a California Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Corporation – EIN 99-3474773
a California Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Corporation – EIN 99-3474773
Instructor(s): Joy Louise
This class will focus on how to improve and advance your flatpicking with fundamental techniques, focusing on strategies to build your flatpicking speed, while still maintaining volume and clarity. Also different approaches on how to pull maximum tone out of your guitar for added depth and dynamics when playing slower melodies. Timing and metronome work will also be discussed. We’ll dive into all of this using intermediate to advanced fiddle tune arrangements, traditional bluegrass melodies and learn some useful licks. Handouts of Joy’s song arrangements will be provided, but we’ll also be playing some things by ear. Wherever you’re at in your flatpicking journey, let’s grow together and bump it up to the next level!
Bring: Melodies are best derived from songs… therefore, feel free to bring songs you want to develop a lead break for.
Prior experience playing some lead melodies or tunes using alternate picking (8th notes)
Basic ability to play some things by ear.
Basic knowledge of scales and chords.
Ability to play some songs at tempos of 70-80bpm.
Award-winning multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Joy Louise is renowned for her “technically immaculate” guitar playing and dynamic presence as both a collaborative band member and soloist. A prodigious songwriter, teacher, and in-demand studio musician, Joy began playing guitar at age 10 and started teaching just three years later. As a teenager, she won multiple flatpicking contests, often outperforming much older competitors. Her recent highlights include opening for flatpicking legend Jake Workman and performing at Light Up the Blues alongside icons like Stephen Stills and Neil Young at The Greek Theatre in Griffith Park.
Joy has taught workshops and led music camps nationwide, including Augusta Heritage Center’s Bluegrass Week in West Virginia, Summergrass and Walker Creek Music Camp. She’s the acting director for the Kids Music Program at Parkfield Bluegrass Festival and regularly teaches workshops at festivals such as HuckFinn Jubilee and CBA’s South State 48. With 12 years of private teaching experience, Joy is dedicated to sharing the art and impact of traditional music with students of all ages across the country.