Very nicely done!

I saw Tommy in solo concert in Orlando. It was a beautiful show.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
I saw Tommy in solo concert in Orlando. It was a beautiful show.

I saw him a few years ago. The next day I donated my guitars to charity.

I got to hang out and play music with Tommy and John in Nashville last year. Both are genuinely unpretentious despite their superhuman talents.

^^^ I'm impressed!

I attended the Tommy Emmanuel 4 day guitar camp where we had plenty of social and playing time with all of the instructors in small groups and individually. My skills definitely went up several levels as a result.

Every video you see of Tommy is exactly how he really is. Just totally present and encouraging. Ditto John Knowles. I can't say enough about how positive the experience was.

One weird and unexpected outcome for me was getting hearing aids. Tommy has very significant life long hearing loss and wears hearing aids, which he talked about. I was prejudiced against them from my mother's experience being poor.

Very, very nice!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
I attended the Tommy Emmanuel 4 day guitar camp where we had plenty of social and playing time with all of the instructors in small groups and individually. My skills definitely went up several levels as a result.

Every video you see of Tommy is exactly how he really is. Just totally present and encouraging. Ditto John Knowles. I can't say enough about how positive the experience was.

One weird and unexpected outcome for me was getting hearing aids. Tommy has very significant life long hearing loss and wears hearing aids, which he talked about. I was prejudiced against them from my mother's experience being poor.

Thanks for your evaluation. I've seen that Tommy holds these guitar camps and wondered how beneficial they were and if someone with lesser experience could really make use of them. I know they aren't cheap.

Can a somewhat intermediate player really gain from such a camp?

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:

Thanks for your evaluation. I've seen that Tommy holds these guitar camps and wondered how beneficial they were and if someone with lesser experience could really make use of them. I know they aren't cheap.

Can a somewhat intermediate player really gain from such a camp?

Yes, everyone can gain a lot from these camps, but is it worth the $$? For me, I found the instruction excellent and the inspiration carried me forward a lot in the year that followed. It was worth it once, but I won't do another at that price point.

Yes, everything I learned could have been found on YouTube or in books, but the experience makes it a vastly better learning tool. For me, in person lessons are far more effective than when I sometimes have to do a zoom lesson (I have weekly 1 hour lessons at my instructor's studio).

The Tommy Emmanuel camp is very much fingerstyle focused. The instructors vary the lessons from classical to jazz to country, but all of it is fingerstyle. So it isn't for someone who isn't interested in that. There was very little if any theory knowledge needed.

Students have 2 group lessons each morning and 2 each afternoon. There are 1 or 2 lectures daily that everyone attends. Emmylou Harris was a guest instructor who gave a 2 hour lesson on alternate tunings. Each student has an individual coach who is one of the instructors randomly assigned. Each evening there is a performance in the main auditorium. Informally there is a jam room where you can walk in and play with other students, and late each evening there is an open mic.

My individual coach was Livingston Taylor, and that was the biggest benefit to me out of the camp. In the group lessons I got some excellent jumping off points to bring home and work on. All off the instructors were highly accomplished professionals who are guitar geeks and love hanging out with other guitar players.

The student group was probably about 80% like me, meaning intermediate or better, but not professional and weren't music majors in college. About 10% were lower intermediate but not rank beginners, and the other 10% were active semi-professionals who aspired to the big time. Similarly, about 80% of us were not extroverts. There were one or two high school or college age students, most were age 50-70, and maybe 20% were under age 50. About 95% male students. Plenty of spouses as non-students.

So that all plays into the social aspect of the camp, which for me was a disappointment. The extroverts who wanted to be discovered tended to group up and were showing off at every opportunity. It kind of dominated the open mic and jam situation, which became competitive and serious. I think the camp could have managed the social side a lot better. My wife and I went with another couple that are long time friends, so we men did the camp while the women enjoyed Nashville (mostly shopping and eating!). So it worked out for us socially, but had I gone alone I think it would not have been as much fun.

In terms of lessons, while they were excellent, there wasn't continuity. Only one session with each of the instructors. I would have preferred doing multiple sessions with only 2 or 3 of the instructors. While I got exposed to a big variety of techniques and ideas, more immersion would be my preference. I'm sure many students were the opposite, liking a bit of everything spread across many instructors. You do have to think of the camp as giving you starting points, not as woodshedding where you come home immediately much better.

Fly-Sig, thanks for the very thorough reply! From your description, I can understand your complaints. I would have thought they would guard against the "show offs" during the jams and open mics, but maybe it's difficult to do without kind of causing a scene.

I'm also surprised it was all finger style playing. Although I enjoy that, different patterns aren't always easy to grasp quickly. And cutting out using a pick....and hybrid picking really eliminates a lot of variety.

I do like that there is little theory involved and therefore more technique and practical instruction.

Do the various sessions include written material that can refresh your mind once you've left the camp? I'd be afraid I'd forget much of what was taught. Do they allow video recording of some parts of the lessons?

I can certainly see how it would be motivating once you leave.

Thanks again for replying in such detail about your thoughts.

For the jams and open mics, it was a free-for-all. It would have taken more supervision, perhaps led by one of the instructors, to make especially the jams more relaxed. Maybe handing out chord sheets or publishing a list of songs for students to prepare for. For the open mic, idk how to really solve that. Perhaps just have more opportunity for individuals to perform during the day? Part of the problem with open mics was they started quite late, with limited slots.

Each instructor has his own playing style, so hybrid picking isn't necessarily out of bounds. Tommy plays with a thumb pick, so his performances are a mix of mostly fingerstyle with some strumming or single note picking. The camp doesn't cover bluegrass flatpicking or lead guitar blues or rock and roll.

The only theory I recall was mention of the Nashville Number System. Really though no theoretical knowledge is needed.

Some of the sessions handed out printed material. Everyone took some notes. Yes, videoing the lessons is completely encouraged. The only prohibition on video or photography is during the evening performances by the instructors.

The Bee Gees laid out a huge body of work of their own and not to mention all the music they had written and produced for other artists. So much of that body of work all became hit records. Barry is the only one left. Theirs is a tragic story as well.

Thanks again, Fly-Sig!