During a challenging year for in-person teaching The Guitar & Accessories Marketing Association (GAMA) has been hard at work continuing to promote greater access to playing and learning guitar. We recently touched base with two key officers of the organization to learn more about Teaching Guitar Workshops (TGW), the 2020 recipient of the Guitar Ambassador Award, as well as how GAMA has been adapting to an altered and limited reality in the past many months.
For those who didn’t get a chance to participate, how did the two TGW events in July (Nashville and Chicago) go? Were they well-attended? Any post-event feedback?
Glen McCarthy: They were both very successful. We had 30 attendees in Nashville and 20 in Chicago. The TGW clinicians revamped the program. As many of us had taught virtually we had experience on what would help to make it a worthwhile experience for the participants. We now include ukulele in our workshops. We modified the start time to 9:30 Central Time and the length of each session. “In person” TGWs start at 8:30. If we started at that time in New York it wasn’t very nice for our attendees on the West Coast. We addressed six different topics each day, such as setting up a guitar/ukulele class; playing chords; reading music including classic notation, tablature, and chord grids; as well as addressing any specific questions from the attendees. The feedback from our attendees was extremely positive. Comments included:
“Thanks for my box of goodies. With all the methods received, I feel ready to start my guitar class. All the accessories were an added bonus.”
“I was concerned about staying focused considering the length of time but the day flew by. I’m looking forward to signing up next summer.”
“I’m a TGW veteran. Taking the class a second time was a great idea for me. I felt much better playing along with the clinicians. I felt a little self-conscious not being able to play with the rest of the in person class but being online eliminated that anxiety.”
The absence of Summer NAMM this year meant that the traditional announcement of GAMA’s Guitar Ambassador didn’t take place. Can you talk about who this year’s honoree is?
Skip Beltz: This year Lee Ritenour is the recipient of the GAMA Guitar Ambassador Award. Lee was nominated and unanimously approved for his commitment to music education and his Six String Theory Organization. Lee has long been an influential musician in our industry, starting as early as age 16 in a recording session with The Mamas and the Papas. Lee has been nominated many times for Grammy Awards, winning one in 1985 for “Best Arrangement of an Instrumental.” Aside from his notable career as a musician, it is his devotion to helping aspiring musicians with the Six String Theory Competition. It is a Biennial contest that includes amazing opportunities including a full ride to Berklee College of Music and other unique prizes. We at GAMA, and on behalf of all our MI partners, thank Lee for his contributions to our industry.
One of the only positive byproducts of the pandemic and lockdown has been an increased interest in music-making. Sales of fretted instruments, in particular, have skyrocketed. What are your thoughts and observations on this trend?
SB: Yes, this has been a very positive trend for the makers of fretted instruments. We are also both happy and intrigued by other areas of the MI landscaped that have also benefitted. There are obvious outliers that help like travel subsiding and people staying home much more than they usually would. In that time people were able to have an opportunity to turn to things that maybe they once loved, but lost the time to be able to do it. Life happens. It may have helped all of us to step back and focus on things we just weren’t able to find time to do. That certainly helped and also, for those that were dedicated musicians, it improved platforms for them to share their music or learn to share their music digitally. Those changes led to interest in new equipment whatever that was for them. Fretted instruments benefitted as well as others. A silver lining of sorts.
Relating to the above, many instrumental lesson programs temporarily (hopefully) migrated to online, streaming, et cetera in the spring. How is GAMA getting involved in helping to facilitate teacher/student connection during these strange times?
GM: There are numerous online fretted instrument teaching opportunities for consumers to take advantage of. This is not the objective of TGW. Studies have shown the average music teacher that teaches guitar is trained as a band, orchestra, and/or choral director. TGW is designed to give a strong foundation to start or reinforce a guitar class for these teachers.
What are the current plans for TGW in 2021 or is it still a “wait and see” type of situation?
GM: With all things being “wait and see” we are working on “in-house” locations for summer 2021 and hope they can happen. If you are a music store that would be interested in hosting a workshop please contact us. We will have virtual sessions as well.
Thoughts on the current state of the guitar and guitar-related products market? What have you been hearing from suppliers, distributors, and dealers?
SB: We have been experiencing nice demand considering what the world has been through. I do, as well as my colleagues, hear from others in our industry that they are experiencing more of the same. There certainly has been a supply issue related to all of the effects of having to shut down for a period of time while inventory was still able to be shipped once that cleared up and things started moving. The gap in shipping to producing caused some supply issues and that is subsiding and for many are we are getting out in front of it better. We can only hope that things continue to move in a positive direction and learn from the situations we have been through. Who could have really been prepared for what really came up on us pretty fast? All of us should and will be more prepared as best we can to work through these types of issues in the future. All in all, things are much more positive then they initially seemed back in April and May. Cross our fingers that we have seen the worst!
Final thoughts/expectations for the coming months?
GM: I’m hoping that science will be able to conquer the pandemic, I will be able to be in public without a mask, shake hands, hug my family and enjoy the energy of a “live and in person” guitar class.
