MUSIC
WORKSHOPS IN NASHVILLE

group music workshop
Start with our Free ONLINE Beginners guitar Course

Green Hills Guitar Studio offers music lessons to both individuals and groups of all sizes. If you’re interested in an intensive group learning experience to jumpstart your guitar playing and songwriting or work on your skills with like-minded musicians in a cooperative setting, contact us for more information.

Guitar & songwriting workshops for creatives, teams, and organizations in Nashville, TN

“Somehow Shane led our group of 7 entrepreneurs, with virtually no musical talent, in writing and singing a complete song! How he accomplished this in just a few hours I will never know, but I am forever grateful. We now have our own song, that we came up with, and I can’t get it out of my head! Shane is incredibly talented, knowledgeable, and patient. He truly accomplished the impossible!” – Eric Griffin

We offer custom workshops for songwriters, teams and organizations. Contact Shane for more information. Check out the offerings below:

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Executive & Entrepreneurial Music Workshops

Learn creative thinking, active listening and collaboration skills for today’s workplace in our songwriting workshop. This workshop is meant for groups looking for a team-building experience of collaboration and innovation skills. This workshop is perfect for groups of 6-15.

“Our group of small business owners met with Shane for a songwriting workshop during a retreat. It was so far beyond what we could’ve expected. Shane got vulnerable with us right away, and we did the same with him. He pushed us to go deep into our feelings. We laughed a lot though it was hard. At the end, we have a song we all love and will remember forever.” -Cassandra Bailey

Your team will learn to:

  • Create a safe environment to “play” and explore
  • Foster and encourage new ideas and innovation
  • Overcome fears and inner critics that sabotage the creative process
  • Understand, embrace, and work with different ideas and personalities
  • Work through conflict with empathy and compassion
  • Strengthen collaboration, breakdown hierarchies, and balance leadership
  • Identify opportunities and outcomes, set goals, and reveal motivations

Your team will gain:

  • A new non-linear and outside-of-the-box approach to the creative & planning process
  • Active and engaged listening and communication skills
  • Confidence and trust in themselves and others
  • Knowledge and solution-based decision-making skills
  • Inspiration and motivation
  • Success as a group

OUR
WORKSHOPS

We are currently offering several guitar, songwriting and music theory workshops. They typically meet once a week for 4-6 weeks. We have also been offering one-time meetups on a particular subject. So far, we have delved into the process of songwriting, the creative process and getting un-stuck as well as music theory and beginning guitar. To receive updates and info, subscribe to our newsletter.

Meant for songwriters and creatives who want to sharpen their creative skills and grow in their collaborative and co-writing efforts, these workshops bring together creative thinking, communication and songwriting skills to help creatives recharge.

We all get stuck. We all hit a wall. This meetup is about addressing the issues that get us stuck, and keep us there.

These workshops are about learning how to build multifaceted skills:

  • Open to those who sing and write lyrics but don’t play an instrument, or musicians who want to start writing lyrics
  • Learning to write to a tagline or single idea
  • Moving from verse to chorus, or vice versa
  • Basic music theory
  • Melodic writing
  • Picking up on someone else’s idea and offering options and solutions
  • Understanding how to set up song sections (chorus, bridge, verse)
  • Using musical devices (harmony, rhythm, melodic tones to set up and resolve sections)

This isn’t a critique or listening/performance opportunity. This is about the process of writing, exploring and finishing songs. It will be a safe, constructive and open environment. No judgment, no anxiety, no pressure.

No guitar experience necessary. Bring your skills and an openness to trying new things.

Contact Shane for more information on customizing a workshop for your songwriting group.

THE MAJOR SCALE: CONSTRUCTION & PURPOSE

Whether you have no experience at all or have picked up threads of information along the way, we will be starting from ground zero! This workshop is open to everyone: singers, instrumentalists & songwriters.

DOES THE THOUGHT OF MUSIC THEORY MAKE YOU FEEL ANXIETY AND STRESS? DOES IT SEEM OVERWHELMING?

