We were sitting in the office when an annoying, high-pitched alarm began to sound. I walked around the building to discover that half of the lights were out; I learned soon after that power in the auditorium was off. Further investigations revealed that a transformer had blown, and it would take some time to fix it – so much time that we wouldn’t have the auditorium for our student concert night.

What began as a small crisis turned into a surprisingly beautiful evening. Crammed into a seminar room at Judson University, equipped with nothing but one microphone, a few guitar amps, and a drum set made up of a snare drum and a 6″ splash cymbal, the student concert went off without a hitch – quieter than normal, smaller space than normal, no stage lights.

We had singer/songwriter acts such as Danielle Thomas (with faculty member Greg Horne)

A bunch of really sweet blues numbers such as “Got My Mojo Workin’:

and a ton of other good tunes with lots of energy and audience participation:

The night ended with a sing-a-long of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”, sung my NGW’s own Matt Smith and led by a young man from Milan named Elio:

We were all delighted at how nice the evening was! It reminded us of the “good old days” of NGW, when we were at the CT campus and had outdoor concerts on the patio in front of the office. We almost considered not going back to the stage for the second night, but we did. To be continued…

I’m sitting in the office of the Elgin, IL campus of NGW. Jason (the head director) is on Windows Live Messenger visiting with his wife and son, along with Allison (last year’s assistant director – and boy, do we miss not having her on board this year!) and her son, Dylan, who are here for a little visit. It’s really cute that they can talk on the phone and visit on video together…technology is amazing.

Speaking of technology, this has been my summer for it. Not only did Jason introduce me to TweetDeck so that I could organize all of the people I’m following, but today’s discovery was Google Reader, where I can follow all of my favorite blogs in one spot. It’s soo great because it’s all gathered in one spot; does this mean I’ll be more organized? That I can stay on top of what’s going on and still have more time to practice and compose?

Now if I can just figure out how to book a European tour for Deathblow and still pay the bills…

It’s a quiet day here at the NGW campus in Elgin, IL, as we await the arrival of the faculty. The IL campus is soo wonderful. Located at Judson University, Scott and Diane (the directors of Conference Services) always make our jobs easier than ever. They store our amplifiers and office supplies during the year, they have the dorm list ready to go before we arrive, they have our office set up with all of our boxes when we go there to set up…not to mention that they are two of the nicest and most organized people I’ve ever met.

The dorms are pretty unique: once a 7-story hotel, each dorm room is, essentially, a hotel room with private bath and enough dorm beds, dressers, and desks for three students. There are ethernet jacks in every room, and a keyed elevator to get to our floor, for extra security (even though I’m pretty sure that the crime is pretty low around here – and even if it wasn’t, the security in this place is tight!).

Jason Shadrick (the head director) and I arrived in Chicago’s O’Hare airport on Thursday morning, picked up the rental van, and headed to Jazz Record Mart, where I got a sweet Baby Doll T-Shirt with Blue Note Records artwork on it. (Note to musicians: if your band sells Baby Doll t-shirts at their gigs instead of the shapeless t-shirts, more women will wear them.) Then it was a quick burrito at Chipotle and off to Judson to meet with Scott and Diane, our new Assistant Director, and the RAs for the week. This is the “Dream Team”; we finished all of our prep work by lunchtime today, and have had the afternoon off. I practiced, took a quick nap, and now I’m writing to you.

I never thought I would be a “director”, but I enjoy it; besides, I’ll be teaching at NGW’s Purchase, NY campus August 9-14 (and it’s not too late to take my jazz guitar seminar if you’re interested!) as well as Berklee College of Music’s Guitar Sessions August 19-22, as well as a few gigs in August, so it will be a music-filled summer no matter which way you look at it.

It’s summer time, and the living is on the road. Last week I was serving as Logistics Director of the National Guitar Workshop’s McLean, VA campus, located at the beautiful Madeira School, home to one of the greatest views of the Potomac River that I’ve ever seen:

This is always a great campus to work at because our campus contact, Kim Newsome, is friendly and helpful, and has made setting up camp far from home a delight.

Both of this week’s guest artists were guitarists I admire: jazz legend Pat Martino and shred legend (not to mention new jazz guitar hero) Alex Skolnick (of Testament/TSO fame).

It was my first time meeting Pat Martino. Jason Shadrick (my head director), Tom Dempsey (Legends of Jazz Guitar Instructor), and John Horne (Rock Core Instructor) went to the famous Blues Alley jazz club in Washington, DC to hear Pat play with organist Tony Monaco (who I am convinced is a long-lost cousin of mine), saxophonist Eric Alexander, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. What a set! They were recording for an upcoming live CD, and the band was on fire.

We spent a bit of time talking to Pat afterwards, and I’ve gotta say, you’ll never meet a warmer individual. He arrived at NGW a few days later to give a phenomenal master class, and taught some private lessons the following day. All three times I was able to spend some time with him and his wife, Aya, and it was a real treat. They are beautiful people, really deep and great to talk with. Aya also plays guitar, and accompanied Pat on guitar during his clinic (which I’m sure was amazing, but I was stuck in the office because my Assistant Director was MIA…aargh). I tried Aya’s Benedetto guitar after the clinic, and I loved it so much I felt like I had cheated on my guitar. What is it about nice guitars that guitarists have a zillion needs for them, or so they feel like they had a zillion needs for them? As soon as I gave the guitar back I was thinking about how I could get a Benedetto guitar eventually, if I was really frugal and saved all my pennies…though that’s a lot of pennies!

As for Alex Skolnick, he’s an old friend of mine. We met at NGW in 1994 at the John Scofield Master Class; he was just starting to get into jazz after years of playing in a very successful metal band (Testament). I was able to attend Alex’s Master Class, and it was about as thorough as one can get, and very easy to understand. Alex is such a phenomenal player in that his knowledge is so vast, and he explains the guitar and the music in a way that is inviting and inspiring.

All in all, a fantastic week. On Thursday I leave for Chicago…stay tuned!