About
James Shannon, Chet Atkins Guitar style, featuring 6 arrangements and broken down techniques. (Harmony Chord based) James is a freelance guitarist from the South of England. James specialises in fingerstyle guitar and enjoys working in a range of acoustic ensembles, duos or solo guitar gigs. James’ sound is a hybrid of primarily Jazz and Folk colours, taking approaches from guitar masters such as Chet Atkins and Django Reinhardt, and fusing them with a love for folk / traditional music and spiritual songs. Over the past 5 years James has been recording and touring with acclaimed country and folk songwriter Don Mescall and along the way has been fortunate enough to back artists such as Gary Brooker and Stella Parton. SESSION BREAKDOWN 1. Picking Hand Thumb and Finger Independence. Establishing the groove and learning the first arrangement. 2. Breakdown of a 1950’s classic Chet Atkins Arrangement, consolidating the thumb independence over tougher chord changes and more complex / syncopated melody lines. 3. Approaching Jazz Standards in Atkins style - example arrangement and ideas for intro’s , outro’s and turnarounds that can be adopted. 4. Approaching Ballads - example arrangement with technical focus on cascading harmonics . 5. Wider techniques session - The use of open strings, Banjo rolls, arpeggiated chords within an arrangement . 6 . Breakdown of an advanced Atkins arrangement, consolidating the techniques and approaches learnt in previous sessions.