Bending, Sliding, and Muting?

In Learn to Play Electric Guitar with Mark Marston, students used popular songs by the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton to learn new techniques specific to electric guitar such as alternate picking, string bending, sliding, and palm muting. They also used the 12-bar blues to work on improvisation skills and reinforce basic music theory skills. Though the classical guitar participants attending the course each owned an electric guitar, not one of them yet had an understanding of how to play the instrument differently from their classical guitars.

Mark gave students fun ways to work on concepts that will help with classical guitar technique and repertoire. The course formally introduced kids to music they were not particularly familiar with – songs with which moments in their parent’s lives had been marked into long-term memory, with the reverence experienced when they heard music that was exceptionally timely or relevenent to their circumstances. The meetings provided freshness to home practice routines as families bonded and laughed while sharing “classic” literature written for the electric guitar.

“Carson loved this workshop! He recently got an electric guitar and this was the perfect opportunity for him to expand upon his foundation in classical guitar in a fun way!” – Carson’s mom, Michelle.

“I like playing Smoke on the Water. It is a fun way to practice shifting!” – Carson

“I like playing songs I’ve heard and I like playing slide.” – Aarnav

“I like slide!” – Eli

Students discussed theoretical elements of the pieces they learned: basic chord progressions, analysis of chords and scale tones, use and application of passing tones. Mark enlightened them about how the instrument has evolved over the centuries and how it has been used in different genres of music. The best part for all was feeling the sincere camaraderie between the students and parents as they shared a new musical interest. Thank you all for attending!