Stephan Miller
From:
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
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Posted 6 Sep 2005 12:46 pm |
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I'd like to thank George Piburn of GeorgeBoards for the chance to meet and visit with his mentor, Henry Kaleialoha Allen. Henry is staying with his son Aaron (Paki) in Baltimore until the end of September, when he will give a concert at the Peabody Conservatory (Sept. 27), play a jazz guitar gig at Roy's (club/restaurant, Sept. 2 , then fly to the West Coast to give workshops and lessons in the San Diego/L.A. area.
George wondered if I'd be interested in sparing Mr. Allen the risk and expense of shipping his double-neck steel guitar from Hawaii, by loaning him my GeorgeBoards D-8 for the Peabody concert, and the lessons he will be giving this month (Henry had a lot of input into the GeorgeBoards design). So the guitar and I made the trip to Baltimore last week to meet Henry Allen and fulfill George's request. We got the steel set up and Henry treated me and my C6 neck to some very cool Hawaiian/jazz chord-melodies, and then we hung out for another hour or so. He's a nice guy with a sense of humor and stories to tell.
He's also one heck of a musician-- not only a great steel guitar player, but equally proficient on ukulele and jazz guitar. As a music educator for several decades he has written courses of instruction for these instruments and, for steel guitar, a course whose content includes Sibelius software.
He wants to spend his time between now and the Peabody concert GIVING LESSONS ON THESE 3 INSTRUMENTS, at whatever level is required.
For folks living in Maryland, D.C., Northern Va., southern Pa. and Delaware, Baltimore is an easy drive. For those of you living a few hours further away, it still seems like a rare opportunity for anybody who can get themselves to Baltimore in the next 3 weeks. Lots of master players can't or don't teach, and few teachers have the performing/recording credentials of Henry Allen. Seems like we've got the whole package here.
Lessons are given in one of Baltimore's nice old "historic houses", easy to find.
E-mail (monitored daily): HenryKAllen@Aol.com
Phone (message bank): (808) 669-6169
Henry's wife Sharon and son Paki usually handle the arrangements, "managerial" details, etc. Sharon is back in Hawaii and will return in a week. She called me a couple of days ago and in between cell-phone breakup, gave me this info: ukulele and jazz guitar lessons $50/hr. (with the uke lesson a book is included, not sure about guitar). Hawaiian steel guitar lessons (C6 tuning): $75/hr for 2 or more students; individual lessons-- cost arranged with Henry Allen based on level of instruction, also depending on which follow-up material might be supplied.
I can post further details about lessons and the Peabody concert (which will feature steel guitar, standard 6-string jazz guitar, and ukulele) as I get them. --Steve
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Stephan Miller
From:
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
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Posted 30 Sep 2005 1:47 pm
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Henry Allen's concert at the Peabody in Baltimore was excellent-- this guy is truly impressive on all 3 instruments (steel, uke and jazz guitar) and the students who backed him up played like pros. He'll be in Baltimore for the weekend and still available for lessons as mentioned above, this Sat. and Sun. He leaves Monday (10/3) for SoCal and more lessons and workshops-- I think some will be at Jim Palenscar's steel guitar store in Oceanside. Maybe Jim or George P. will have more info to give about that.
I really enjoyed my lesson with Henry. One of the highlights was to discover some of the cool sounds that become available by putting a dominant 7 at the bass end of a 6th tuning (lo to hi: b7 1 3 5 6 1 3 5). Pretty sure I would have figured this out eventually on my own, but the lesson saved me a lotta time-- one little tweak on the 8th string, and the world is expanding again...  --Steve
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