Larry Allen Brown 82 Huckle Hill Road, #207, Vernon VT, 05354
Instruments:Composition, Guitar, Theory
Styles:Classical, Jazz, Folk – Country – Bluegrass, Rock – Alternative, Blues
Levels:Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Experience:35 years
Rate:$40 / hr
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Personal Statement
After 30 years of teaching I’ve found that the important thing to do is to get a student playing something genuine immediately. I’ve found that the lessons learned on the acoustic guitar translate over to the electric more readily than the other way around. It’s important to get the picking hand fingers engaged through fingerstyle arrangements which will greatly help in adapting to hybrid picking on the electric guitar. I’ve also found that the lessons provided in the method books such as Mel Bay and Hal Leonard are severely dated and that it’s important to teach music and techniques that are relevent to today which is why I have designed my own approach based on my experience in the real world of playing and theory lessons learned from great teachers both privately and at Berklee. I teach altered tunings on the acoustic guitar and have an instructional video on playing in open D tuning as an online lesson.
Education / Training
Berklee College of Music 1977-1979. Major in Instrumental Performance ( guitar ) minor in Harmony and Arranging.
George Mason University 1990. Composition, Orchestration, and Classical Guitar
Private studies with:
Frank Mullen
Jerry Hahn
Danny Gatton
Paul Bollenbach
Jim Kelly
Brett Wilmot
Al DeFino
Martin Simpson
Jimmy Bruno
Shared stage or performed with with Carlos Santana, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Big Jesse Yawn, Karl Verheyan, Eva Cassidy, Michael Manring, Alasdair Fraser, The Nighthawks, Taylor Hicks.
Performances in Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC, all of New England, Birmingham, Florida.
Teaching experience:
1980-1988: The Guitar Shop – Washington DC
1988-1998: Music and Arts Center – Burke Virginia
1999-2002: Mars Music – Birmingham, Al
2002-2004: Lamplight Music – Birmingham, Al
2004-2009: Baily Bros Music – Birmingham, Al
2009-2010: Shumacher Music – Stuart, Fl
2013-2014: Brattleboro Music Center – Brattleboro,VT
Larry has given over 65,000 lessons on the guitar.
SunDolphin Productions and Decent Hill Publishers
are excited to announce the release of Playing Guitar in Open D taught by Larry Allen Brown. Larry is an accomplished guitarist and music instructor who co-developed a unique method for teaching how to play guitar in open tunings based upon color fretboard zones.
This course is not intended to teach someone how to play a particular song. It is designed to convey an understanding of the guitar tuned to an open chord, to provide intimate familiarity with the fretboard geography, to develop a consistent technique for creating rhythms through patterned finger picking and melodies by incorporating the major scale, to understand the theory behind chord construction and use, and to ultimately enable you to compose your own music using these sound principles.
The best strategy for getting the most out this course is to take a slow and patient approach. Learn each section (pattern picking, for example) well before proceeding to the next. If you build your skills foundation slowly and securely enough, your results will be much more rewarding.
This course contains approximately one and a half hours of video instruction along with supplemental materials.
The course is now available as a DVD published by Decent Hill. The video below is a collection of a few segments from the course and should give you a good idea of how the course is constructed.
Video
Through the trees; a unicorn
Open D Tuning