When:  Saturday, 10/14/23 - Tuesday, 10/17/23, with an optional meet-and-greet on Friday, 10/13/23 evening (5:00-7:00).

• Saturday:  9:30-12:00, 1:00-4:30

• Sunday:  9:30-12:00, 1:00-4:30

• Monday:  9:30-12:00, Performance 7:00-10:00

• Tuesday: 9:30 - 12:00 Wrap up

Where:  The Lodge at Woods Boss Brewing Company, 2210 California St, Denver, CO 80205.  

Cost: $1,750.00. Covers tuition, materials, continental breakfast, and catered lunch Sat-Mon. (Travel and lodging not included.)

Registration: The registration link will be posted in the Studio on 4/21/2023. Remaining seats will be available to other Patrons on 4/28/2023.

Refund Policy: Cancellations 30 days or more before the course start date receive a 90% refund. Cancellations received less than 30 days before the start date receive a 50% refund. Cancellations on the start date and no-shows are non-refundable.

Description

Join me for an intimate, in-person Guitar Performance Workshop with up to 10 other curious guitarists where you’ll close the gap between your current capabilities and where you want to be as a performer. Over the course of 4 days, you’ll engage in classroom instruction, exercises, and practice routines, culminating in the opportunity to play in front of a live audience. 

A musician is a performer by nature. You can slice it anyway you wish, but being able to play a musical piece on your chosen instrument is a performance, even if the audience is just your dog. And while your dog may be completely content to forgive timing issues, starts and stops, or a missed chord, sharing your music with other humans comes with unspoken expectations of the quality of your performance. In front of your loved ones, these are just hopes for your success. In front of acquaintances around a campfire, or strangers at an open mic night, they are a social contract that suggests you’ll be able to hold the music together for everyone to enjoy.  

We all have visions of what we aspire to sound like when we perform. And we organically feel how far from those visions we actually are, even if we cannot fully describe the gap. Closing the Gap will identify what that gap is for you, expose the capabilities that are missing or need strengthening, and then you’ll do the work to close it. It’s designed to get your overall guitar capability “performance ready”.  

You will perform each day of the course. It will be the first thing you do after you have coffee and a muffin with your fellow students on Saturday morning, and it will be the last thing you do before you say goodbye. The highlight will be performing (with my band or playing unaccompanied) in front of a small, hand-picked audience who both carry those unspoken expectations and are also committed to your success: somewhere between your dog and those strangers at the open mic night.

Closing the Gap is designed to pull you out of your comfort zone. You’ll undoubtedly face challenges and expose capability deficits, but you’ll be doing it in a supportive environment. I’ll be right there with you as will your fellow students who will be doing the same level of work right beside you.

Day One: Find The Gap

• Morning:  State your performance-related goal(s). Then, through guided performance exercises, identify the gap between your current capability and where you want to be. 

• Afternoon:  Take in feedback from your peers and re-evaluate what your gap might actually be.

• Homework:  Write down what you learned and edit your goals.

Day Two: Close It 

• Morning:  Re-state your updated goals to the group and get the feedback you need. 

• Afternoon:  Identify goal-specific exercises and practice routines to begin closing the gap.

• Homework:  Practice, practice, practice.

Day Three: Prove It

• Morning: Put your new capability to work through more guided performance exercises, You’ll see where you made progress and what is left to do.

• Afternoon homework: Practice for the gig and get dressed!

• Evening: Perform live for your classmates and an audience, and show us the distance you’ve crossed.

Day Four: Create Your Roadmap

• Morning: We’ll de-brief and talk through where you nailed it, what’s left for you to work on, and how prepared you are to tackle it. Then we, all of us together, will help you define concrete steps to continue on your journey.

I hope you’ll join me in Denver this September. Your dog will thank you.

-Chris