So, to day 3 of the retreat, the final day of workshops, cock-a-leekie soup (great stuff, even with a prune in it) and performances. I didn’t manage to make it out of bed for breakfast this day, I was just too tired after we’d stayed up late jamming once again the previous night. So I casually made it downstairs just after 9am and had some coffee and talked to people in the lobby while we waited for the first workshop at 10am. We started out working more on ‘’All Of Me’”, how to improvise over the song using the melody as a basis and adding rhythmic devices, motifs etc. A list was created showing us all these ideas and more - there’s a picture of that list somewhere, good thing too as I’ve forgotten what was on it 😁.

We also spent a bit of time with “Moon River” using a basic lead sheet to create our own arrangements. This is something I do a lot of and had already created an arrangement of this song, which I played at a wedding at Rookery Hall in Cheshire some years ago and since forgotten it completely. There’s something very satisfying in making a new arrangement in a completely new key so I tried to stay away from my previous version in F and found a new way to play it in G. One day I’ll get round to recording one of those versions…

After coffee we had the absolute, unadulterated pleasure of watching Richard perform his arrangement of “The Entertainer” in close proximity and then listen to him dissect it afterwards to explain his thinking behind certain moves or parts. It’s very interesting in that when I (we) do listen to pieces such as this that we just hear things and don’t think as to the why, what & wherefore. Noticing tiny things like a note that looks in an odd place on the music but is purposely placed, maybe even with an awkward finger move to bring out a sound that a piano made on a recording. That, I think, is the difference between a good arrangement and a great arrangement.

We had a break from guitar for the next session with a vocal workshop with Alison Burns, a very good jazz singer and teacher. It focused a lot on breathing techniques and we were all stood with our hands on our backs at one point while leaning forward…I forget why 😄. It was very informative though and I’ve used the “singer’s breath” suggestion ever since. Also, the memory of 25 grown men stood in a room all humming low to high and high to low notes will live with me forever….

The final workshop was about ear training, connecting your ear to your guitar and vice versa so as to be able to “play what you hear”. This is a concept that everyone aspires to but is so hard to achieve. The answer to that problem of course is to practice. This is where I realise that all my previous experience of teaching guitar in schools really helped me to be able to work out songs quickly and be able to ‘feel’ where the melody will be on the guitar. All those hours humming the tune at the kids in the hope they’d find the note while I was playing the rhythm part must have set my musical brain on a course and that, my friends, is where I realise that all of this ties together. All the technique in the world won’t make you a great guitar player. Learning Hendrix solos note for note won’t make you a great musician, it’ll just make you great at playing Hendrix solos. The listening, the visualisation, the practice of putting it all together and even the attempt at passing it on to others is what will make you a great musician. A bit of everything is necessary…

What is also necessary is to see up close what the masters do and how they do it and this weekend was all about that. Being able to see Martin Taylor & Richard Smith do what they do and do so well and be able to listen to them explain what they’re doing, how they do it do also why they do it is a lesson I will never forget. Thanks to Martin, Richard, James, Alison, Liz and all the guys from across the world who I met and played guitar (and drank) with for making it such a great weekend!

Finally, here are the last two songs I performed over the weekend. “Here, There & Everywhere” performed with Jacques & Jeff was an idea we had after playing it once through at 1am the night before and “Jerry’s Breakdown” was a dare by Odd, my friend from Norway. Glad he dared me though 😉

The Martin Taylor guitar retreat Nov ‘19 - Day 3