Hornby Island Blues Workshop

Choosing workshops:

Each student will choose one major class, taken from 9:30 - noon daily, and one minor class for each afternoon, from 1:30pm - 3:00pm.

Classes fill up quickly, so we ask that you have a second choice, in the event that your first choice is already full.

Workshop descriptions are subject to change. We'll keep this page up to date as changes occur.

Dalannah Gail Bowen

These workshops will have interest for those who are approaching songwriting from an accapella perspective.

Major: Songwriting
Having written my first recorded blues song at the age of 61, I will be sharing my experience of songwriting from an unconventional approach. This workshop will explore the journey starting with an idea to a song.

Tuesday Minor: What's in a Song Lyric?
What makes a song memorable? Where do we find themes for content? Are the words important.? Are you telling a story or sending a message? How do you bring your ideas together to be a cohesive listenable story?

Wednesday Minor: Harmony with Suzie Vinnick

Thursday minor: The Voice is an InstrumentThis workshop is for anyone who would like to sing. We will look at approaches to getting to know your voice and 'opening the door'.

Michael Jerome Browne

Major: Mississippi Delta Blues Guitar (Intermediate): An overview of Delta Blues styles in standard tuning and open G (with and without the slide). Starting with Charley Patton & Willie Brown, we will move on to Son House, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, with side trips to John Lee Hooker and R.L. Burnside. Students should be intermediate (or advanced, with little or no knowledge of Delta styles); knowledge of finger-picking techniques is not required, but wouldn't hurt.

Tuesday minor: Open Tunings (All levels): We will explore the two main open tunings- Open D (Vastapol) and Open G (Spanish) used in traditional blues. We will deliberately not focus on the slide (though we will explore it a bit), but instead learn how to get around in these tunings with our fingers. Students can be at any level, as long as open tunings are relatively new to them. Here are some of the artists whose work we will touch on: Lead Belly, Memphis Minnie, Big Bill Broonzy, Fred McDowell, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley.

Wednesday minor: Finger-picking techniques in Blues and Ragtime (Intermediate to Advanced): In this class, we will go beyond the keys of E and A that are so common in country blues, and explore C, G, and D (including dropped-D tuning). This is for guitarists with a good grasp of alternating-bass finger-picking, who want to take their playing a step further. We will look at Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake, Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson and others.

Thursday minor: Blues Fiddle (Intermediate players or advanced players who don't play much blues): This is for people who already play the violin (or fiddle) reasonably well and want to learn how to play the blues. We will seek inspiration from traditional string band/jug band players like Henry Sims, Lonnie Chatman, Will Batts, Charlie Pierce and Eddie Anthony.

Paul Deslauriers

Major: Acoustic vs. Electric Rhythm and Lead Guitar: From the Rambler to the Rock Star! Wanna learn to burn on both electric and acoustic guitars? Do it all? From your house party to your garage band, your coffeehouse to your local blues jam and from your concert hall to your arena, learn what it takes to be a master at both. They're two very different beasts, yet the complete guitarist needs to know how shine on both. We'll be looking at Blues, Rock and Folk styles and how to transfer your playing abilities to both instruments. Tons of fun!

Tuesday Minor: Ripping on the Acoustic Guitar (Intermediate to Advanced): When you think acoustic guitars, most of us think gentle strumming and folk melodies, well think again! We¹ll be looking at how to tear up your flat-top, simultaneously comping and soloing using open strings and using those sweet spots on your fretboard!

Wednesday Minor: Jam Your Face Off!!: People love to jam, but few know the ins and outs of doing it right! Find out the dos and don'ts of sitting in, calling tunes, leading the band and doing it right, plus you get to ask me anything you want about 25 years on the road! All musicians and singers are welcome.

Thursday Minor: British Electric Blues-Rock Guitar (Intermediate to Advanced): Clapton, Page, Beck, Peter Green or even Kossoff ring a bell? The foundations of blues-rock were laid down by these burning Brits! Learn how those guys got their magic tones and phrasing., who they listened to and how they supercharged American blues into the psychedelic stratosphere!

Rick Fines

Major: Week-long Jammin the Blues: It's jamming with pointers. We'll decide on several grooves and songs and play them everyday. It's the way Rick learned to play. Let's dig in and explore what we can do to play together better! Learn from Rick and learn from each other (but don't take over, it's Rick's class)!

Tuesday Minor: D Minor Tuning: Let's take a look at this unusual tuning used by Skip James - You'll learn a funky new tuning that expresses the darker side of Blues. A combination of "open D" and standard tuning, that can help you find some of the mood of Skip's "Devil Got My Woman" that educated songs like Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain."

