Stu Hamm is a bass phenom who gained national attention for complimenting guitarists like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. His ability to play piano-like solos on four strings stuns audiences. He has been featured on the covers of Bass Player and Bass Frontiers. Hamm travels the world performing and teaching master classes. Critics routinely describe the task of emulating his chops to be impossible. He is known for mastering a number of difficult techniques, most notably a melodic two-hand slapping technique. Fender has released two signature model basses designed by Hamm. Stu's workshop covers his perspective on working with some of the greatest guitar players in the biz.

Instructor: Stu Hamm
Level: All Levels

As anyone who squeaked through 10th grade history knows, the alchemists were a semi-scientific posse of medieval individuals utterly hung up on the notion of transforming lead into gold. Blues Alchemy addresses a much more useful and likely kind of transformation: turning those leaden, everyday blues licks and chord progressions into tasty and intriguing improvisational gold. Blues Alchemy is about learning to play the changes, but not in the sense that jazz musicians do – it isn’t about learning every arpeggio and mode under the sun. Instead, master blues alchemist David Hamburger will teach you how to transform your blues bag into gold by learning how to target tones and "play the changes" on a Texas shuffle and a straight-eighths Jimmy Reed groove.

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: David Hamburger
Level: Intermediate/Advanced

It's all too easy to fall into that rut where nothing sounds new. If you've been spinning your wheels with those same old pentatonic licks, no worries... Jeff's Blues-Rock Secret Sauce class will equip you with essential concepts and techniques that you can apply in any blues-rock setting. This workshop will teach you how to slip "outside" and back again and how to incorporate and pull off intervallic lines in your solos. You'll also learn the ins and outs of dynamic phrasing, melodic playing and modal playing -- all with an emphasis on creating tasty, original solos and comps. Jeff will also discuss his approach to combining the modes with pentatonic scales to create killer rock licks with a fresh sound. If you want to dust off your chops, get a fresh outlook and recharge your sound, check out Secret Sauce.

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: Jeff Scheetz
Level: Intermediate/Advanced

New York guitarist, producer and top-notch educator Jeff McErlain's shows you how to pull your blues apart and put them back together again so they’re hotter, more fluid and far more exciting to play. In this workshop, you'll delve deep into the fretboard as Jeff reveals the genetic code of blues-based rockers from Beck and Hendrix to David Grissom and Scott Henderson, revealing a few of his own favorite innovations along the way. Jeff will cover applying the Mixolydian and Dorian modes to blues, and using double-stops and the open position to fire up your playing on everything from a roots-rock blues to a Hendrix vamp. You'll also score moves to accelerate your rhythm playing, and gain insights into hybrid grip picking, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends and double-stop bends.

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: Jeff McErlain
Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Brad Carlton's Bluesology course thoroughly examines the theory and harmony behind performing, composing and improvising the blues. Covering rhythmic patterns, progressions, solo development and essential techniques for electric blues guitar, Bluesology is meant to help you fill in the blanks and understand why blues soloing works the way it does and how you can get more of those sounds under your fingers. In this workshop for intermediate to early-advanced players, Brad will present an in-depth examination of two essential blues forms, dominant blues and minor blues, from a theoretical and harmonic perspective. You'll be introduced to concepts in bite-size chunks that you can immediately begin practicing and applying to wide variety of tunes and grooves.

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: Brad Carlton
Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Most players have a general understanding of the CAGED system - five moveable major chord forms (C, A, G, E and D) that can be played in any position, up and down the neck. Most players are also familiar with EDCAG - the five moveable minor forms that can likewise be played in any position, up and down the fretboard. CAGED and EDCAG gives players a much broader perspective of the fretboard and provides a significantly wider selection of chord choices and positions for any given tune. Brad Carlton's CAGED Cracked workshop will unlock the improvisational firepower of CAGED for not just rhythm work but fills, solos and melodies as well. The ultimate "rut-buster," CAGED Cracked will quickly transform every aspect of your playing from B&W to color.

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: Brad Carlton
Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Imagine walking into any recording or live gig with just your laptop and a guitar, plugging into the board or the PA system, and having every conceivable tone, effect, amp and cabinet simulation at your fingertips. That’s Geek Guitar! Geek Guitar is a plain-language workshop covering recording, notation and live performance technologies for guitarists. Our resident Geekness, Marc Schonbrun will show you how to easily record your guitar into a computer (with and without midi), tap into thousands of effects and amp simulations, lay down any type of instrument track using your guitar, layer in loops of any variety and tweak all to your hearts delight. In short, you’ll learn how to create professional sounding songs with you playing all of the instruments on a single guitar.

