Courses
Guitar Lab - Performance Techniques and Comping
A performance lab for guitarists focusing on combining jazz style harmonic techniques with the development of rhythmic flexibility.
Guitar Lab - Developmental Arpeggios
Instrumental lab for guitar principals dealing with two-octave, three- and four-part arpeggios across the guitar. Included in weekly assignments will be exercises and drill studies.
Groove Concept for Funk Guitar Performance
This lab will break down all aspects of funk guitar styles.
Advanced Blues/Rock Guitar Techniques
Study of advanced rock and blues guitar techniques: string bending, chromatic harmony in the idiom, tone production, and repertoire.
Slide Guitar Lab
Study of technique, repertoire, and improvisational approaches with regard to contemporary slide-guitar performance.
Steel Guitar Lab
Aspects of steel guitar performances in exemplary styles including Hawaiian, western swing, country, blues, and jazz. Extensive listening and study of transcribed examples.
Rock Guitar Lab
Performance of material from Rock Guitar Styles including extensive lead and rhythm examples in all idioms of rock music from the 1950s to the present day.
Jazz/Rock Rhythm Guitar Playing
The application of harmony as it occurs in popular music. Rhythm guitar parts presented through tapes, transcriptions, and demonstrations of jazz, rock, funk, and fusion records.
Jazz/Rock Improvisation for Guitar
Study and application of scales and harmony in this style of improvisation and their application to the guitar, including fingering and guitaristic devices (string bending, slides, etc.).
The Music of Kenny Burrell and Grant Green
Students will listen, analyze, transcribe, and perform solos by guitarists Kenny Burrell and Grant Green.
Hard Rock/Metal Lab
Exploration of technical innovations provided by three decades of classically influenced, hard-rock players.
Jimmy Page Lab
A concentrated course of study for guitarists based on the music of Jimmy Page.
Jazz/Blues Guitar
This lab focuses on basic to intermediate jazz blues techniques including single-note blues heads, solos, and standard dominant-seventh, minor-seventh, and major-seventh blues progressions.
Performing Solo Guitarist
This lab offers students the opportunity to perform solo guitar pieces in any style, to develop solo guitar arrangements or compositions for performance, and to exploit the harmonic/melodic capabil
Fingerpicking Blues Guitar
Study of technique, repertoire, and improvisational approaches in the fingerpicking style of playing blues guitar.
Guitar Chord Soloing
Immediately accessible mechanical and nonmechanical techniques for the development of arrangements for solo guitar. Each week a step-by-step approach will be demonstrated and discussed.
Guitar Chart Reading and Performance
Development of reading skills focusing on interpretation of lead sheets as well as performance of guitar parts.
Guitarmony 1
Complete enharmonic examination of four-note structures beginning with "drop 2" type voicings and including various tension additions and substitutions.
Standard Tune Workshop for the Guitarist
Standard tunes are prepared (melody, chords, bass lines, and improvisation) for critiqued performance on a weekly basis.
Creative Applications for Proficiency Materials
This lab will explore creative applications for Guitar Department final exam materials with emphasis on improvisation, accompaniment, and composition in non-jazz contexts, including use of triadic