Today, together with Nashville session guitarist Dave Cleveland, we’re going to bring you a huge dose of encouragement as it pertains to the journey of a Christian guitarist.
To give you a bit of background on what you’re going to experience if you’re willing to listen to the audio version of today’s episode, I’ve had the privilege of teaching guitar workshops at the Christian Musician Summit here in the Pacific Northwest for fifteen years.
Each time I’ve been invited to teach, I’ve brought topics related to rhythm guitar, fretboard knowledge, chords, the capo and more, all with a view to equipping Christian guitarists to develop their skills for worship leading and songwriting.
My first year at the CMS was 2007, and after road-testing a lot of my teaching concepts for over a decade, I intentionally launched GuitarSuccess4U in 2019.
It was there that I began to draw like-minded people into a community where music is a language, guitar is a dialect, and where we work diligently with joy to expand our vocabulary.
I’m always growing as a guitarist and as a musician, and my desire to expand my vocabulary is constant.
So, at this year’s CMS, I was intrigued by a workshop offered by Nashville guitar session player Dave Cleveland.
It was all about capos and alternate tunings, both of which I leverage on a pretty regular basis.
What followed was unexpected: Dave actually invited me to help him teach the class.
With eager onlookers, we delved into multiple capo positions and tunings, leveraged the CAGED System, and called out Nashville Numbers so we could work in tandem.
I like to bring a plan, but in this case, there was very little structure, which actually allowed us to explore musical frontiers I didn’t even know were possible.
Well, I told my tribe of guitarists about this experience and I invited Dave to be on a Zoom call with us to debrief that class, and he accepted.
Dave is a gentleman and a scholar, the first-call session guitar player in Nashville, having played on countless commercials, in movies, and on major albums with people like Steven Curtis Chapman, Miley Cyrus, Twila Paris, Lauren Daigle and more.
Over his 32-year career, Dave has recorded over 30,000 songs.
He graciously granted me permission to share some segments from the Zoom call we hosted recently inside the membership.
Typically, I keep these kinds of treats for members only, but I felt like it would be a great way to give you, our listeners here at Guitar Serious Fun, a window into what goes on when we gather for a Zoom call discussion with a guest expert.
What you’ll sense almost immediately about Dave is that he’s super chill, very encouraging, extremely knowledgeable, generous with his ideas, and really, just a brother in the Lord that you’re going to love spending a little time with.
This was a call where I invited my Guitar Successors, as I like to call them, to type their comments and questions into the chat, so we could cover as much ground as possible during our brief time with Dave.
Here’s where I link to my YouTube video that captured the visual aspect of the experience.
Now that you’ve heard a bit of the audio from the workshop, I want to encourage you to listen to the podcast version of today’s episode to enjoy a distilled audio excerpt from the Zoom call where Dave fielded a variety of questions and offered some tremendous encouragement to our community.
Well, I hope you gleaned a few things from our discussion with Dave. I smiled quite a lot as we enjoyed that short and sweet time together.
As you might imagine, I seek out several experts who join us on Zoom over the course of each year, and each expert brings a different bit of wisdom.
We’ve had Jesse Ferguson talking about in ear monitors and how to leverage them.
We’ve had Jeff Sandberg, a world-class saxophonist, talking about improvisation.
We’ve had Brian Reding, a multi-instrumentalist and producer, talking about the art of listening.
We’ve had Jerry Roberts, a slow-handed Eric Clapton-esque electric guitarist talking about weaving electric and acoustic together for worship and designing an app-driven pedal board.
We’ve had Jeremy Calvin, a wunderkind aux percussionist talking about creativity for solid rhythm grooves with percussion and guitar.
We’ve had Adam Bollen, a super intuitive bass player talking about arranging, rehearsing, and pedal effects.
We’ve had Ron Mallory, a highly published arranger and keyboard player, talking about relevant music theory and transposition.
We’ve had Dr. Gordon Myco, a chiropractor and health coach, talking about health, posture, diet, and longevity for our musical journeys.
We’ve had the Master Luthiers of Mike Lull’s Guitar Works talking about the craft of building, repairing and caring for guitars.
And we’ve got more coming up.
Does this pique your interest at all? Leave a comment if it does. And if you’re rarin’ to go and want to find your people, meet guest experts, and most of all, fulfill your potential as a Christian Guitarist, don’t wait any longer.
Head on over to GuitarSuccess4U.com to begin your journey with us and take your guitar playing to the next level. I would be honored to serve you, and our tribe would be honored to welcome you in.
Thanks for experiencing today’s episode, and I’ll see you next time.
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