For a few years now I’ve been wanting to go to one of the many guitar retreats that seem to have become very popular in the last few years. Things always seemed to get in the way of me going, the biggest of which is the fact that the majority of them are abroad and I’m really not ready for the trauma of sending my guitar through baggage handling or even the bigger trauma of having to pay for an extra seat to take it with me. The ones that have been in the UK have been at times when it was impossible for me to go due to gigs I already in the diary or childcare issues etc.

When i received the email about Martin Taylor’s retreat in Scotland my first thought was “That’s do-able”. My second thought was “What’s in my diary that weekend?”. Nothing it turned out. As i read further down I saw that Richard Smith was the guest teacher….and that was it for me. Richard isn’t a household name for most music fans but for guitarists who love the playing of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis & Jerry Reed et al he’s one of THE guitarists in the world that we all love to see play. Knowing that I’d be able to meet, talk to and maybe even play with these two giants of the guitar world was the deal breaker. Once I’d got over how much it would cost (it ain’t cheap!) and squared it with my ever-understanding wife I clicked confirm….

In the following weeks were excitement. The retreat wouldn’t be for another 5-6 months and there was plenty going on between booking and attending. You imagine what it’s going to be like, what you’ll learn, what things you’ll see, what people will be there - slightly different to what i was thinking the week before the retreat. Will I know anyone? Am I good enough? Will it be an egotistical widdle-fest? I’ve beared witness to egotistical widdle-fests in the past and they really aren’t any fun. I had joined the private facebook group set up by the retreat organisers and had said hello to introduce myself and see who else would be going. A couple of guys from America responded and one or two from England so at least I knew a couple of names.

The time came to set off to Scotland, only 4.5 hours away so I took it casual up the M6 from Chorley and arrived in Alyth around 20 minutes before the official start time. I grabbed as much stuff out of my car as I could and went into the Lands of Loyal hotel and from what I could gather everyone else was already there in the main lobby, name tags on and chatting away. “Did I get the times wrong?” I thought. I quickly checked in and lumbered my gear up to my room. I took four guitars due to a lack of spare strings so it was a bit of a clumsy waddle up the stairs. I eventually made it down to start meeting people and I’m not the best in a networking with strangers sort of way, probably why I’ve never applied to be on the apprentice. That and I know sod all about business (neither do they though it seems).

I recognised Jaques from facebook and said hello straight away. He was talking to a couple of guys, Jeff from Baltimore who I also recognised from FaceBook and Odd from Norway. I also spoke to Lennart from the Netherlands and Ian from Huddersfield during that time. I’d calmed down a bit by that point when i noticed Richard Smith walking behind me and I had one of those “Bloody hell, it’s him!” moments. The same happened when I saw Martin Taylor walk through the room for the first time and I had a literal out-of-body experience as I suddenly recalled seeing him in a guitar magazine some 20-odd years ago and struggled to comprehend where I was or how I’d got there.

Introductions for the weekend were made and we all grabbed a guitar and went straight into the first workshop. We started off with a jam, the answer to all crippling nerves I find and everyone was asked to take a solo on a 12 bar blues sequence to loosen us up. After that we got onto the tune which haunted me for 2 days after, All Of Me (the jazz standard, not the John Legend song). I didn’t know the melody before we started and after we’d gone through it a few times, that was it, ear-worm level = pro. We busked through the chords with some tips on how to vary the chords, move between them and strumming techniques. I met Michael during this workshop who was there to film the weekend workshops and performances and provided the videos you see on this blog. He also had good advice about the weekend having attended and filmed at them before.

Richard Smith & Martin Taylor playing together

We went straight to dinner after that and I got to know Pedro from Madrid and also Gerry and his wife, who had paid for the retreat for him as a gift (my wife take note). After dinner was the gut-wrenching part of the weekend, the performances! We were invited to play only if we wanted to and as I hadn’t yet thought of a song to play with Martin or Richard - actually that’s a lie, I had loads but I just couldn’t decide which one - I hadn’t put my name on the list. When Liz, who was in charge of the running order, asked if anyone else wanted to play after the list was exhausted I did the thing I’ve always told myself to do, say yes and then worry about it later. While I’m on this point I’d like to talk about it a little further. I learned a long time ago not to sit on the sidelines in life, to put myself up there and be one of those who can look back and say yes, I did that. Even if sometimes what I did went horrifically wrong, not this time though.

So I’d said I’d play a tune even though I hadn’t decided what to play and as I hopped up the stairs to my room to get my guitar, came back down and sat waiting for the song being played by Martin to finish…..I still hadn’t decided. I have around 200 or so songs in my repertoire, most of which are in my head, so why couldn’t i decide what to play? Thinking about it, it’s what I was thinking the week before the retreat - am I good enough. There’s always the voice in anyone’s head saying “no, don’t do that. You don’t know it well enough and it’ll be rubbish”. This is something Barry Green talks about in his book “The Inner Game of Music”, which I read about 15 years ago. I’ve learned to override that voice, which is why I play in public and at weddings these days, but I digress. As I got up to go and play I suddenly had the flash of comedy theme tune in my head and the last one I had played was ‘Allo ‘Allo so I thought I’d test the water and find out who knew of it. You can see my relief in the video below when a few people gave a semi-cheer. Not the best I’ve ever played it but when you have a silent room of 30 guitarists, 2 of whom are your heroes all listening intently then it’s not surprising that my mind (and fingers) were elsewhere at one or two points. The feeling of having done the thing you were nervous about is one of those feelings that is hard to beat and I’m so glad I got it out of the way on day 1….

The Martin Taylor guitar retreat Nov '19 - day 1