What to bring: Don't need your guitar here, just bring an open mind prepared to blown away!

Instructor: Marc Schonbrun
Level: Intermediate/Advanced

The "relentless pursuit of tone" keeps most players awake at night tweaking guitars, amps, pedals and all kinds of various effects in search of the ever-illusive "perfect" tone. Peter Stroud, accomplished session and touring guitarist and has been part of Sheryl Crow’s band for eight years, in which time he has had the opportunity to play with legends like Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. During this time he has played some of the biggest stages in the world– Woodstock, Wembley Stadium and Central Park. In addition to being an incredible player with great slide skills, Peter also is the co-founder of 65amps and writes the monthly column "Tone Tips from the Road" for Premier Guitar. Take a seat at one of Peter's clinics for master's tutorial on tweaking gear and tone.

Instructor: Peter Stroud
Level: Advanced/Pro

Using her own compositions as examples, Muriel Anderson will present a number of her signature techniques and approaches for coming up with new ideas and fresh approaches for composition, arrangement and performance. This workshop will also provide you with ways to strengthen your fingerstyle technique, enhance your performance and presentation of material, and spark innovative composition and arranging. So whether you want to sharpen your arranging skills, need to take your technique up a notch, or are just looking for some inspiring new approaches, this workshop is your master class - get ready to step up your technical and creative fingerstyle skills! Muriel Anderson will majorly overhaul your fingerstyle and acoustic guitar skills!

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: Muriel Anderson
Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Jazz guitar is mysterious and intimidating for most players. There are so many chords, changes and feels, and then on top of all of that, you have to be able to improvise over all of it. There's really no shortcut for developing jazz chops, but there is an underlying structure, and if you understand that structure, the chops will quickly follow. In this workshop, Mimi Fox will help you decode the structure of jazz guitar, revealing a remarkably clear approach for comping, melodic development and improvisation, and get you up and running without tedious theory and exercises. She'll present two grooves and progressions that are common to thousands of tunes; get a grip on these, and you'll be difficult to stump at the next jam.

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: Mimi Fox
Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Pull up a desk at the New School of Fingerstyle Blues and let Hamburger show you the right hand grooves and left hand moves that will inspire and improve your solo chops and repertoire. You'll discover how to go far beyond traditional twelve-bar blues and ragtime picking while keeping everything funky, bluesy and soulful, as David explains his fingerstyle approach to playing blues with a jazz or a New Orleans feel. You'll learn about syncopation, two-beat & walking bass lines, adding jazz & blues voicings up the neck, and incorporating double stops and chromatic blues licks into your playing. Pick up some fresh new grooves, licks and chord voicings, many inspired by the playing of Professor Longhair, James Booker and other blues piano masters.

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: David Hamburger
Level: Intermediate/Advanced

If you've never played guitar but have always wanted to learn, this quick-start workshop is for you! Your instructor, Brad Carlton has taught literally thousands of people, young and old, to play guitar. Brad will introduce you to chords, rhythms, various styles, and maybe even a little lead guitar! Carlton will show you the ropes and get you up and playing in no time. This is a hand's on format, where we'll put an instrument in your hands and show you how to get started. No tedious theory or exercises. You'll learn how to enjoy learning guitar and making music in a group with tips on how to continue your new found passion. Whether you already know just a couple of chords or never even picked up a guitar before, this is the workshop for you!

What to bring: Bring your desire to play and grab your guitar if you have one. No guitar? No problem, use one of ours!

Instructor: Brad Carlton
Level: Beginner

If you've never played guitar but have always wanted to learn, this quick-start workshop is for you! Your instructor, Brad Carlton has taught literally thousands of people, young and old, to play guitar. Brad will introduce you to chords, rhythms, various styles, and maybe even a little lead guitar! Carlton will show you the ropes and get you up and playing in no time. This is a hand's on format, where we'll put an instrument in your hands and show you how to get started. No tedious theory or exercises. You'll learn how to enjoy learning guitar and making music in a group with tips on how to continue your new found passion. Whether you already know just a couple of chords or never even picked up a guitar before, this is the workshop for you!

What to bring: Bring your desire to play and grab your guitar if you have one. No guitar? No problem, use one of ours!

