John Renbourn
Residential Guitar Workshops
Inspirational guitar lessons and insights with master-guitarist John Renbourn.
The Renbourn residential workshops
The idea of these workshops is to provide the guitarist with a week long intensive study of John Renbourn's guitar style in an inspirational setting. Planned for venues across Europe, these events are intended to provide inspiration and direction for serious fingerstyle guitarists.
The Tutors
John Renbourn’s guitar playing is often puzzling for the folk musician who approaches it. In terms of the left hand, it seldom relies on standard chord positions so that the usual landmarks on the neck are mostly absent. The same is true for the right hand which has a constantly changing action, very different from the regular and fixed arpeggios familiar to folk guitar players. The independence of the fingers of both hands that it requires represents a challenge to any guitarist.
Working with John will be an opportunity for a developing guitarist to be immersed for a week in the very heart of his music. Not just for the explanations that there will be on his playing and the illustrations that he will give but also to directly experience the magic of the Renbourn touch and music which words alone cannot express.
Remy Froissart, being an “early renbournist” (discovering John’s music in 1967) is a full time teacher (guitar and harmony), and has long experience in teaching this unique guitar style. The workshop is intended to help the student develop a method of work based on the precise observation of the difficulties, the objective being to optimize the working time and to help the student get more directly to the point, that is to say the music.
Attending guitarists who wish to work on a specific tune or aspect from John’s repertoire are asked to let it be known on the booking form (see booking form).
There to augment the guitar tuition will be one time pro sound engineer and guitarist Mike Walker (Mike was senior mastering at the legendary Trident Studios in London in the ‘80’s and worked with John on the early digital releases of the Pentangle/Renbourn/Jansch Transatlantic recordings). There will be sessions and talks where he will offer his experience to give insights for a practical approach to home sound recording techniques using affordable computer technology. There will be practical demonstrations and an opportunity for students to record their own playing. The principle idea is to give the solo guitarist an approach to achieving their own high quality recordings whether for home use, distribution or as a valuable teaching aid. A key aim is to dispel a lot of the mystery surrounding guitar recording and give a practical guide backed up with a little technical know-how.