That would be awesome! Good luck.

-Eric

I want a piece of the 2 part conversation

Day one is over. Great playing and some challenging material for students.

Tonight's concert was a real pleasure to hear (I speak as an audience member, here). Glenn Poorman broke out a brand new tune, Gene Perry threw down some Bach, Tom G took us to the stratosphere, and I got to play my first gig in several weeks. Feeling energized, and looking forward to two more days.

What a place this is...

...

Another one done. I think my favorite thing about these seminars is the emphasis on performance. It's fun to explore techniques and theory as they relate to this instrument, but encouraging people to get up in front of an audience and be a Stick player, working on music to play together, even people who've never touched the instrument before coming to the workshop, that's the best.

Thanks to Glenn for making it happen, to Tom for all of his insights and good humor, and to Gene and Oz for lending their own perspectives and magic to things.

Hope to be there again in two years. Hope more of you are as well!

Wow. Well now I know and understand the majesty that is the Interlochen Stick Workshop. Here I was up in my FHA tower thinking we had it all in LA at the AJU, but oh, I had much to learn...

What makes it so special? Part of it is the 1200 acre campus, part of it is the quality of instructors and their respective curriculum and part of it is the friendships that are built that last a lifetime. Big time tip of hat to Glenn Poorman who has put together the program with the Administration at Interlochen, making it possible for Chapman Stick players from all over North America to be on campus shoulder to shoulder with other premium adult education classes. This adds a lot of visibility to our shared love of this instrument and affords us a unique opportunity to learn more about the Stick in an idyllic, purely musical surrounding.

I will have a video soon with some of the details. Thanks to all in attendance - Steve, Art, Mark, Tim, Max, Greg, Cory, Tom, Lee, Oz, Dave, Eric and of course - Glenn and his lovely wife Rasa who took care of us.

With all of the chatter on Facebook about this, appears some of my non- musician friends are curious. Today I'm seeing videos of Stick players being shared by people I would never expect to do so. Seems they are doing some research on the Internet.

Suddenly it's quiet. People started to trickle back to civilization late afternoon on Saturday. Some more left early Sunday morning. After an afternoon of sampling local wine and spirits, Art Durkee left just before dinner on Sunday. This morning, Greg, Gene, and my lovely wife hit the road leaving me in the great north woods with just my dogs and some extended time off (until August 24th).

So yes ... suddenly it's very quiet. Time to try and soak up the events of the last several days. Time to soak up the wonderful teachings of Greg Howard and Tom Griesgraber. Time to start cobbling together photos and notes and time to start outlining some manner of write-up while it's all still fresh.

Time to play music.

Stay tuned!

More to come at a later date. For now I'm completely unwinding. Here's a peak at the group photo though.

(front row) Tom Griesgraber, Mark Nelham, Glenn Poorman, Cory McCormick, Jim Todd, Gene Perry

(back row) Greg Howard, Pete Gilbert, Steve Balogh, Eric Knapp, Steve Osburn, Dave Johnson, Max Kramer, Don Scott, Lee Tarricone, Art Durkee

I practiced last night for the first time since the Interlochen experience. I'm having much more productive results and better motivation to push through perceived barriers.

It's just what I needed!