On The Beat - Episode 277 - The TG Story by Larry Baron

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TGNeil
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Sat Feb 21, 2015 9:24 am

jayswett wrote:
Great video. I have a followup question.

Why did Matt choose to walk into Neil's guitar studio? Why that particular studio? Was it just luck that Matt chose a guitar teacher who had the teaching skills, breadth of knowledge, and mastery of the subject to pull off a Totally Guitars type of thing?
Hi Jay,

At the time Matt was living in Los Gatos, I forget why exactly but he was here for just 1 year as I recall, and my store, Joplin & Sweeney Music was the main teaching spot in town (my partner Greg Burger and I opened it in 1979). As I think I mentioned in the video, something about Matt fascinated me in the 1 minute exchange we had while I was with a student. I would normally send new students to one of our other teachers who needed students more than I did as I was pretty happy with the group I had. All I can add to that now is I was intrigued enough to call him back as soon as I finished my lesson and he started the next day, or maybe the day after that. It was quite a few months later when he brought up the idea of an instructional website. I just started shooting videos and he assembled the rest of the parts, leading up to our launch and our first TG Live in April of 2009, I believe.

Neil

P.S. I still find it hard to believe that our paths crossed, apparently so randomly.


Rbinding
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Sat Feb 21, 2015 3:30 pm

That's a great story and a great video! Congrats Larry.

I know there are hours and hours and hours of more video from 2 years of IGC and I'm know it takes longer to edit than to shoot, but we would all love to see more!!!

Ron


TGNesh
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Sat Feb 21, 2015 4:16 pm

Yep, I'm with you, would LOVE to see more Larry and Alan! :)

Rbinding wrote:
That's a great story and a great video! Congrats Larry.

I know there are hours and hours and hours of more video from 2 years of IGC and I'm know it takes longer to edit than to shoot, but we would all love to see more!!!

Ron


chacho
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Sun Feb 22, 2015 9:31 am

I agree with Neil about Matt.
I remember how involved he was with the forums and the live web events that he hosted with you.

I use to love Matt on the forums as he had plenty to say and did not suffer fools gladly, certainly an interesting guy.
I also loved his choice of music and still remember a post on the forum about when his father died and the music that affected him during his difficult time.
A very intriguing guy and would love to see him involved again via the forums or on camera.

Chacho


chacho
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Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:17 am

Found this post but can't remember the story between meeting John Renbourne which led to Al Stewart which led to Lawrence Juber..

So I had Dinner with Neil 5 Years, 6 Months ago
Only I really had Dinner with Neil , not just in my imagination

The last 3 nights I have spent some time with my best friend , partner and all round good guy before he scoots of to Hawaii to settle his daughter into university...
As always I am made to feel part of the family and I love them all dearly, we drink nice wine, eat tasty Hawaii based food, I bring strange beer over and we always end up working on the business of TG and talking about music..




Every time I visit prog rock is playing and the running joke of early Genesis playing seemingly every time in the background..and their not even in his top 5 of prog rock fav's...

Anyways..we decided on the rest of the songs to add to the target program for the next month and I know you will all be happy with the really interesting mix that serves all playing levels..

Last night he shot two lessons while I watched, and it was just super to see him at work again, what is interesting to me is that preparation for a target lesson is 3 times the time component of actually filming...as with all things I have ever been involved in that are a success , the work is always behind the scenes, getting the music right, having everything set up mentally in advance before sitting down and playing..

When he does it is so eloquently and easily done, it is easy to forget what went on before he sat down to play..their is a serious lesson their for you all...

My biggest thrill though was listening to him tell me stories, we have some fantastic discussions that go everywhere, and one of my favorites was the connection story between meeting John Renbourne which led to Al Stewart which led to Lawrence Juber..

It is such an appealing story I am going to go back in a week and film the story, and have it for you all ..

The night for me was capped with listening to Neil and AL play a song that is relevant again called on the border, I told Neil (he doesn't watch the news)about the recent basque bombing in Majorca and ETA's 50 year anniversary...

This song by Al was written about the separatists..and their fight for independence..

Neil and Al played this song live in Montalvo with Al leading in with a Jam (heard it through the grapevine) that he didn't let Neil know about in advance so He had to improvise but wow did it sound good...then into the song...just fabulous..

We don't have video of this but we will put the audio up in a couple of weeks with the story as told by Neil... Just something different to share...

In the meantime check out this video of Al playing the song...enjoy..

Cheers

Matt


TGNesh
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Sun Feb 22, 2015 11:01 am

Wow...what a great find Chacho, great read!

As he says, most of the work goes behind the scenes, which cértainly applies to him. You can at least watch the results of Neil's work and mine. That's why Neil occasionally points it out, that Matt sometimes doesn't get enough credit. I guess that's not what he is looking for either, he just wants his business' to be successful. And it is! :)

Personally I can very well relate to what he says about prep time for a TG-lesson, it's actually very true and exactly as how he puts it.

Thanks for bumping this post!


chacho wrote:
Found this post but can't remember the story between meeting John Renbourne which led to Al Stewart which led to Lawrence Juber..

So I had Dinner with Neil 5 Years, 6 Months ago
Only I really had Dinner with Neil , not just in my imagination

The last 3 nights I have spent some time with my best friend , partner and all round good guy before he scoots of to Hawaii to settle his daughter into university...
As always I am made to feel part of the family and I love them all dearly, we drink nice wine, eat tasty Hawaii based food, I bring strange beer over and we always end up working on the business of TG and talking about music..




Every time I visit prog rock is playing and the running joke of early Genesis playing seemingly every time in the background..and their not even in his top 5 of prog rock fav's...

Anyways..we decided on the rest of the songs to add to the target program for the next month and I know you will all be happy with the really interesting mix that serves all playing levels..

Last night he shot two lessons while I watched, and it was just super to see him at work again, what is interesting to me is that preparation for a target lesson is 3 times the time component of actually filming...as with all things I have ever been involved in that are a success , the work is always behind the scenes, getting the music right, having everything set up mentally in advance before sitting down and playing..

When he does it is so eloquently and easily done, it is easy to forget what went on before he sat down to play..their is a serious lesson their for you all...

My biggest thrill though was listening to him tell me stories, we have some fantastic discussions that go everywhere, and one of my favorites was the connection story between meeting John Renbourne which led to Al Stewart which led to Lawrence Juber..

It is such an appealing story I am going to go back in a week and film the story, and have it for you all ..

The night for me was capped with listening to Neil and AL play a song that is relevant again called on the border, I told Neil (he doesn't watch the news)about the recent basque bombing in Majorca and ETA's 50 year anniversary...

This song by Al was written about the separatists..and their fight for independence..

Neil and Al played this song live in Montalvo with Al leading in with a Jam (heard it through the grapevine) that he didn't let Neil know about in advance so He had to improvise but wow did it sound good...then into the song...just fabulous..

We don't have video of this but we will put the audio up in a couple of weeks with the story as told by Neil... Just something different to share...

In the meantime check out this video of Al playing the song...enjoy..

Cheers

Matt


Larry
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Wed Feb 25, 2015 5:17 pm

I think it was a random and lucky break. Neil was teaching at Joplin and Sweeney
and Matt saw the sign for music lessons and wandered it


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