Wednesday Minor: Open G Tuning with Rick: Rick will review the various songs and riffs he's found in open G. Bring your questions and ideas, because the direction of this will be determined by what participants want to learn - slide, fingerstyle, left-and right-hand fingering... come because you like open G and want to pick up something new!

Thursday Minor: Drop D - Explore Fingerstyle Blues in Drop D tuning: "Drop D" gives you octaves to start with for your "Alternating Thumb" and leaves the fretboard open for melody and improvisation when fingerpicking.

David Gogo

Major: Electric Blues Guitar Soloing and Rocking Out (Intermediate): We'll learn to solo blues rock style throughout the ages from T-Bone Walker to B.B., Freddie and Albert King, to Buddy Guy, the sixties British guys like Clapton, Jeff Beck and Mick Taylor and onwards to Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. We'll apply what we learn to a song that we'll perform at the student concert. Bring your amp and some attitude!

Tuesday minor: Beginner Slide Guitar in Open Tuning: It doesn't matter if you've never played slide before. You can walk in a novice and walk out the next Hound Dog Taylor! Bring a slide, wig not included!

Wednesday minor: Lead Rhythm Guitar: Learn the R&B lead rhythm style made famous in Muscle Shoals and Memphis. Think Curtis Mayfield and Jimi Hendrix in a " Little Wing " mode. It’ll be fun and easier than you think. Impress your friends - both of them!

Thursday minor: Livin' The Blues:
I'll give away some of my secrets on how to actually attempt to make a living playing the blues on planet Earth. I'll talk about choosing material, playing acoustic solo versus with the band, marketing and building your profile.

Billy Hicks

Major: Becoming the Bluesman with the Beat: Each class will focus on different styles of Blues drumming. We will begin with listening to some drumming masters, break down their grooves, discuss what is being achieved and explore how to bring some of their feels and subtleties into your own personal drumming. We will cover all aspects of Blues drumming, including: (1) What makes a shuffle shuffle, (2) Laying down that fat Blues feel, and (3) Supporting soloists and leading and following volume and intensity builds, while also being ready for softer dynamics in a song. We will also practice being able to recognize when a song is ending and understanding bandleader cutoff and song ending cues. (As it is good to all stop at the same time!!!)

Some other topics of discussion each day, will be:
• Fitting in with your fellow musicians on a musical and personal level.
• Approaching a song from behind your kit.
• Tuning drums, Dynamics and Practice Practice Practice!!!
• How to turn the infamous 'Drum Solo' into more of a musical and style-appropriate part of any song.

Tuesday Minor: TBA

Wednesday Minor: TBA

Thursday Minor: TBA

Russell Jackson

For both electric and Stand up Bass.

Major: Chicago Style Blues (1940 to present time)
This class will consist of all the different shuffles, rythms and basic blues bass lines that you need to know.

Tuesday Minor: Swinging the Blues
In this class I will teach how to walk the bass (swing) inside of the different forms.

Wednesday Minor: Funk Style
I will be showing bass students how to play funk, (slap bass) inside the 12 bar blues.

Thursday Minor: Different Forms
I will teach students the 4 major forms of the blues. 8, 12, 16, and 24 bar blues.

Carlos del Junco

Major: Intermediate to Advanced Harmonica:
Do you really know how to bend a note in pitch? The harmonica involves a lot of basic techniques like bending a note well and in tune. Once I know you have basic and some advanced blowing techniques (bending notes accurately being one of the main ones) I will teach you how to listen and transcribe solos. This involves committing to memory your favourite solos of your favourite players by working with easy to use "Transcribe!" computer software. The more you do this, the more you will start to expand your music vocabulary. All the great blues and jazz players did this at one time or another when they were learning. Also you need to have an understanding of the basic scales to use when improvising on a blues. Expanding your improvisation techniques through use of scales is essential to your playing. This class will briefly cover very basic music theory and how it applies to the traditional 10 hole diatonic harmonica using easy to read harmonica tablature.

Tuesday Minor: The Bending Note Challenge to Overblowing:
Everybody thinks that they can bend a note properly, but.... using them effectively in context is a separate skill. We will look at bending notes and take a brief look at overblows as well.

Wednesday Minor: Transcribing Harp Solos :
This class will focus on how the use of computer software can speed up one's practicing and learning capabilities and can help players understand how to transcribe harp solos effectively. It is one of the best things one can do to become a better player!

Thursday Minor: How to build solo ideas and comping behind someone else (singer or
another soloist)

Paul Pigat

Major: Country Blues and Fingerstyle Guitar: In this course, we will be exploring some simple tunes by Doc Watson, Merle Travis as well as work at some original exercises. We will practice some simple thumb/finger techniques to get you going in great solo guitar style!! Thumbpick is an asset but by no means required!!

