bear the title "Improvisation"¯ are some of the most intimate expressions of the musical genius of Django Reinhardt. Unfortunately, Dango’s output for the unaccompanied guitar has often been overshadowed by his brilliant work as a soloist in small jazz ensembles. Django’s tradition of unaccompanied guitar playing is still an important part of the Gypsy jazz genre. Contemporary Gypsy jazz virtuosos such as Angelo Debarre, Boulou Ferre, Bireli Lagrene, Fapy Lafertin, and Stochelo Rosenberg have recorded Django’s unaccompanied guitar pieces as well as their own compositions.
This workshop will explore the techniques that Django, Stochelo Rosenberg, Bireli Lagrene, and other Gypsy guitarists use to create brilliant unaccompanied guitar compositions. You will learn authentic Gypsy chord voicings, Gypsy style reharmonization techniques, arppegiations, Baroque ideas, Spanish/Flamenco ideas, parallel chord usage, scale passages, chromatic runs, and numerous other techniques which will allow you to create your own Gypsy style unaccompanied versions of any song. You will also learn an unaccompanied version of the Reinhardt classic Manoir des mes Rêves (which doesn’t appear in my book Unaccompanied Django). These examples will be included in handouts written in both standard notation and tablature.
Michael Horowitz is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston and is currently pursuing a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington. He recently returned from fieldwork among the Dutch Gypsies which was funded by the Fulbright Commission, during which he studied with Gypsy masters such as Fapy Lafertin, Jan Limberger, Martin Limberger and Paulus Schafer. He is the founder of the publishing company DjangoBooks.Com and is the author of the book Gypsy Picking and Unaccompanied Django. Michael performs with Pearl Django and The Djangomatics.
Gonzalo Bergara - Guitar Workshops
How I Learned
This workshop is for all level of players.
Of course we will discuss right hand, picking, sound, etc., but mainly I want you to be able to play nonstop over lets say a C7 chord all over the neck without ever having to stop—eighth-notes, triplets, all possible ways. This is like learning a lot of words in a new language, and I mean A LOT of them. It’ll be like reciting a dictionary, sounds fun doesn’t it?
Gypsy Swing Workshop
This is more for intermediate and advanced players.
After we’ve learned how to play, how to improvise over many songs, how to feel comfortable with our right hand, after we feel good with all of these things, there is of course room to keep growing. The famous phrase, it’s not what you play it’s how you play it describes that better. We all love Django’s lines, and we all transcribe his solos, but it seems we never pay much attention to what we really love about him, his timing, his sense of swing.
Whatever ideas you can already play, here we will learn how to play them like they really mean something.
Stephane Wrembel - Guitar Workshops
RIGHT WARM UP AND PRACTICE / MINOR CHORDS / QUESTION-ANSWERS
The goals of my workshop is not to give a million of possibilities of things to do, but rather simple, direct and efficient ways to do the essential. What you can do is the reality, not how much you know in theory. So during the workshops we will do, much more than talk. And we will do the things in real time together, to feel the reality of practice together.
For workshop number one, we will approach the session this way :
- Proper warm up. Warming up is a crucial every day step for practice and performance. We will warm up together, for you to experience what it really feels and means. We will warm up through a short series of technical exercises, vital for this style, and good playing in general
- Then in the first three workshops, we will study the various minor chords and arpeggios, their fundamental shapes, various approaches and exercises we can apply to them, small shapes, large shapes…But also some rhythmical aspects, derived from Solkattu, the South Indian Rhythmic System, the drum language. In the forth workshop, we will study the minor harmonic, minor melodic and major scales, their fundamental shapes, various approaches and exercises we can apply to them, and great ways to practice musically with permutation. Again, we will look at some rhythmical aspects derived from Solkattu.
- Then it will be time for some questions and answers, and hopefully some jamming too!
RIGHT WARM UP AND PRACTICE / MAJOR CHORDS / QUESTION-ANSWERS
The goals of my workshop is not to give a million of possibilities of things to do, but rather simple, direct and efficient ways to do the essential. What you can do is the reality, not how much you know in theory. So during the workshops we will do, much more than talk. And we will do the things in real time together, to feel the reality of practice together.
For workshop number two, we will approach the session this way :
- Proper warm up. Warming up is a crucial every day step for practice and performance. We will warm up together, for you to experience what it really feels and means. We will warm up through a short series of technical exercises, vital for this style, and good playing in general
- We will then study the various major chords and arpeggios, their fundamental shapes, various approaches and exercises we can apply to them, small shapes, large shapes…But also some rhythmical aspects, derived from Solkattu, the South Indian Rhythmic System, the drum language.
- Then it will be time for some questions and answers, and hopefully some jamming too!
RIGHT WARM UP AND PRACTICE / SEVENTH CHORDS / QUESTION-ANSWERS
The goals of my workshop is not to give a million of possibilities of things to do, but rather simple, direct and efficient ways to do the essential. What you can do is the reality, not how much you know in theory. So during the workshops we will do, much more than talk. And we will do the things in real time together, to feel the reality of practice together.
For workshop number three, we will approach the session this way :
- Proper warm up. Warming up is a crucial every day step for practice and performance. We will warm up together, for you to experience what it really feels and means. We will warm up through a short series of technical exercises, vital for this style, and good playing in general
- We will then study the various seventh chords and arpeggios, their fundamental shapes, various approaches and exercises we can apply to them, small shapes, large shapes…But also some rhythmical aspects, derived from Solkattu, the South Indian Rhythmic System, the drum language.
