Music Clinics - To promote interactive music education and audience participation, the festival artists will also be conducting fun and informative workshops on both days. This year will feature for the first time, a guitar and hammond organ workshops by Enrico Crivellaro and Alberto Marsico from Italy. Experience the unique sound, style and techniques up close and personal at UBLUES Fest. NOT TO BE MISSED! For musicians and music enthusiasts alike.

Saturday 12 July - Blues and Swing guitar workshop with Enrico Crivellaro

"Despite his young age Enrico Crivellaro is quickly becoming recognized as one of the great world touring guitarists."
Toronto Blues Society, Maple Blues, Canada

“A fluid style, with maximum sensitivity…"
Aroi, on “Blues & Co.,” Paris, France

"This workshop is designed for guitarists who wish to bridge the gap between blues and swing/jazz playing in a basic but effective way, giving them ideas to develop their music further." Enrico Criverallaro

Topics covered

Rhythm Guitar: too often overlooked, rhythm playing constitutes the backbone of blues guitar. What makes a great song are clever comping and a strong groove, not just the solos! We will go over typical blues formats—shuffle, rhumba, rock’n’roll, funk—and look into some very interesting rhythm patterns.

Jazz-Blues Chords: 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, b5, Aug, Maj 6th, Maj 7th, 6/9, diminished, half-diminished. The knowledge of a few important chords allows a blues guitarist to use a wider vocabulary and take his or her playing into jazz and gospel territories. Blues can be very raw and very sophisticated, and a versatile player should know both sides.

Turnarounds: how to close a blues progression, another topic that remains overlooked and a bit mysterious. Yet there are thousands of different turnarounds, and each one of them will give a unique flavor to any blues tune. We will analyze a few, from country blues to jazzy ones, through Jimmie Vaughan and Robert Lockwood Jr.

The Styles Of The Masters: the key to improving our soloing is to listen to the masters, who are an unlimited source of inspiration. Their approach to building a solo is often focused on attack, on dynamics and on developing a distinctive “voice”, rather than on playing specific scales. We will look into the styles of B.B. King, Albert King, Magic Sam, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, and the list might go on!

The “6, 2, 5, 1 Progression”: the first step from blues to swing and jazz is a simple chord progression that really opens new worlds. We will briefly look at what Charlie Christian did with it.

Swing: Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Count Basie were, after all, great blues musicians. They defined the swing genre by adding new elements to the blues format. We will consider some of these elements: major scales, “playing over the changes”, rhythm changes, and so on. We will also analyze a standard swing tune or two, like for instance “Stuffy”.

Country: We will go on a short trip to Nashville and talk about pentatonic major scales and “double stops”. The great Earl Hooker was a master at surprising his listeners with unexpected country notes in blues tunes. And at teaching that we should be open to other genres when we work to find our own voice as blues players.

Sunday 13 July - Hammond organ workshop
with Alberto Marsico

"..As if he invented the genre, Alberto Marsico, with Jack Mc Duff and Jimmy Smith intimations, reminds us how the blues should be played and digested..."
(Jimmy Woode , 1999 )

"This workshop can help show use of the Hammond B3 as it's been designed to be used... a complete rhythm section with good soloists, all in one. This is the beauty of this instrument." Alberto Marsico

Topics covered

History of the instrument: From the first attempts to build something that could replace a pipe organ to the B-3... Thirty years of passion...

Technical subjects: From the Hammond clock to the synchronous engine of the Hammond, how it works, how to repair it, how to make it sound good.

The presets: The most used drawbars combination and some not really well-known...

The masters: From Fats Waller to Joey De Francesco, going through Smith, Mc Griff, Mc Duff, and so on....

How to play the bass lines: Every good Hammond player should know how to play a bass line, and I'll give you some of Jack Mc Duff's advices...

The B-3 and the blues: Brother and sister...

To B-3 or not to B-3: The B-3 and its clones...

The LESLIE amplifier: History and curiosities...

Book your tickets now at Ticketcharge! Special two-day pass and concession rates available.
Free admission for children under 7. Bring the whole family!

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