Sharing Days

Sharing Day 25th Feb 2017 review

Sharing Day 25th Feb 2017 review
My first Sharing Day on February 25th was a great success.

Just look how many turned out for it. Here are a few pics to give you a flavour of the day.

Thanks go to Nigel Bates, Carrie Martin, Geoff Olner, Cath Basilio, Mike Stranks and of course my lovely Hilary.

Players came from near and far. The farthest being my dear old friend Colin Welfare who traveled all the way from the Isle of Wight.

This bodes well for more of the same.

giltrap 4950

Dear Gordon,

I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful day I had with you at your Sharing Day.

Chris and I could not stop talking about it on the way home.

The day itself was a great mixture of hints and tips on performing and overcoming nerves and pre-performance exercises to some exquisite demonstrations from you, very ably aided by Carrie and Mike.

It was also very nice to meet you both, of whom I've heard so much from Chris, and share to dinners with you and your friends, all of whom are such nice people.

Chris assured me I would enjoy the whole experience. That was an understatement!

Thank you once again and I hope we meet again soon.
With best wishes
Nic


Gordon and co. created a relaxed yet productive atmosphere where I really felt I could ask the group anything.

Gordon was clear and thorough in his tutoring and demonstrations, I will certainly be implementing the techniques he showed me, especially the harping and triplet strumming.

Also having MikeStranks around was great, he provided some truly insightful knowledge on equipment and audio engineering techniques that would have probably taken me a lifetime to figure out myself. Great day out and a pleasure to be part of it!

Robert

Hi Gordon,

I'd like to thank you greatly for the fantastic experience of last Saturday's guitar workshop in Sutton Coldfield.

It was brilliant to see and hear you perform some of your instrumentals and to take part in this excellent eye-opening event.

The intimate setting was perfect and you took time to speak to us all individually. Your tips on techniques, including the finger stretching exercises and 'harping'will have a long-lasting effect on my future playing. Thank you so much.

I hope to attend another of these sessions in the future as i enjoyed my time with you immensely.

Kindest regards,

Graham B

Gordon,

Thank you for a fabulous Sharing Day! It was an amazing experience to watch your guitar techniques up close and hear you explain how they work. The day was a good balance of informality packed with lots of information and advice.

I particularly liked the triplet strumming technique and the finger stretching exercises. It was really good that you gave everyone some individual attention. There was lots of food for thought in the advice too. Being careful to choose a familiar piece to begin a set is something I’ve overlooked in the past.

Thanks too to Carrie Martin and Mike Stranks for their input. Mike had some very interesting ideas on recording and live work from a 'Sound Man’s perspective'. It was great to hear you play and I was pleased that Carrie and yourself did a song together.

It was an excellent experience and I hope to attend another Sharing Day in the not too distant future!

Mark

giltrap 4950



Dear Gordon

Thank you for such an excellent day on Saturday. It was a great privilege to spend the day with you and all.

The day was informal yet structured and any questions were answered.

There was a good balance between Gordon’s sharing of wisdom, teaching techniques, excellent advice from Mike regarding amplification and recording, as well as opportunity to talk and share with like-minded people.

Towards the end, some performed but there was no pressure to do so.

Thanks also for the ‘goodie’ bag – a great idea – the book is something to treasure.

I had been in CGCGCGD for months so it’s been quite refreshing to return to DADGAD, and a germ of a tune is already growing.

I recommend the day to guitarists of all abilities – it will be an inspiration

Tomorrow I am going to look at a Vintage GG Deluxe – I cannot believe their good value and level of reviews. (Not that I really NEED a new guitar).

Best wishes

Damian (the one with the cassette)


Hi Gordon,
Thank you so much for the fabulous sharing day on Saturday.

I'll admit I was a bit nervous as I didn't know what to expect but you made me welcome straight away and chatting with the other people there soon put me at ease. I haven't played properly for a long time but at no time did I feel out of place.

The day was held in a relaxed atmosphere, but with a lot of good information and advice.

The techniques you demonstrated were really useful and I'm sure will feature in many tunes ahead.

Mike's input on sound system set ups was a great idea.

At the end I left buzzing with ideas and feeling inspired.

Once again, thank you very much.

Graham R

Although this was the first of Gordon's Sharing Days I thought it likely that it would be valuable and having been on the Buxton workshop in September 2015 had a good idea of the likely format. It turned out to be a great day with a dozen or so other like-minded guitarists all chatting and sharing questions with Gordon giving us the benefit of his exceptional talent, insight and skills.

I won't give a blow-by-blow account of the day but it included some demonstrations of techniques such as the harping harmonics used on tracks like Nursery Chimes, tuition of some approachable pieces including A Christmas Carol, and demonstrations of Maddie Goes West along with excerpts of other pieces including Lucifer's Cage and The Lord's Seat.

Just after lunch we were given the benefit of Mike Stranks' considerable experience in the recording studio with lots of hints and tips on setting up sound equipment for recording and playing live.

The day rounded off with some of the delegates playing their own poignant and funny music.
Some new friends were made on that day, but where are the lady guitarists? Women were seriously under-represented at this event with Carrie Martin the only female guitarist there not as a delegate but as a helper, playing some of her lovely songs and making excellent tea. We need more gender balance so calling all female guitarists: come along! There is something for every acoustic guitarist from these events.

Andrew

giltrap 4950