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updated:
07/06/2005
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Curt Golden
Guitarist, guitar instruction and
performance
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Guitar Craft
Instructor and Mentor since 1986. Member of the
League of Crafty Guitarists
and musical director
in North America for the 2003 and 2004 tours. Member of the Atomic Chamber Ensemble and
Seattle Guitar Circle.
Musical Director of Tuning
the Air. Formerly a finance consultant for EMI Music and Sony Music,
and controller for BootlegTV.
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News:
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Contact:
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Guitar
Craft:
Guitar Instruction:
Guitar Circles:
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As
a Guitar Craft
Instructor and Mentor,
I am in contact with all Guitar Circles, worldwide: a Circle
of Circles.
New Jersey, San Francisco Bay Area, Colorado, Atlanta, Germany, Spain,
Italy and Buenos Aires Guitar Circles
are
groups with whom I have an ongoing relationship and with whom I visit when
invited. In the Autumn of 2002 I undertook a cross country
roadtrip,
visiting as many of the North American Circles as possible.
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Seattle
Guitar Circle, an alliance of people from a variety of
disciplines and backgrounds, not all guitarists or even musicians, who
work together to make music a more vital and meaningful part of our lives
and the life of our community. This is the SeattleCircle.com website
which, amongst other things, presents and documents the activities of the
Seattle Guitar Circle, individual and collective, and the emerging work of
the nonprofit corporation.
Performance:
Current:
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Atomic
Chamber Ensemble. The
primary established performance team in Seattle, featuring Jaxie Binder, Dean Jensen, Bob Williams, Chris Gibson,
Travis Metcalf and myself. An ongoing,
evolutionary group with an expanding and varied repertoire. Our CD, Twilight,
includes Steve Ball and Bill Rieflin. The second CD, King For A Day, with a lineup that included Derek
Difilippo, was released in Spring 2004 and is currently available through Discipline
Global. or through CDBaby.
For local sales in Seattle, visit Wall
of Sound in Capitol Hill, various Sonic
Boom locations, Easy
Street on Queen Anne, or Dusty Strings in Fremont. Or, of course, they
are available at all
Atomic Chamber Ensemble performances. Click
here for the calendar.
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Tuning
the Air is a yearlong series of performances of music for guitar
ensemble. The se performances take place every
Monday evening through the end of
2005. Anyone who has been in or around Guitar Craft for any time will tell
you, this is the way that the music was meant to be heard. Unfortunately, the practical realities of traditional performance venues make this a rare occurrence. This series is dedicated to exploring and expanding the possibilities of
performance in the circle.
Members of the Seattle Guitar Circle
have come together in support of this project, and the participants
are engaged in the entire
performance experience, including an ongoing project to design and create
the performance space. The first
performance was on February 21, and the ongoing performance schedule
began on April 11. The full schedule can be found on the Seattle
Circle website.
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The League of Crafty Guitarists. The performance team of Guitar Craft,
from 1985-1991 I was in the line up
for every tour except the 1990 North American leg. Anywhere Guitar Craft
is, the League is close by. In January 2002 it returned to active service
in Europe and South America, and has been touring and recording regularly
ever since. In the Autumn of 2003 the North American incarnation of the
League, under the direction of Curt Golden, came about as part of the
Level Three Guitar Craft Course, performing and recording in and around
Atlanta, GA, and in April 2004 the League did a short tour down the
west coast. League-related news and updates can be found on the League
of Crafty Guitarists website.
Past:
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The Steve
Ball Roadshow. Past? Current? No one ever really leaves the
Roadshow. A constantly changing and evolving vehicle for Steve's creative
output, the call can come at any moment.
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The band formerly known as Caveat
Emptor. Matt Bruno and the team in an experimental
(self-proclaimed) "Prog" format. One performance, after
which the band name was abandoned. Work and family commitments eventually made
rehearsals harder and harder to schedule. Hopefully Matt has not
abandoned writing. The music was challenging and inventive. Perhaps it
will reemerge.
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Stop
That with
Peter Kardas. Peter
Kardas was one of the early "Crafty" transplants to Seattle. Bread Alone
Project, Volume I, a CD
compilation of Seattle bands organized to raise money for the homeless, earned a nomination for Best Compilation at the 1999 NW Music
Awards. Throughout 1999 he organized live performances featuring some or
all of the Bread Alone bands, at which money and food were collected for
local organizations that feed the hungry. I have been privileged to
contribute a thranging guitar chord or two to his Stop That sets at these
performances. Matt Bruno contributed a piece to the CD and it was at
one of these performances that we met.