If so, it’s completely unnecessary to continue to feel that way! Learning theory is important and liberating. You will gain a deeper understanding of melody, harmony, writing and reading charts, communicating your musical ideas, improving your ability to finish songs, spark your creativity and boosting your co-writing skills.

Learning music theory is not as complicated or difficult as it seems. I have developed my own linear and organized system to help my guitar & songwriting students understand, learn and implement music theory. Just show up with a pencil and notepad and all the questions you can think of!

Don’t just memorize the information, understand it!!

It all starts with knowing how to construct a major scale and knowing what notes are in each key. This is the foundation of the music. It’s the gateway to understanding the Nashville Number System. Don’t just memorize the information, understand it!!

What You Will Learn:

We will start with basic, open position chords and straight ahead strum patterns and progress from there. The goal is to give you the skills to learn and play as many songs as fast as possible. It’s not about perfection or performance, but providing you with the material, knowledge and ability to get the songs to a level you can practice them and then play them for yourself or at a gathering of friends and family.

  • Songs, songs, songs!
  • Rhythm guitar playing essentials like open positions chords, bar chords, power chords, learning the fretboard, strum patterns, counting and rhythm and being a solid rhythm guitarist
  • Learning how to sing and play at the same time
  • Insights and techniques for smooth chord transitions
  • Common chord progressions and song analyzation
  • Dealing with fear and nerves
  • Using a capo – this includes the ability to play along with another guitarist, playing on a different part of the neck with different chords and inversions.
  • Finger style guitar – solid and versatile right hand technique, finger style patterns for pop, blues, folk and more
  • Basic music theory
  • How to improvise and play licks and solos over a song so you can jump in and jam along with anyone
CHORD CONSTRUCTION & KEY SIGNATURES

We will learn how chords are constructed. What’s the difference between Major and Minor? What is a diminished chord? How do you know key you’re in?

What chords are in the key, how the chords work together by knowing and understanding their FUNCTION!!

The next step is putting it all together! You will leave the workshop knowing how the major scale is constructed, keys and key signature, how to build the foundational chords/triads and what chords are in what keys and why. Fill out the form below for more information about guitar workshops, or visit our music lessons page to find out more about individual guitar, piano, voice or bass lessons.

The next step is putting it all together! We will build on everything we covered in Music Theory 1. This is when it really starts to get fun! Songs and melodies begin to make much more sense. If you are a songwriter, if you are interested in being a better player and musician or just wanting to improve your understanding of music theory, this is a great workshop for you!

What chords are in the key, how the chords work together by knowing and understanding their FUNCTION!!

We will also:

  • Look at numerous songs and chord progressions
  • Study Nashville Number System charts
  • Practice writing your own Nashville Number Charts
  • Learn how to construct Dominant 7 & Major 7 chords
  • Extended chord construction
  • Modulations and tonicizations
  • Expanding beyond the major scale – exploring the modes and other tonal centers
  • Borrowed chords
  • Secondary dominant chords
  • Counterpoint
  • Re-harmonizing a melody
  • Chord inversions
  • Understanding and utilizing tension and resolve

Several people reached out asking for a workshop focused on songs for guitar that can be learned fairly quickly. I decided to put together a workshop that could fulfill this purpose and also expand into a series of workshops to help guitarist students grow and learn in a way that is more than just a one-off workshop. This way, the design is all there and you can jump in wherever you like!

This series will feature songs by multiple artists spanning several decades. Also, attendees will have input regarding songs they would like to learn as well. This keeps each workshop flexible and unique. Here is a current Spotify playlist: Campfire Songs

No, you don’t have to have singing experience or be Adele! Just a willingness to show up, have fun and learn some songs!

The goal is to have several of these guitar workshops that help you get better as a guitar player by meeting you at your current skill level, challenging that a bit and also learning songs quickly. It is designed to be a series so it is linear, organized and presents music and guitar skills & knowledge that will build on what you learned in the previous workshop. This way, you are learning new songs, new techniques, and building a repertoire you feel confident and comfortable playing in a group setting.

