Engines Revving! Now Shift Gears
Level 2/3
This workshop invites participants at the middle/higher end of level 2, as well as more experienced players (level 3), for a solid ride into technique and repertoire building. (Refer to the link “Levels” for a description of these.)
Songs will be taught in their fully decorated versions, but the class will include breakout groups and individual sessions with the instructors, to custom-tailor the experience for each participant. At minimum, there should be some experience with using alternating thumbpicking for establishing a bassline. We will also focus on adding the melody line as a counterpoint, and expand on the use of chord inversions and variations that add spice to the pieces covered.
This class is guaranteed to get your engines revved and fingers moving to further hone your pickin'!
- 08/24/12 - 08/10/12
- Engines revving! Now Shift Gears
- Apply Now!
Get A Double Dose of Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady with a Special Acoustic Duo Workshop! (Level 2/3)
A special Fur Peace Ranch class for serious guitar and bass students. Jorma and Jack will combine their teaching efforts and give this rare guitar/bass class. Guitar and Bass classes will be held separately at times, other times the classes will join up for a unique duo workshop that brings together the music the classes have worked on.
If you want to learn the secrets of this dynamic duo's 50+ career....this is your chance.
Open to Guitar and Bass players. An equal number of each will be accepted. Limited to 8 students per class Don't miss this opportunity!
- 03/16/12 - 03/19/12
- Double Dose with Jorma and Jack Casady
- Apply Now!
Keys to the Highway: Fingerstyle Guitar
Level 2: Intermediate
This workshop explores essential fingerstyle fundamentals using Jorma's repertoire as a vehicle. We will emphasize alternating bass, and melody lines that break out of pattern picking. Variations used within the songs will include chord inversions up the neck, as well as typical licks and fills characteristic of songs in different keys. It will be assumed that students have familiarity with first position chords, and may even have substantial experience as lead or rhythm guitarists. Examples of some songs covered in recent classes include Keep on Truckin; Nine Pound Hammer; Search My Heart; I Know You Rider. Jorma will break down each piece methodically and provide individual attention to each student as the songs are built. Teaching assistant Marjorie Thompson will support this instruction with the individual mini- tutorials in class, after class review sessions, and class notes that reflect each piece as it is developed, with partial tabs, chord patterns, notations and alternatives. She will also make clean recordings of Jorma's renditions reflecting the class notes. These and other handouts (lyric sheets, etc), along with CD copies of the recordings, will be assembled and sent to each participant in the weeks following as a "Jorma pack" for continued study.
- 04/13/12 - 04/16/12
- Keys to the Highway: Fingerstyle Guitar
- Apply Now!
- 05/11/12 - 05/14/12
- Basic Fingerstyle Guitar
- Apply Now!
- 10/26/12 - 10/29/12
- Tribute to the Rev. Gary Davis
- Apply Now!
Movin' On Down The Road: Fingerstyle Guitar
Level 3: Advanced
For players with a well honed thumb, and fingerstyle experience, Jorma will employ his effective teaching technique of presenting his songs by breaking them down into comprehensible parts. He will demonstrate the variety of licks, runs and embellishments that provide style and nuance, and also represent a vocabulary of tools that may be used in various keys. This is an excellent repertoire- building workshop, and will encourage skills that can also be applied to original music, improvisation and arranging.
- 03/30/12 - 04/02/12
- Movin' On Down The Road
- Apply Now!
- 08/10/12 - 08/13/12
- Movin' On Down The Road
- Apply Now!
- 09/07/12 - 09/10/12
- PICK-N-PUTT
- Apply Now!
Carnegie Hall: Fingerstyle Guitar
Level 4: Master
This a master class for the experienced fingerstyle player with a substantial repertoire, and performance experience. The class will focus on certain essential aspects of musicianship, and assume that technical skills, picking hand prowess and knowledge of the fretboard are already securely established. By working on a few exemplary songs, the class will dig deep in exploring how these may be turned into performance pieces with emphasis on dynamics, timing, tasteful improvisation and feeling. It is expected that participants will have taken previous level 3 “proficient player” classes with Jorma, or on occasion, demonstrate clearly equivalent experience based on a screening of submitted material.
- 11/09/12 - 11/12/12
- Carnegie Hall
- Apply Now!
About Jorma Kaukonen: Master Guitar Player
In a career that has spanned nearly a half century, Jorma Kaukonen has been the leading practitioner and teacher of fingerstyle guitar, one of the most highly respected interpreters of American roots music, blues, and Americana, and at the forefront of popular rock-and-roll.
Jorma was a founding member of two legendary bands: The Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, The Jorma Kaukonen-Jack Casady duo created much of the Jefferson Airplane’s signature sound, and Jorma’s lead and fingerstyle guitar playing characterizes some of the band’s most memorable tracks.
Over the last three and a half decades Hot Tuna has performed thousands of concerts all over the world and released more than two dozen records. Jorma and Jack continue to tour as Hot Tuna, in recent years with mandolin virtuoso Barry Mitterhoff. The group has played with many of the legends of the music industry. Jorma was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1996, along with the other members of The Jefferson Airplane.
Jorma has also had more than a dozen solo albums, beginning with 1974’s “Quah” and continuing through “Blue Country Heart” in 2002 and “Stars In My Crown” in 2007.
Jorma’s Grammy-nominated “Blue Country Heart.” pays tribute to the rich, deep aspects of American roots music with Jorma performing the works of his favorite blues and country legends, “Stars In My Crown” is more personal. It features an abundance of original songs, such as,“Late Breaking News,” “A Life Well Lived,” “Living In The Moment,” and the deeply moving “Heart Temporary,” It isn’t entirely original compositions, though, with songs of many styles, from Johnny Cash’s chilling “The Man Comes Around” to a reggae song, “By The Rivers Of Babylon,” to the celebratory title cut, “Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown.”
At Fur Peace Ranch he’s known as “The Captain,” but for music enthusiasts all over the world Jorma Kaukonen is known as the leader of fingerstyle guitar playing, particularly of American roots music.
- “Quah” (1974) with Tom Hobson
- “Jorma” (1979)
- “Barbecue King” (1980) with Vital Parts
- “Too Hot To Handle” (1985)
- “Magic” (1985)
- “Embryonic Journey” (1994) with Tim Constanten
- “Magic Two” (1995)
- “Land of Heroes” (1995)
- “Christmas With Jorma Kaukonen” (1996)
- “Too Many Years” (1998)
- “Live” (2001) Jorma Kaukonen Trio
- “Blue Country Heart” (2002)
- “Stars In My Crown” (2007)
- “River of Time” (2009)
JORMA KAUKONEN DISCOGRAPHY
Multimedia