Tuesday Minor: Cheating your way through Jazz (soloing with major and minor pantatonics)
So you've always wanted to put some "jazz" into your blues but there seems to be so much to learn! Arpeggios, modes, altered scales etc! Wow, that's a lot to digest. Although all that information is a huge asset, there are a few shortcuts to at least get some new "jazzy sounds" into your playing. In this course we'll look at 12 bar blues with a few simple chord substitutions that will give you framework to start playing over. For the solo aspect of the course we will explore interchanging both the major and minor panatonic scales to fit over these new chords to create a whole new "colour" to your playing!! Thanks Danny Gatton!

Wednesday Minor: Country Sounds for your Blues:
I always love hearing a bit of hotrod country in my blues. We'll be looking at a bunch of country techniques such as double stops, chicken picking and bends to put a cowboy hat on your 2 tone shoes! Electric guitars and light strings a must!

Thursday Minor: Rockabilly Jam:
Just what it sounds like! An afternoon of hillbilly good times where we'll learn some simple Elvis and Johnny Cash and rock out!!! I'll play bass!!!!!!!!!

David Vest

Major: Piano Blues and Boogie-Woogie: We'll begin with a review of the basics -- common chord progressions (8-bar, 12-bar, 16-bar etc) and left hand patterns. We'll touch on different approaches to playing in major and minor keys. Then we'll focus on making it all sound professional, with different ‘turnarounds’ and voicings and elegant ways to get from one chord to another, plus a bit of what the old-time pros called "artifice" (glissandos, trills, fast runs, etc). Rhythmically we'll focus on swing, shuffle and rhumba. We’ll learn the basic boogie-woogie left-hand styles of Pinetop, Pete Johnson, Amos Milburn and others. And we will emphasize "playing attention," the art of listening to others while you play music together, and of course what to do when it's your time to solo. We will also prepare a song to present at the student concert.

Tuesday Minor: Piano Blues -- The Basic Repertoire: Starting with W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues," we'll select a few songs that every blues piano player should learn to play. Then we'll experience some of the history of blues piano by listening first to very early recordings of those songs, and then to the way different blues masters have played them, down through the years. This is primarily a listening class, but we will pause often to demonstrate how to play what we're hearing and to try out some of the songs. We will encounter some of the greats of blues piano, such as Avery Parish, Memphis Slim, Katie Webster, Lloyd Glenn, Pinetop Perkins, Julia Lee and Otis Spann. I will tell you a little about each musician and introduce you to some songs that have become blues standards.

Wednesday Minor: Down at the Crossroads (Where Blues, Jazz and Gospel All Meet): We'll listen to recordings that show why blues is the foundation not only for rock and roll but for jazz and gospel music as well. Many great blues artists (such as Big Joe Turner) stood with one foot on either side of the line that supposedly separates blues from jazz. That's also true of many piano players. We'll hear Duke Ellington play blues piano, proving that "it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!" Blues and gospel are also closely related. In fact, most critics say that blues came from gospel. But is that true? Or was it the other way around, as gospel's greatest composer claimed? We will listen to some gospel songs performed by great blues artists.

Thursday Minor: How to Jam with a Rhythm Section: In this class we will team up with the bass players and drummers and learn how to play cohesively as a rhythm section: how to ‘get in the groove’ with each other, when to play fills, how to avoid stepping on each other, and how to back up a soloist.

Suzie Vinnick

Major: Vocals
For this course we’ll look at the basics of singing and give you a vocal warm-up to take away with you. We’ll listen to and learn about some of the original and current blues and gospel singers. Most importantly we’ll put those vocal chords to use by doing some blues, gospel, funk 'n soul singing!

Tuesday Minor: Songwriting Tools: In this songwriting minor we’ll talk about and work with some songwriting tools you can use to help with your song writing, including object writing, sense-based writing and brainstorming. I’ll walk you through a song path i.e. where a song started and how it got to ‘finish’. We’ll also take some time for you to share a song and get some feedback if you wish.

Wednesday Minor: Harmony with Dalannah Gail Bowen

Thursday Minor: Suzie's Mentoring Session: For this workshop please bring something you’d like help with/coaching on –or come and learn from other students issues . Examples could include a song that you’re trying to find the right key for or a harmony for (please bring music and/or a lyric in case I'm not familiar with it), I can teach you how to write a chart for your song, help you to figure out a guitar part or bass line, give you feedback on a song. You can also bring questions about the music business or anything else music-oriented that you think I might be able to help you with. (Students will be encouraged to send possible questions to Suzie in advance for this class)