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Guitar players! Check out my summer workshop...

Guitar players! Check out my summer workshop…

I will be offering a 4-day acoustic guitar workshop this coming July at my home in beautiful southwest Scotland. If you are a guitar player interested in learning my integrated percussive approach, this will be a thorough, in-depth opportunity to gain the foundations of my playing style – a style that has been a major influence on many of today’s top players. All ages and skill levels are welcome.

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The day I lost my Leatherman: a cautionary airline guitar story

The day I lost my Leatherman: a cautionary airline guitar story

I want to share an experience I had traveling with guitars last summer. 

I was dropped off late to Toronto Airport to catch a flight to Beijing. I had two acoustic guitars in professional carbon-graphite flight cases as well as a large suitcase. I had planned to check all three pieces as usual, but the airline (a Chinese airline called Hainan) refused to accept the guitars at the ticket counter.…

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A big year

My own personal 2016 was such an enormous year that I feel the need to write it down. It was amazing not only for the vast traveling I did, but for all the experiences and challenges I had along the way.

The year took in fourteen countries on three continents. It involved high-speed train travel, intercontinental air travel, international travel by car, and international overnight ferry rides.

Th…

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My 2016 was a great year

My 2016 was a great year

My own personal 2016 was such an enormous year that I felt the need to write it down. It was amazing not only for the vast traveling I did, but for all the experiences and challenges I had along the way.  The year took in fourteen countries on three continents. It involved high-speed train travel, intercontinental air travel, international travel by car, and international overnight ferry rides. Th…

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How I beat tendonitis

At a workshop in London earlier this month I was asked if I had ever had to deal with any physical problems related to playing guitar, and specifically tendonitis.

Many times over the years guitarists have asked me a similar question, so I have decided to offer an account of my experience with it, for what it’s worth.

Tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive strain injuries strike…

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John Fahey: A Tribute

I first heard John Fahey’s solo acoustic guitar playing on an album when I was a teenager. I liked his strange, minimalist, visually and emotionally evocative instrumental compositions, performed in open tunings in an alternating-bass fingerpicking style.

I found his guitar playing accessible and was able to figure out how to fingerpick from his record “Amerika”.

For my 17th birthday my sister…

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A visit to Odessa, Ukraine

A visit to Odessa, Ukraine

Graffiti on the “mother-in-law” bridge.

I had always wanted to see Odessa, ever since watching the 1925 Sergei Eisenstein film The Battleship Potemkimin high school. The brilliantly-conceived scene of horror and tragedy distilled into an ironic symbol — a baby in a buggy rolling back down the steps after the mother has been shot by the Czar’s Guards — had stayed cemented in my mind for four…

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Excited to be performing in Odessa (Ukraine) at the end of the month! :^)

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Just watched the 1925 silent film "Battleship Potemkin". Momentum-filled, emotionally charged and artistically stunning.

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The 20th anniversary of my instructional video

The 20th anniversary of my instructional video

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of my 1994 instructional video, The Guitar of Preston Reed: Expanding the Realm of Acoustic Playing on Homespun Tapes.

(I can’t believe it’s been twenty years!)

In the late 1980′s I had developed a new approach to guitar playing that involved compositions incorporating an integrated percussive groove. My left hand was usually over the top of…

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Great gig for the String Jam Club in Selkirk last night! Thanks to everyone who was there. See you next time :^)

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Great gig in Buxton last night! Thanks everyone! :^)

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Getting ready for my show tomorrow night at the Railway in Bolton. Excited! :^)

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Thoroughly psyched about my first gig of 2014 at The Railway, Bolton, England next week! Don't miss it! :^)

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Let's get bored

When I was in China last fall I watched a teenage girl on a Beijing subway say goodbye to a friend getting off at a stop. As soon as they had waved goodbye and the doors closed, the girl pulled out her phone and began thumbing away.

This reminded me that…

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My latest interview in Premier Guitar. Check it out :^)

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Looking forward to shows in Bolton, Buxton and Selkirk in February! :^)