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Posted by: Kristofer Dahl May 8 2007, 07:16 PM

Hey there,

I am happy to annouce we have got a jazz/fusion guitarist coming in. His name is Ben Howll, he lives in Somerset, England and is currently studying music at university, specialising in jazz composition and fusion. He also teaches guitar one day a week when he is not studying his music course.

I attached two audio clips of his - and as you can hear whre jeading for some new stuff here at gmc!

I don't know much more about him - so I hope he will soon join us here!

Kris

Posted by: benhowell May 8 2007, 07:38 PM

Hey guys!!!

Hows it all going?

What a fantastic site, and forum!

Kris pretty much summed it up about me, my main musical interest are fusion and jazz, but being brought up on Guns 'N ' Roses and the like i still think i have a bit of rock left in me!

Ive been playing guitar since i was 12 (so for 8 years nearly) and am studying jazz composition at university. But i am ALWAYS learning new things, thats one of the fun parts of guitar!

Anyway, Im very pleased to be joining the faculty team, and I hope you will enjoy my lessons, any comments are more than welcome, or a pm in the forum is welcome!

Cheers Guy's

Ben

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn May 8 2007, 07:43 PM

Wow !!!!! I've been waiting for some Jazz - this site is AMAZING!

Posted by: unmarshal May 8 2007, 08:04 PM

Django lesson!

Posted by: Armando May 8 2007, 08:08 PM

YEESS! Finally a jazz-guitar teacher. Welcome and I hope I'm not the only one who's likes jazz in here , except for Andrew that is.

Posted by: Robin May 8 2007, 08:11 PM

AWESOME! This is just what GMC needed.

Posted by: benhowell May 8 2007, 08:18 PM

Wow! What a response already!

Glad to see jazz is popular! I wasnt sure how many people would be keen, but thats awesome. Hope you like the clips, the first one was entirely improvised, which i still find hard, but jazz improvisation is a lifetime pursuit

Cheers guys,

Ben

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn May 8 2007, 08:33 PM

I'm inspired to post a song I wrote about 3 months ago - kind of a bossanova/slightly jazzy thing that I thought GMCers would laugh at Just looking for the mp3 now, I'll upload it to the uploads board later

Posted by: The Uncreator May 8 2007, 09:31 PM

DJANGO REINHARDT LESSON




























Did i spell that guys name right? anyway he is an awesome guitarists

Posted by: MickeM May 8 2007, 09:44 PM

Jazz, about time!!
This is great!!

Welcome Ben.

Posted by: benhowell May 8 2007, 09:46 PM

Thankyou MickeM!

Nice set of gear

Ben

Posted by: Norven May 8 2007, 10:11 PM

Welcome Ben!
I am crazy in jazz
So I´m looking forward to your first lesson!

Posted by: kahall May 9 2007, 01:42 AM

Great news! While I am not a big fan of jazz, I do, for some strange reason enjoy trying to play it.

Posted by: Ryan May 9 2007, 01:59 AM

I heard jazz is 1 of the hardest styles of guitar to play but im not for sure, but im glad i get to learn it now , i use to play in jazz band with my Tenor Saxophone, and have always had a thing for jazz for some odd reason even though im a hardcore rocker, jazz is 1 of those things you just cant pass up

WELCOME TO GMC!!!

Posted by: The Uncreator May 9 2007, 04:20 AM

Lets do a Stanley Jordan Lesson!

Posted by: chainsbroken May 9 2007, 04:45 AM

Awesome. I really love learning Jazz. Really looking foward to your first lesson Ben.
By the way ...Welcome

Posted by: andrei.sz May 9 2007, 08:03 AM

wooww!!
this is just great ! can't wait to see the first lesson.
...and yes a Django lesson would be realy great

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi May 9 2007, 03:53 PM

Welcome Ben!! GMC was needing some great Jazz lessons!

gabriel.-

Posted by: yuriy_boyko May 9 2007, 05:21 PM

welcome
i love jazz too, cant wait for lessons

Posted by: benhowell May 9 2007, 06:35 PM

Thanks for the kind words guys! Lesson should be up soon, so keep those eyes peeled

Ben

Posted by: wheeler May 9 2007, 09:29 PM

I never thought I'd read that sentence on this site when I was signing up. Stanley Jordan's stuff is CRAZY. That would be like a jazz/tapping/theory/legato lesson all wrapped into one.

And I am SUPER glad to have a jazz instructor joining the team. IHMO, learning jazz in general is the ultimate path to musical nirvana. I hope that theory and technique will be equally weighted in the lessons.....I know there will be those who disagree, but I believe jazz to be a musical genre in which theory is indispensable and you can't really achieve greatness by winging it. I am aware that lots of the greats started playing by ear....but what they were playing by ear was theoretically brilliant.

Posted by: benhowell May 9 2007, 10:04 PM

Make no mistake, Theory is an INVALUABLE asset of guitar playing in general, expecially in the jazz context, and i will be adding and hopefully explaining well the concepts the lessons cover

Ben

Posted by: The Uncreator May 10 2007, 12:36 AM

If you do a Stanley Jordan lesson ill paypal you $50

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn May 10 2007, 12:46 AM

And I'll be standing by to expand on the theory where necessary (although I am sure Ben will do a great job of explaining everything !)

I can see theory getting a big boost in the next few months

Posted by: Leijon May 10 2007, 09:40 AM

The value of this site just keeps growing. I haven´t been able to play so much for a while, but I STILL get my money back just following the discussions on the forum and watching lessons.

I am extremely excited by the new instructor! Pure brilliance on Kris part for seeing the possibility and acting on it. I am curious on what else he has planned for the future of GMC!

And to Ben: I would be excited to see an "In the style of Pat Methany" lesson. And, I know I am being fuzzy here, a lesson on "acoustic-jazz-chords-arranging" would be óutstanding!

Welcome!

Posted by: Ryan May 10 2007, 10:06 AM

so when you gonna be gettin in??

Posted by: Suib May 11 2007, 01:32 AM

I'm really glad that this site is opening up to more genres of music. Rock is still my favorite, but everyone can still benefit and get inspiration from different kinds of music. Welcome Ben and I hope you like it here!

Posted by: edgor67 May 11 2007, 02:52 AM

He has a lot of Les Paul in his style. g

Posted by: crabman May 11 2007, 07:22 AM

Welcome Ben. Ive never played any Jazz . But after listening to your tracks I am looking forward to learning. Cant wait for your first lesson.

Posted by: mattacuk May 11 2007, 09:41 AM

No way!

Posted by: Pavel May 11 2007, 09:44 AM

Well - there you have a teacher! But you are not allowed to quit GMC

Posted by: mattacuk May 11 2007, 10:16 AM

Not a chance.......I have to many GMC lessons lined up to do!

Posted by: benhowell May 11 2007, 11:06 AM

Hey Thanks for the welcome guys!! What a welcoming forum

Yep from somerset, but im in Bath at the moment though (which still is somerset!).

Lesson should be up soon, and a few more are planned on their way

Ben