Summary
- Our next Guitar Society Meeting is on Monday, April 7th (first Monday of the month) at Odd Fellows Hall and will begin at 7:15 pm; free and open to the public.
- Bret Williams is our featured artist for the evening concert.
- Isaac Engel will be running the Community Ensemble Session; scores and performance prep notes are found in the ensemble section.
- The Open Stage is an opportunity for anyone to play classical guitar music – beginners, intermediate, and advanced!
- The After School Guitar Program is going to take place on Monday April 7th at 6:00pm and on Monday April 21st at 7:00pm. This month Isaac Engel and Jacob Ripley will be teaching both finger-style and chord versions of Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles.
- Information on other local guitar events included at the end!
Corvallis Guitar Society Monthly Meeting
This month’s meeting is on Monday, April 7th, 7:15pm – 9:15pm.
Venue: Odd Fellows Hall, 223 SW 2nd St, Corvallis
Free & Open to the Public
The Agenda
7:15 – 7:20 pm Welcome
7:20 – 7:40 pm Open Guitar Ensemble: See the Guitar Ensemble section for scores and recordings. Everyone is welcome to play in the group! This month’s session will be shorter due to…
7:40 – 7:55 pm Guest Ensemble: The Porch Players come and perform a selection of tunes for a guitar/ukulele ensemble!
7:55 – 8:20 pm Open Stage: beginners, intermediate players, and advanced guitarists are all welcome to come and share their music with us!
8:20 – 8:30 pm Break and Refreshments
8:30 – 9:15 pm Bret Williams takes the stage as our guest artist for the evening’s free guitar concert.
Featured Artist Bret Williams
https://bretwilliamsmusic.com/
Bret Williams infuses traditional western forms with popular elements that showcase the natural beauty of the guitar.
“The Music of Bret Williams has it all: fantastic playing, great recording quality, and compositions that will please classical, jazz, and general listeners alike.” ThisIsClassicalGuitar.com. Classical Guitar Magazine profiled his work as “alluring” and “accomplished.” Tony Morris of NPR’s Classical Guitar Alive! praised his music for it’s “energetic, warm and polished sound.” Soundboard Magazine credits him with “wonderful precision.”
Notable concert appearances include the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, St. Peter’s Church, The Riverside Church, the Shandelee Music Festival, and the Mannes Guitar Symposium. He has taught at Concordia College, Lucy Moses School, The School at Columbia University, Hostos Community College, Turtle Bay Music School, and has been instructing at Rodeph Sholom School for fourteen years. He served on faculty as a general music teacher at the South Bronx Early College Academy.
We’re excited to have Bret playing for us!
Open Guitar Ensemble
Isaac Engel is running the Open Guitar Ensemble in which anyone is welcome to participate. When you look at the pieces, decide which part you wish to play, and let Isaac know ahead of time – his email is [email protected]. Remember to bring the music with you to the Guitar Society meeting.
Here are the scores and Performance Notes for the Ensemble Session Music:
Pieces for the April Meeting
La Llorona – Mexican Traditional arr. by Bill Tyers
Recording and score on Bill’s website here
Download the PDF score here
Notes: This is a fairly easy arrangement of a beautiful traditional Mexican tune for guitar trio with an optional fourth part for an acoustic bass guitar. This score is unusual for including TAB notation for the top three guitar parts, so invite your TAB playing friends to join us on this one! If anyone would like to bring and play an acoustic bass guitar to fill out the optional fourth part, please let me know because that would be lovely.
Galya’s Dance – Lou Warde
MP3 Recording and Score available on Lou’s website here
Download the PDF score here
Watch the YouTube performance here
Notes: This is an original composition by Lou Warde, and the practice recordings will be vital to the success of this one. It’s difficult! Part 3 is the friendliest part with almost all the notes at a moderate pace in the first position. To locate the MP3 recording you’ll need to locate the piece title and click on it to expand the tile showing the recording, video, and files.
Open Stage
Everyone is invited to perform guitar music on the Open Stage at the Corvallis Guitar Society, whether beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Bring your guitar, put your name down on the sign-up sheet at the beginning of the evening, and we’ll give you a warm welcome as you share some music with us!
We’re excited to welcome local guitar & ukulele ensemble The Porch Players to share some of their music with us this month.
Community Guitar Lessons
The Guitar Lessons Program is a free lesson offered to community members twice monthly by Corvallis Guitar Society directors Isaac Engel and Jacob Ripley.
The After School Guitar Program is completely free. We invite middle and high school students to explore the possibilities that playing guitar can open up. Our goal is to increase the opportunity to enjoy playing the guitar by featuring group lessons, private lessons and ensemble music through this program.
The Community Beginning group lesson is from 8:00 to 8:30 on the 3rd Monday of the month, and anyone interested in playing guitar or picking up some new guitar skills and music is welcome to attend, completely free of charge.
Feel free to come meet with Jacob and Isaac at their sessions!
If you have any questions contact Jacob at [email protected] or phone 541-357-2513, or contact Isaac Engel [email protected] or phone 971-718-4535 and you can view his website: https://isaacengelmusic.com/
Times are as follows:
The first Monday on April 7th at Odd Fellows Hall – Isaac Engel
6:00pm to 7:00pm is the After School Guitar Program (group lesson for students)
The Third Monday on April 21st at Odd Fellows Hall – Jacob Ripley
7:00 – 8:30pm is the After School Guitar Program group lesson (for students) & the Community Beginning group lesson.
Location for the Events
Entrance to the above events is free and open to the public (donations gratefully received).
Location: Odd Fellows Hall, 223 SW 2nd St, Corvallis, OR 97333.
The entrance door is right next to the New Morning Bakery.
Other Guitar Events
Guitarist David Rogers and University of Oregon clarinet faculty Wonkak Kim will perform their program Classics on Broadway on Sunday, April 6 from 3:00-4:30pm at Jazz Station.
124 W. Broadway
Eugene, OR 97401
(548) 205-1030
https://thejazzstation.org/get-tickets/upcoming-shows/#!event/2025/4/6/david-rogers-wonkak-kim-classical-on-broadway
Thanks and best wishes,
Isaac Engel, director
on behalf of the Corvallis Guitar Society