Instructor: Brad Carlton
Level: Beginner

Trey Alexander won his first guitar competition at age 15, just a few months after picking up the instrument. He recorded his first album shortly thereafter, formed the popular fusion-based progressive band, Sonic Lux, and then beat out thousands of other guitarists to take the title in Guitar Player’s Guitar Hero competition in 2006. Trey will present a workshop on contemporary rock guitar covering chord progressions, rock rhythms, playing altered chords over rock rhythms, soloing / using pentatonic scales and moving them around the fret board, modes, arpeggios, sweeping, tapping, combing scales to make solos, whammy bar idea's (tricks and noises) and effects.

Instructor: Trey Alexander
Level: Advanced/Pro

Rock guitar offers players more dialects, techniques and colors to draw on than any other style of guitar, bar none. Today's rock player needs tasty chops, a more sophisticated sense of rhythm and harmony, a bagful of rock techniques, improvisational skills and other essential tricks of the trade. In his Rock Solid workshop, Jeff Scheetz will give you plenty of new rhythm and lead techniques to work on, along with essential right and left-hand techniques and a few excellent rock guitar tricks thrown in for good measure. As you rock through these new grooves and ideas, you'll also get hip to Jeff’s very effective harmonic system for coloring your solos and improvisational work by combining modes with pentatonic scales.

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: Jeff Scheetz
Level: Advanced/Pro

For kids (even adults) who've never played guitar but have always wanted to learn, this workshop is the place to be. We'll start playing right from the beginning, learning chords, rhythms, various styles, and maybe even a little lead guitar! Little Kids Rock knows that music is a critical component of a first-rate education. We inspire children to express themselves through music, building the creativity, confidence, and self-esteem that are critical to success in school and beyond and use innovative teaching methods that are rooted in children's knowledge of popular music forms such as rock, rap, blues and hip-hop. Little Kids Rock is a non-profit organization dedicated to putting end keeping music in the classrooms of America.

What to bring: Bring your desire to play and grab your guitar if you have one. No guitar? No problem, use one of ours!

Instructor: Little Kids Rock
Level: Kids Beginner

J. Geils is a blues rock guitarist best known for his work with the J. Geils band. Geils has been there and done that: number one singles, a Grammy nomination, 10 million albums sold (five gold records and 1 double-platinum) and was a fixture on MTV from day one. Geils is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable and experienced guitarists around. He has played and recorded with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker, Peter Frampton and Duane Allman. J. Geils is also an expert lecturer on blues guitar styles and techniques and will be presenting a workshop covering B.B. King and jazz chord substitutions.

Instructor: J. Geils
Level: All Levels

Award winning jazz guitarist Gerry Beaudoin has been in the music business for over thirty years. Besides building a career as a jazz guitarist on over forty recordings, Gerry has taken an active interest in all aspects of the music business. Gerry is an adjunct professor of music at Quincy College and designed and teaches their Music Business class. Gerry's workshop covers Copy right and publishing basics; how to get a record deal, figuring a budget, recouping the budget and how royalties work; music business terms; different types of royalties and how to figure them out; using the internet to further your career; digital downloads, piracy and an explanation of digital royalties and how to collect them; and contract law.

Instructor: Gerry Beaudoin
Level: All Levels

Bruce Arnold believes in giving the student a holistic learning experience through improvisational concepts that can be used in any style, along with a discussion of the proper physical execution of these ideas. Bruce's workshop will concentrate on how these ideas apply to his recently released Truefire CD-ROM “Total Modal,” which thoroughly examines the theory, harmony and application of 19 essential modes and scales for composition and improvisation. This intensive study program provides a comprehensive framework for composing melodies and hooks, improvising over any set of changes, superimposing scales, creating progressions and constructing chords for any musical application. Bruce Arnold's Total Modal reveals a breakthrough approach for improvisation and composition!

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: Bruce Arnold
Level: Advanced/Pro

Guitar players love to jam, but many intermediate and early advanced players find they tend to run out of ideas and struggle communicating musically with the other members of the band. In the Vamps, Jams and Improvisation workshop, master improviser Frank Vignola will illustrate dozens of approaches for developing solid melodic and rhythmic ideas for soloing or comping over one and two-chord vamps. In this workshop, you'll first learn how to think melodically and then how to best express those ideas, in a vamp or jam setting, with the other band members. There's much more to improvising than just "winging it," and this class will provide you with plenty of solid, specific and road-tested ideas that you can start putting to work in your own playing right away.

What to bring: Grab your guitar! 2-Day Weekend passes get preferred seating and workshop materials on video CD-ROM.

Instructor: Frank Vignola
Level: Intermediate/Advanced