- Then it will be time for some questions and answers, and hopefully some jamming too!
RIGHT WARM UP AND PRACTICE / SCALES DECOMPOSITION / QUESTION-ANSWERS
The goals of my workshop is not to give a million of possibilities of things to do, but rather simple, direct and efficient ways to do the essential. What you can do is the reality, not how much you know in theory. So during the workshops we will do, much more than talk. And we will do the things in real time together, to feel the reality of practice together.
For workshop number four, we will approach the session this way :
- Proper warm up. Warming up is a crucial every day step for practice and performance. We will warm up together, for you to experience what it really feels and means. We will warm up through a short series of technical exercises, vital for this style, and good playing in general
- We will then study especially the minor harmonic, minor melodic and major scales, their fundamental shapes, various approaches and exercises we can apply to them, and great ways to practice musically with permutations…But also some rhythmical aspects, derived from Solkattu, the South Indian Rhythmic System, the drum language.
- Then it will be time for some questions and answers, and hopefully some jamming too!
Adrien Moignard - The Art of Modern Manouche Guitar
Adrien Moignard is one of the most sought after guitarist in the modern Gypsy Jazz and swing scene. During this workshop he will share his knowledge of the techniques needed to master the sound of contemporary Gypsy Jazz. He covers arpeggios, including major, minor, diminished, whole tone/half tones; emphasizes the Gypsy way of playing "horizontal" scales and arpeggios; and teaches how to smoothly pivot through shifting arpeggio. As a member of two highly regarded Parisian bands: the Zaiti Ensemble and Selmer #607, Moignard has a broad expanse of experience in merging the sounds of Django Reinhardt, modern jazz, classical music and more into the new exciting sound of modern Parisian Gypsy Jazz.
Antoine and Sebastien Boyer - Francis-Alfred Moerman and the ‘Jazz Gitano-Parisien’ Legacy
This is a special presentation workshop open to the general public. Everyone is encouraged to attend!
For several years, Sébastien and Antoine Boyer worked alongside Francis-Alfred Moerman, the French gypsy jazz legend who passed away last year. Through a film, as well as anecdotes and live performances of Moerman’s compositions, the Boyers (father and son) will share and explain the specific aspects of the Moerman style, as well as the ‘Jazz Gitano-Parisien’ legacy of the three Ferret brothers (Baro, Matelo, and Sarane), who were Francis-Alfred Moerman’s masters in the 1950s.
The workshop will include:
- Projection of a film: ‘Meeting with Francis-Alfred Moerman’, by Roberto Lugones (26 minutes)
- Explaining the specific elements of the Ferret/Moerman styles
- Live performances of compositions by Francis-Alfred Moerman and the Ferret brothers
Come along and discover the extraordinary personality and style of an "off-the-beaten-track" character of Gypsy Jazz!
Denis Chang - Guitar Workshops
Intro to Gypsy Jazz Rhythm
In this workshop, I will show you the basics to the Gypsy Jazz rhythm and the different styles that exist. Time permitting, we will also cover latin rhythm and ornaments. Workshop includes authentic leadsheets of the most popular Gypsy Jazz standards. Be sure to visit www.dc-musicschool.com for free beginner backing tracks (Coming in July)
Intro to Gypsy Jazz Technique
We will cover the basics of the Gypsy Jazz technique through the use of guitar studies made specifically to exploit the different picking patterns that exist. We will see how fingering and rhythm affects the right hand. Workshop includes handouts of the etudes. Be sure to visit www.dc-musicschool.com for free beginner backing tracks (Coming in July)
Intro to Gypsy Jazz Improvisation
We will cover the most basic Gypsy Jazz vocabulary in this workshop. We will learn how to apply this vocabulary in a number of contexts with the aid of carefully constructed solos authentic to the style. Workshop includes handouts. Be sure to visit www.dc-musicschool.com for free beginner backing tracks (Coming in July)
Beau Sample - Jazz, Blues and Gypsy Slap Techniques For The DOUBLE BASS
Getting a sound from your instrument
I will be teaching my bass techniques that are strongly rooted in bass traditions of the 20’s thru the 60’s. We will talk about many, great, innovative players: men and women who paved the road for bass players of today, and are too seldom studied in depth. I subtitled the workshop "Getting a sound from your instrument" because I would like to work on this important aspect of playing as well.
Leo Eimers – Construction and restoration of a Selmer guitar
This is a special presentation workshop open to the general public. Everyone is encouraged to attend!
Dutch luthier, Leo Eimers is one of the world most highly regarded builders of Selmer-style guitars. His clients include Stochelo Rosenberg, Nou’che Rosenberg, Moses Rosenberg, Wawau Adler, Robin Nolan, Kevin Nolan, Boulou and Elios Ferre and other Gypsy Jazz guitar masters. In addition to his years of experience building Selmer-style guitars, Eimers has also restored countless vintage Maccaferris, Selmer-Maccaferris, Busatos, Favinos and much more. In this rare workshop opportunity, Eimers will address construction and restoration of a Selmer guitar. It is open to the general public, and during this interactive presentation there will be plenty of opportunities for the audience to ask questions.
Topics will include:
- Woods, construction, finish and setup.
- Learning from Selmer (based on inside photo’s of a restored Selmer guitar)
- Guitar setups for top players like Stochelo Rosenberg, Wawau Adler, Robin Nolan, Boulou and Elios Ferre
*Please
note: All reservations for workshops will be handled through WICA this year
- please do not contact the individual bands/performers. Private lessons are also
available upon request - please inquire here. |