All music and handouts will be provided. Just show up with your guitar, guitar pick and capo. If you don’t have a guitar, we have a few we can provide. Grab some friends and let’s get started!

This introduction to guitar workshop gets you familiar with your instrument, both acoustic & electric guitars and guitar amplifiers. Join us solo or with a couple of your closest friends interested in learning guitar.

Open to all ages and skill levels, this workshop will start from ground zero and build from there.

All handouts and music will be provided.

Give us a call today or check our events calendar to see when the next workshop is happening.

Guitars can be provided if you don’t have one. Just let us know in advance!

What you will learn:
  • How to hold your guitar and sit comfortably while playing
  • Technique exercise to build up endurance, calluses and strength and independence in both hands
  • Alternate picking
  • How to hold a guitar pick
  • How to tune your guitar with a tuner and by ear
  • How to change your guitar strings
  • Caring for your guitar
  • The parts of the guitar and what they do
  • How to read guitar tablature
  • Beginning to learn the guitar fretboard and the note names
  • Learning to read music in the open position
  • How to read chord diagrams, open position chords and fingerings.
  • Developing good hand position and strumming technique
  • Strategies for smooth chord changes and transitions
  • The most common rhythms and strum patterns used in songs
  • Rhythm and counting whole notes, quarter notes and eighth notes
  • How to count & stay in time

This workshop is open to all ages and skill levels. It will start from ground zero and build from there, focusing on blues guitar skills. If you have played guitar in the past, had some lessons and need a refresher or you are starting from scratch, this is the class for you!

Contact Shane for more information on the next workshop.

Target the “right notes” at the right time

We will pick up right where Beginning Blues and Rock Guitar 1 left off.

You will learn how to play melodic fills and lead licks that are based on chord shapes. If you know and understand what notes are in the chords, you can learn how to target the “right notes” at the right time as the chords go by.

Now, we will start expanding the chord knowledge, chord inversions up the guitar neck. We will also be adding to the scales we learned in Beginning Blues and Rock Guitar 1. Now you will be able to move freely up and down the guitar neck in any key!

This is a really important part of playing both rhythm and lead guitar. For the solo guitarist, this approach is necessary to mix up playing straight rhythm guitar with guitar licks, turn arounds and even solos. It can really make what your are playing much more exciting and dimensional. This is a great way, and a very musical approach, when you are frustrated when trying to improvise and it feels like you are just playing a pattern and shape that is too “scale-y.”

Steve Jordan explaining The Rock AND the Roll!

We will also cover:

  • More blues turnarounds
  • Moving between the pentatonic scales
  • The “B.B. Box”
  • Dominant 7ths & 9ths to play in any key
  • Targeting chord tones within the blues progression
  • Finding chords on the 6th & 5th strings
  • Learning the note names and frets across the guitar neck
  • Useful arpeggios to use in your solos
  • Sliding rhythms
  • Ear training, playing by ear and figuring out songs and also knowing where to start jamming
  • The “spread fingering” for rhythm guitar- Chuck Berry and early Blues Rock
  • How to accompany a singer or soloist
  • Combining the major and minor pentatonic scales
  • Variations on the 12 bar blues form
  • The box shuffle
  • How to start improvising and constructing your own guitar solos
  • New bending techniques – pre bending, half, full and one and a half step bends
  • Classic blues “call and response” technique, allowing you to play a simple blues rhythm and then create fill licks in-between the rhythm phrases
  • Muddy Waters Delta/Chicago style blues guitar
  • Howlin’ Wolf and Buddy Guy walking bass style lines
  • Going deeper into the use of rhythmic devices – the rock AND the roll!
  • Into to open tunings and slide guitar
  • Major and minor key blues chord progressions, scales and licks
  • Combining lead and rhythm guitar
  • Useful blues licks that you can apply to other songs and transpose to different parts of the guitar neck and to other keys
  • Playing guitar and jamming with others: being an effective and musical rhythm and lead guitarist in a band or duo setting
songwriting workshop Nashville TN

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