Free Concert at the Silver Falls Library! Mark and Greta bring their fun show of guitars, ukes, percussion and vocals to the historic town of Silverton, just a short drive south of Portland. Come see us! Thursday, October 26, 7:00-8:00 PM 410 S. Water St. Silverton, Oregon 503-873-7633 Cost: Free
I’ve had fun attending and performing at several Luthier events this summer. I was the steel-string demonstrator at the GAL (Guild of American Luthiers) convention in Tacoma in July; and a performer, teacher and demonstrator at August’s SBAIC.com in Santa Barbara. At GAL I performed 40 seconds of my arrangement of “Water Is Wide” 33 times in a row – on 33 different guitars! The luthiers wanted to compare apples to apples, hearing the same player play the same piece on all the guitars. Next time maybe I’ll play O.C. Smith’s “Little Green Apples”… In Santa Barbara I had a […]
Tip From Mark – ‘Slap’ Harmonics I had a question from a client recently about making harmonics sound properly. In particular, he asked about picking-hand ‘slap’ harmonics in my arrangement of “Moonshadow” in Travis Pick the Hits! I will discuss technique using that example. If you need more information about playing harmonics successfully, I’ve written an extensive article that you can read here. At measure 60 in “Moonshadow” (shown below), I barre the four treble strings at the 2nd fret, an Amajor chord. This must happen quickly, as I have just fretted two individual strings with fingertips, and pulled off […]
Alternating-Bass Scale Exercise For a recent wedding I was asked to play an instrumental version of singer George Ezra’s uptempo tune “Budapest” as the recessional. This was a fun little project, and a tune that fit right into an alternating-bass Travis-Picking form. The range of the melody suggested the key of D in drop-D tuning. (He sings it in F.) I put the capo on the second fret to approximate the original key (capo III was too high). Due to copyright restrictions, I will not print the arrangement here, but next best: As I toyed with the melody I came […]
Mark plays this thrilling and beautiful fingerstyle guitar solos for three hours in the tasting room during Holloran Vineyards Memorial Day open house. Come join us!
WORKSHOP #1 (To register, call Gryphon at 650-493-2131) 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Introduction to Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar! Gryphon’s old friend Mark Hanson – longtime Gryphon instructor, Grammy winner, Frets editor, and author of “Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar” – will introduce you to the beautiful world of Hawaiian slack key guitar. The essence of slack key is fingerpicking in alternate tunings. In this workshop Mark will concentrate on two tunings: “Taro Patch” (Open-G) and “C-Wahine” (C G D G B E, low to high). You’ll learn the necessary fingerpicking patterns (alternating bass), the common chord shapes, parallel-sixth […]
Acoustic Guitar Summit returns to the Lake Theater Monday Night Music Series in Lake Oswego, Oregon, for their annual holiday concert on December 11. This is a fantastic, but small venue. Seating is limited to 100. Food and beverage are available. Tickets.
Acoustic Guitar Summit returns to the Lake Theater Monday Night Music Series in Lake Oswego, Oregon, on June 12. This is a fantastic, but small venue. Seating is limited to 100. Food and beverage are available. Tickets.
Acoustic Guitar Summit plays a benefit concert in Cameron Park, California.
Acoustic Guitar Summit’s 23rd annual holiday concert.