Forum

Hi everyone,

I've been a TG TARGET member for several months but I haven't been active on the forums (mostly just watching Neil's fantastic lesson videos). I'm really interested in the IGC but I have a couple questions. The first is about the experience level of the people attending. I've only been playing about a year and I'm pretty self-conscious about being in a group where everyone is much more experienced (and skilled) than me. I've been taking some online classes at Berklee College of Music and I was amazed to find that the average experience level even in the introductory classes like Scales 101 is at least 10 years. One person in Chords 101 had been playing for 40 years! This quarter I'm taking Acoustic Guitar Techniques and one person in that class has a degree in classical guitar performance and another teaches guitar at a community college.

Another question is how many people beyond the original 30 onsite people have signed up to stay offsite? I'd have to be one of a very small minority that's offsite while everyone else is right there.

The final question is how interactive the workshops will be, in terms of the audience actually playing things in real-time along with the instructor. I'm actually at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival in Santa Rosa, CA as I write this and some of the workshops have been interactive and some have not. My favorite one so far is actually the non-interactive workshop led by Eric Skye's entitled Groove, Tone, and Soul: Bringing Our Guitar Playing To Life. Another one which was interactive was pretty good (Mark Hanson's Build the Picking Hand into a Power House!), but there are some drawbacks to 30+ people trying to play along at once. Tomorrow I'll be going to another interactive one (Michael Chapdelaine's Arranging, composing, improvising for fingerstyle guitar) so we'll see how that goes.

Sorry for the long-winded questions. I probably shouldn't be so self-conscious. I can't even bring myself to try out the guitars here at the Healdsburg show, which are the most beautiful guitars you've ever seen from over 100 different luthiers.

Thanks,

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Steve

Steve- good questions! Since this is the first IGC camp ever none of us knows those answers. Maybe Neil or another staff person could respond to this?

Cheers! :cheer:

Hi Steve and welcome to the forum!

As for camp, I really don't know what to expect either, we will have to wait and see I guess.

As for the level of playing, there has been another thread (don't know where) of several other attendees stating the same thing, so you're definitely not alone on this. In that thread there have been a couple of reassurances from Neil, myself and others. This camp, and TG is NOT about the level of anyones playing.

As for me, since I'll be over there too, as both an instructor and attendee, i'm really determined to make sure and help out in any way that I can in order for members to feel relaxed and to just enjoy the whole thing. I really want to make a difference in that regard.

As for off site attendees, I have actually no idea. Neil will likely post an IGC update sooner or later in which he might mention it.

Anyway, welcome and see you in september!! :cheer:

Vanessa

Steve:

Welcome and thanks for the great questions. I am sure Neil or Matt will have a little to say bout that, and they can certainly answer better than I can...

As far a skill levels go, I am sure there will be various skill levels there. I bought my first guitar at age 37 or 38, and read through some books for the first year or two. I then took private lessons for a couple of years. Once I found TG, I kind of got out of the private lessons and have been just playing and having fun since (I am 43 now, so 5-6 yrs is all I have under my belt). I get frustrated at my lack of skill sometimes, but I remind myself that I don't earn that skill increase with diligent practice. My original goal was to be able to strum some campfire tunes. I can kinda sorta do that now. I know for certain that my skill level will be toward the bottom of those who show, but I am not really worried about it. The one thing I can guarantee you is that if you go, you will receive nothing but kind support, whatever skill level you may be. Also, if you go and have fun with it, you will get something from it and probably improve in the process. This is just a great opportunity to meet some great folks who share a common interest, as well as push yourself a little in the process. So, I hope you opt to go. B)

Jason

Thanks for the friendly responses everyone! I think I'll be signing up even though for all I know I'll be the least-experienced player and the only one staying offsite In the interest of getting some more specifics, and also helping people make carpool arrangements, I created a survey form with some questions here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1x0vhmu ... U/viewform

I'm in Palo Alto so I'll be driving and I can fit 4 people in my car (including myself), but with guitars and other luggage I can probably take two additional IGC-ers from SFO or SJC (San Jose) airports (one or the other, not both )

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Steve