" Michael Valeanu displays ample ability to cook on his guitar." –  Jazz Weekly

Ready to study ?  Welcome to my 4 weeks Webinar Series 

Teaching guitar has always been part of my musical life. 

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I've had the chance to be a teacher at the New York Guitar Academy, I've taught guitar and ensemble classes during The Children of Jazz Camp ( France ) for 6 years, I've published two instructional videos entitled "The Well Understood Fretboard vol. I & II" for Soundslice.com and I've run masterclasses in the US, Japan, France, Spain, Italy and Chile.

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Starting March 19th,2018 I'll be running a four weeks Webinar series that will cover subjects that I believe to be very important for any aspiring guitarist.

Every monday at 1pm ( Eastern Time ) I will be giving a one hour master-class that you'll be able to join from your computer, your tablet or even your smartphone.

During the class you will be able to ask me questions as we go and you'll get a video recording of the class as well as a separate audio track of each lesson ( In case you can't attend a class, want to practice on your own or go through the material again at your own pace ). 

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NEW WEBINAR : TENSION & RESOLUTION

For this New Webinar series I'll be talking about Tension & Resolution

Tension & Resolution are the breathing life of anything that tells a story. Think about a movie for example - the dramatic arch of the plot is driven by the obstacles ( Tension ) that the characters have to face until these obstacles are overcome in a way or another ( Resolution ).

In Classical dramas these Tensions have been codified in three Unities since Aristotle : Unity of Action, Unity of Time, Unity of Place.

While Improvising we have to deal with the same issues. A soloist is given a frame in time - the form of the song - that he has to paint with Tensions and Resolutions so that, what he has to say is going to keep the listener interested. Unlike a writer who can take years to finish a novel or a play, the improviser has to do all that on the spot while also reacting to what the other players are throwing at him - not a easy task. 

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Yet, there are basic concepts and tools that we can understand, practice and explore throughout our musical lives that will help us find new ways of achieving this. This four weeks program will show you how I like to tackle such a vast subject and some of the solutions I have found for myself to create momentum in my improvisations. During each class I'll make sure to illustrate each concept and idea with some lines or chords that I like to use. 

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In our first class we'll be setting the basis for a good part of the whole course - the first class will review the basic mechanics of  Perfect, Plagal, Imperfect, Deceptive Cadences. Not only will it get everybody on board with these essential harmonic concepts, but also you'll see that the idea of an Imperfect or Deceptive cadence can go way beyond Harmony. We'll also focus on the first place in Harmony where we traditionally create tension : the Dominant 7th chord. In order to do so I'll give a series of examples, licks and principles I like to use on the Mixolydian, Altered, Diminished, Augmented and Whole Tone scales.

In our second session we'll see how we can create Tension in different parts of an Harmonic Sequence. In order to do so we'll talk about typical chord substitutions and some less typical ones that I like to use. We'll also talk about a concept that I like to call "Micro Hidden Cadences" that can be use in your comping as well as in your solos to create Tension & Release even within one static chord.  

After having spent much time on our harmonic tools, we'll be exploring the endless possibilities of Rhythmic Tensions. How to play with groupings, how to start working with Polyrhythms, how to practice them and how to hear them over the form of a given song.

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Finally for our last session called Sonic Tensions, we'll see that the guitar offers us a very large palette of sounds that we can produce by using all sort of different techniques without having to use any effects. ( Different picking techniques, Fingerstyle, Legato/Staccato, Open Strings....)

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This four weeks curriculum is tailored for Intermediate to Advanced players  who already have a good understanding of the guitar and who are somewhat familiar with improvising over Jazz Standards, but want to learn how to expand their vocabulary and acquire new concepts to create momentum in their solos.

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To get the most out of each I'll be counting on you to practice the material from week to week and I'll be available to answer your questions via email in between classes.

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The price  for each class is 25$ so a total of 25$ x 4 classes = 100$ ( each class lasts 1 hour ) 

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If you are interested in this program but if you still have questions please fell free to reach out to me through the contact form on this website.

If you're ready to sign up just send me the payment through PayPal here and I'll send you an email with a link to register for the Webinars plus the all the additional infos you'll need to prepare for the lessons.

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Michael Valeanu's Master Class at the Pentagramma Music School - Bari, Italy May 2017