I had the amazing privilege and opportunity to be one of the 40 contestants at this year’s 2011 Winfield Walnut Valley Fingerstyle Guitar Contest.  This was Winfield’s 40^th year!

Before I write my experience with this year’s contest at Winfield I would like to first congratulate Kevin Horrigan from Brookfield, WI as this year’s first place winner in the Fingerstyle contest and Tomoaki Kawabata as this year’s second place winner and Keith Taylor as this year’s third place winner.  All of the players did a fantastic job and it was a treat to watch them perform.  Amazing fingerstyle players! What a treat to see them play backstage and also on stage.

We did shoot a video (with special Video pass from Winfield management) for a video documentary of this years Fingerstyle contest (though we only could video certain things and nothing from the stage). The documentary will basically show what it is like for a player to show up for the first time at Winfield and then play in this competition. Dave Massey is currently working on post production and editing and I will let people know when it is available.  I am the player in the video and it does show what it is like to compete though we do not have actual on stage footage due to License and Winfield rules, but a lot of other interesting footage.

The week at Winfield and the completion was fantastic and for me life changing as a fingerstyle guitarist.  First let me say that the Airlines did drop my $5000 dollar guitar and it was totaled but I do have insurance, and that won’t even dampen my fun experience at Winfield though it was a sad moment to find this out following my return flight.

I really did not know what to expect as far as how good other Fingerstyle players would be. I was, I have to say ,surprised at the quality of players and the experience for me was humbling.  But to be back stage with so many great guitarists and be able to hear them and talk about experiences and such was just great. I will never forget that. Other players that had been there before were so helpful on very practical things.  The stories and conversations were just great.

I did not place anywhere in the top 5 , but I have to say that I learned more in that completion then in past five  years as a player. I will share a few things here. I did write up 37 things that I would do different then next time I compete.   I will write these later sometime.

I learned that without question and without exception the top players have melodic and rhythmic groove down , and I mean really down.  A knowledgeable guitar player sat next to me in the crowd after I played and said something to me I will never forget. He said something like, why do so many of the players seem to not be able to play with good timing.  So I won’t talk about other players , because many were so great to me, but for me I really have to work on Groove. Both Melodic groove and also overall rhythmic groove. That really stood out.  To not just be fast but to be dead on with notes.

I will be writing a paper for this blog on that subject soon with much more detail. Believe me it is what makes the top 5 stand out, not fast chords or fast runs , but basic very steady groove. Wow what  lesson for me to learn!

Second and not least in importance is the smooth and effortless move from note to note or chord to chord or combination thereof. Basically what I mean is if a player is playing for example a run on a G scale or G A B C D E F#   the move from note to note is seamless and you don’t hear a kind of pause or space or noise between the notes to cover up effective changes.

I will write something on this also soon.

The first song I played was very off on Melodic groove and also overall rhythmic groove. The second song not so bad but not so good either I think. I am now working with a metronome to tighten this up, first for these 2 songs and then for all 14 of my DADGAD Hymns.  It is really fun to fix this, though a lot of work and change. But well worth it.  The Metronome is becoming my best friend.

So at Winfield if a player comes out with a pretty simple, and I do mean pretty simple song with excellent Rhythmic and Melodic groove and the melody is remember able and up front and the move from note to note and chord to chord and such is seamless, my guess is that they will be much more near the top 5. Yes, even over players that are much more busy and complex and advanced , I really believe this.  I saw it first hand. Forget about the fast notes, play simple ones clean, in groove, in tune and without noise between notes!

More later. Just a few thoughts to get started. Fantastic people that run Winfield and fantastic players, what a life changing event this was for me.

I am going to upload mp3 examples of how I grow all this next year in both kinds of groove. You will be pretty amazed at how things sound so much better with this fix! Not easy to do but powerful for the performance.

I will also write later about the importance of emotion over just quick runs and such.

Steve Massey

www.stevemasseyguitar.com

I am flying out from Medford, Oregon tomorrow morning to Winfield KS for the International Fingerstyle Guitar Contest! David Massey, my brother, is filming a documentary of my week at Winfield.

Thursday is Fingerstyle guitar contest. Wed is an all day class with Stephen Bennett.

Should be a great week! I will post photos later.

Steve

It has been over a year since I have written in this blog. I am one of 40 contestants at the 2011 International Finger Style Guitar Championships this Sept 14 through 18 2011 at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield Kansas. This has been a lifelong dream to attend this event. I will be uploading to Twitter and Face book during my week with photos and such. Should be a fun week. If you are there also stop by the stage for Fingerstyle contest and look me up!!

I wanted to have my Hymns CD completed by this Sept for this event but not going to happen. Not enough time!  But should be just a very fun event. 

I am thinking about taking my A&M Guitar also for the event.

I still want to get my Hymns CD and song book done. It is turning out to take years to do. Thanks for your emails of interest on this!

It will be fun to see the Mandolin and Banjo and other great contests as well. What  time!!

Check out my new YouTube video also I just completed.

Thanks for stopping by and see ya at Winfield this year!!

Steve

Hi Everyone,

I am very slow at creating my Hymns Tab for Hymns for Guitar DADGAD Tab so I am in the process of getting a Godin midi guitar and Midi unit so that it will greatly speed up the Tab creating process. Putting the songs in one note at a time is taking me years to do!! I will keep everyone posted on how this new process will work. I hope to have Tabs out much quicker.

It has been fun to add some Alex De Grassi techniques that I have learned like playing in DADGAD 4 against 3 and tapping and so on. Makes the guitar arragements work well.

Once I have the song book PDFs available for sale on this site and the MP3 files ready I will start work on a video that will also help with learning these songs. Most songs I think are pretty easy to learn but a few might be a bit more of a challange like "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" for example.

DADGAD is a wonderful tuning for Hymns arragements I have to say. Just addes alot with cross strings and all.

Steve

 A word of thanks to all of you who have contacted me about my DADGAD Hymns CD and Songbook coming out. It is taking a lot longer than I had planned to get the guitar Tab and recordings finished. I will keep this website updated on progress.

This website will plan on selling the entire DADGAD Hymns arrangements CD or individual Hymns and MP3 and downloadable PDFs so you can learn the songs and play them at your churches or other settings.

I have been playing my DADGAD Hymns arrangements now for a few years at our church during the offering and people do seem to like them allot.

Contact me if any questions and I will work hard to get the DADGAD Hymns guitar arrangements CD, MP3 and Tab here as soon as I can.

All Guitar Hymns Arrangements will be in DADGAD tuning and will have both MP3 and WAV and PDF downloads.  Thanks to Peter Huttlinger for his first two Guitar Hymns CD's and song books. They have been a real inspiration to me in my years of working on this project.

Thanks also to Alex De Grassi for such a great guitar camp in California! - So helpful in working our my own arrangements.

Here are the DADGAD Hymns for Guitar Arrangements that I have completed now and am in the studio recording and finishing TAB PDF's for. 

Amazing Grace

It Is Well With My Soul

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing

Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee

Holy Holy Holy

Solid Rock (My Hope Is Built)

This Is My Father's World

(two more being worked now!)

Thanks!

Steve Massey