National Guitar Workshop

[tonycrf]

I'm thinking about going to the National Guitar Workshop this summer in McLean, VA. Anyone have any experience with them? I've read some posts here, but they were all a couple of years old.

[Hyperborea]

I too am thinking about going (well somewhere between thinking and planning) to the NGW workshop. Probably the one in LA - I was thinking about going to the one in San Francisco (much closer) but due to the economy they seem to have cut quite a number of sites this year.

I have never been but I have read a number of posts on other guitar/music discussion boards (mostly found with the help of Google) and it does get a lot of good reviews. I have friends who've been to other music camps/workshops for other instruments or styles of music and they seemed to have gotten a lot from it. One piece of advice they tell me is to bring a digital recorder of some kind so that in the weeks after the workshop you can play back any of the lessons because you will forget some of the stuff.

There is a discussion board for the NGW program here - http://guitarworkshop.ning.com/

[disappointed]

Don't go if you're a girl. At one workshop the boys had a pool table in their dorm common area and were all allowed to hang out. There was only a handful of girls in this session and all they had was a TV. When they wanted to hang out in the common area where the other kids were playing pool, listening to music and talking, they were told they had to leave. It was really disappointing.

[Hyperborea]

Don't go if you're a girl. At one workshop the boys had a pool table in their dorm common area and were all allowed to hang out. There was only a handful of girls in this session and all they had was a TV. When they wanted to hang out in the common area where the other kids were playing pool, listening to music and talking, they were told they had to leave. It was really disappointing.

Well, I went to the one in LA in early July and it was great - I'll write up a full review for the board later. I just wanted to reply to this since it seems a very odd reason not to go.

I fully understand why NGW has separate dorm floors for boys and girls and a rule of no members of the opposite sex on the dorm floors. During the week NGW is acting as a proxy guardian and would like to avoid any trouble with the kids or their parents.

That being said, I don't know why you would worry about a TV or a pool table. During my session at NGW I had no time for either. Our dorm lounge only had a TV and no pool table (I think all the dorm lounges just had a TV). The facilities in the dorm lounges are going to vary by whatever facility NGW is using - we were at Loyola Marymount University in LA. Actually, nobody used those lounges for watching TV anyways. We were all so busy playing, practicing for the student concert, jamming with other students, hanging out and talking guitar with students and teachers, or catching what little sleep we could that there was no time at all for TV or pool.

[dday]

Depends on what you are looking for, your teacher, and your musical director. I just withdrew from this week's class in Connecticut. Am an intermediate to advanced blues player who had the MD last year as my teacher. Let's just say we didn't see eye to eye on some stuff. We''ll today, when they did the ensemble assignments for friday's performance, I thought I was going to play in the Blues/Rock group. They didn't mention that it was the beginners group of 10-11 year olds who were asking questions like 'where is the e string again?'. I guess the MD got even by assigning me to the kiddie group. Oh well - just drink their koolaid - ask no real questions, and go with the flow and you'll be fine. Not my cup of tea anymore though.