The Free Hands Academy will be offering a 1-day seminar with Emmett Chapman, Rodrigo Serrao and Rachel Flowers on Saturday, August 18th.

The event will be at the Guitar Merchant in Canoga Park, CA, starting at 9am and concluding at 6pm. That evening, Participants will be encouraged to perform in the earlier part of the program, after which, Emmett, Rachel and Rodrigo will all play in solo and duet formats. Tickets for this event will be included in the cost of the registration or otherwise available for $20.

The early bird sign up rate is $125. This will be valid for the month of July, after which the cost will be $150. Additional information will be posted here in the next 2 days with all the details including the process to secure your registration.

We hope that you can join us for this very special event. If you have questions, please message the Free Hands Academy's Facebook page or send a message to earthgene directly. We hope to see you then - cheers.

Awesome. Hope there is some jamming caught on tape...

Just sounding you out. I'm planning to teach three of my favorite subjects covering theory and technique, which I feel will enrich your RH melody, also your LH accompaniment.

1) From any RH scale position on the fretboard, reconfigure your fingers to conform to chord changes moving either sharp or flat around the circle of 4ths/5ths. Stretching or compressing your fingers from a held common note between the chords, the legato line never falters as you play (saxophone style) through neighboring as well as distant chord progressions. I'll have many examples, such as holding a note with your first RH finger, then hearing the next chord move sharp (from any key in the circle), then stretching other fingers "sharpward" to next higher pitched frets. There's intuition involved - you need to hear roughly how far sharp or flat the new chord has taken you. Part of it is physical too - you learn to feel the chord changes in your hand.

2) Play three-fingered RH melody using all four fingers. Conceptually it's still three fingers per string but the 3rd and 4th fingers can be considered as one, never to be played sequentially as the basic technique. The result is fingers 1, 2 & 4 per string across most of the strings with the exception of fingers 1, 2 & 3 at one pair of strings.

3) My Offset Modal System, shown on the "Wheel" charts of my Parallel Galaxy album, where I build from inner to outer concentric Wheels, starting from the pentatonic modes on the inside, then the familiar Greek modes of seven notes, then a Wheel with one of the notes offset to form more exotic scales and resultant chords, and finally an outer Wheel with a second offset note (a 5th away from the other one) for some bizarre 7 and 8-tone scales. "Shifting" from one Wheel to the next, they all relate and connect. The "OMS" is a system for understanding relationships of chords and scales often used by classical and jazz composers, but it's meant to be played live in composition and improv.

The above three subjects may seem to be on the intellectual side but I experience them as physical and body oriented (and therefore intuitive). Any feedback here on the Forum will be welcome and will help me prepare for Gene's 8/18 Saturday workshop.

This is going to be soooo cool! Just the opportunity of learning directly from Emmett is, in itself, something utterly incredible and unique. I still can’t quite believe it
Plus everything else: Rachel is a phenomenal musician with so much to show for already that it would be a shame to miss this opportunity.
And I hear there’s this crazy Portuguese dude that threw away a 20 year career as a bass player to start everything new, this time as a Stick player. Should be fun
Oh, and I hear the food is good
also


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I have half a mind to just buy a plane ticket and check it out! Awesome, Rod and Emmett - two of my favourite musicians! Cool!

You only live once


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I was here thinking of all that has happened this past three years since I found, purchased and started my “Stick” journey.... The motivations, the difficulties and how I work around them, the master’s advises and how I incorporate those into goals...a personal view of the learning process really.
Stick camp Maiorca was in September 2015 and I’ll always remember Jim Meyer handing me a beer as a prize for my first attempt to play the stick in front of an audience... crashed and burned! Lol
Anyway maybe it could be a good contribution to the workshop. Hope you guys can make it, I know it will be amazing... Emmett and Rachel are going to be there! [emoji3]




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Yes, this event is really starting to shape up. I've had some great conversations with Rachel and Emmett - looks like we are not limiting it to Stick! For the first time ever, the FHA event will welcome Bass, Keyboards and Flute in addition to the Chapman Stick.

It will be a great opportunity to learn, share and even jam with Emmett, Rod or Rachel. Also, Tod Stockwell, a local drum hero, will be joining us on drums. Very talented and a great musician.

If you've attended any FHA events in the past, be sure to PM me for a discount if you need it - cheers.

I guess I should be getting ready to catch a plane.... it’s going to be amazing!


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Yes it will be amazing. Do me a favour and learn and absorb and share what you learn there. I’m curious about Emmett’s stretch and shrink technique for going to alternate key zones. Wish I didn’t have a gig that weekend. Grrr. Life gets in the way sometimes. Lol