Overview

For 2010 IGF welcomes back the exceptional Denny Ilett (by popular demand), and three exciting new guests for a week of workshops, concerts and jamming.

We are extremely lucky to have, all the way from the US, Alvin Youngblood Hart. Alvin is an exceptional acoustic and electric player with an authentic soul that oozes the blues from ever pore. Alvin joins Denny’s electric class and Skip’s Acoustic Blues class. Skip ‘ Little Axe’ McDonald is from Dayton, Ohio in the USA, another pioneering artist with true blues roots and a talent for story telling.

Simon McBride also makes his IGF debut, tipped by Guitarist Magazine to be the revelation of the 2009-2010 blues scene, Simon is an almighty player with a passion for Hendrix and SRV. Students joining Simon’s class will be able to take part in a special Hendrix focus commemorating 40years since his passing.

IGF’s famous blues programme is extremely popular and places are limited so be sure to book early!!

See IGF tutors and guests at www.youtube.com/guitarfoundation

Acoustic Blues with Skip McDonald and guest Alvin Youngblood Hart: Level 2/3

This workshop is about the acoustic blues music associated with the Mississippi Delta and artists such as Bukka White, Son House, Tampa Red, Blind Boy Fuller and more recently Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and Eric Bibb. Students don’t need to play a Resonator to join any acoustic will do as this is also about the music and techniques that are transferable to any guitar: altered tunings, standard position and the bottleneck! Immerse yourself in the music and historical traditions of the Deep South.

Please note, slide is not the main focus of this week, it is one of several techniques that will be covered during your workshop.

Heavy Blues with Simon McBride: Level 2/3 
Heavy Blues is for students that like a rock edge to their blues and is aimed at adventurous students of an intermediate and advanced level. Simon will provide an aural demonstration and students can expect to cover a range of blues and blues rock artists from Buddy Guy to SRV and befitting the 40th anniversary of his death, Jimi Hendrix. Areas covered throughout the week will include improvisation, rhythm and lead playing, left and right hand technique, tone etc.

IGF Blues Academy with Denny Ilett and guest Alvin Youngblood Hart: Level 4 

The Blues Academy will help students to discover their own blues sound. Exploring a range of techniques, these workshops are for students with good listening skills. Denny will provide both an aural demonstration for non-readers and chord charts and tab for students wanting formal reference material.

Blues Workshop Profile

Soloing techniques

-Bending, vibrato, hammer-ons and pull-offs, multiple picking techniques.

-Improvising using both traditional blues scales and other scales.

-Creative improvisation by aural means, combining scales to build solos with a focus on

phrasing, melodic development and incorporating stylistic trademarks.

-Getting a good tone from your instrument, with left and right hand tone production.

Rhythm playing

-Turn-arounds, double stops, chord substitutions and extended chord voicings.

-Timing, playing with a strong swing feel, different shuffle rhythms and classic major and minor blues progressions.

-The importance of having a strong rhythmic foundation and understanding of chords in order to develop your improvisational lead guitar ability.