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Brock Pytel Band.
Drummer, guitarist, singer and songwriter. An album of Brocksongs entitled
"Second Choice" has been released. It features myself on electric guitar as
well as Steve Ball on acoustic and electric guitars and vocals and Bob
Williams on electric bass.
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Desperate
Measures.
A wonderful, angry, explosive and short-lived trio that sprang from the
ashes of The Buttons. Featuring myself, Victor McSurely and Michael
D'Agostino, for six months in 1993-94 we played all of the usual NYC
venues including CBGB, Kenny's Castaway, Continental and the New Music
Cafe.
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The
Buttons:
1991-93. New York in the early 90's. A bopping, rocking little unit.
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1965-85. 20 years of rock bands,
blues bands, jazz combos, fusion bands and cover bands.
Selected
Discography:
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"King For A Day"
Atomic Chamber Ensemble,
2004
Currently
available direct from the band or through Discipline
Global.
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"The Steve Ball Box Set"
Steve Ball,
2004
One of about a gazillion players who contributed to this
magnum opus. I play a bit of electric guitar and slide guitar, as well as
in the Seattle Guitar Circle circulation.
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"WWIII"
KMFDM, 2004
Harmonica solo on Bullets, Bombs and Bigotry.
"This is one you can't help but sing along. I can't believe an
industrial band found a way to use a harmonica and make it sound cool."
- abrasiverock.com
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"Attak"
KMFDM, 2002
Slide guitar barrage on Sleep
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"Second
Choice"
Brock
Pytel, 2000
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"Twilight"
Seattle Guitar Circle, 1999
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"(scream)"
unreleased demos (if you suspect you are in this
band...), 1994-98
Features two pieces, No
Shadows and Reclamation,
from the Desperate Measures repertoire.
Several selections are available for authorized download through Weed.
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"Intergalactic Boogie Express"
Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists, 1991
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"Show of Hands"
Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists, 1990
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"Get Crafty"
Robert Fripp
and the League of Crafty Guitarists, 1988
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"Desire"
Toyah Wilcox, 1987 (the LCG appeared on two cuts)
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"Robert
Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists. Live!"
Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists, 1986
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"The
Lady or the Tiger"
Toyah Wilcox, 1986 (incidental music gleaned from the "LCG
Live!" sessions)
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"Together
Again, 37 Years Later"
Neal Finch and Don Dennis (curt golden: guitar and arranger), 1985
Compositions::
Courses and
Seminars:
Between 1985 and
1991 I was involved with a large number of courses and
seminars within
Guitar Craft. In 1997, after something of a
sabbatical, I became re-engaged in this process, helping the New York Guitar
Circle to organize an Introductory Weekend for people interested in the New
Standard Tuning. From this the New York (eventually "Northeast")
Beginner's Circle emerged, and since I moved to Seattle in 1998 I have been
active in all of the Courses presented here in the Northwest, and a number
elsewhere.
Seattle Guitar
Circle Course Calendar. An archived list of all of the early courses associated with the Seattle Guitar Circle going
back to the first Weekend Retreat in October 1994, through 2003.
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Introduction
to the New Standard Tuning. Dixon, Illinois. June 2005.
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Guitar Craft Level
One, Two and Two½. Lebanon, New Jersey. March 2005.
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Introduction
to Guitar Craft. A full-length Introductory Course, hosted by the
New Jersey Circle. With Sandra Bain Cushman. January 2005.
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Guitar
Craft Level Three and Level Four. Kiel, Germany. July/August 2004
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Performance Project. A two-week
Level Two+ performance project, followed by a 10-day League of Crafty
Guitarists west coast tour, hosted by the Seattle Guitar Circle. With
Sandra Bain Cushman, Tony Geballe and Bill Rieflin. March/April 2004
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Introduction
to Guitar Craft. The third full-length Introductory Course in
North America, hosted by the Seattle Guitar Circle. With Sandra Bain
Cushman. March 2004.
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Guitar Craft Level
One and Level Two. Los Molinos, Spain. January 2004.
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Guitar
Craft Level Three. Atlanta, GA. September-November 2003.
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Introduction
to Guitar Craft. The second full-length Introductory Course in North
America, hosted by the Seattle Guitar Circle. With Sandra Bain Cushman and
Patrick Smith. April
2003.
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Guitar Craft Level One, Level Two, and
Lifers Summit. Los Molinos, Spain. January
2003.
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Repertoire
and Performance Project. A residential weekend hosted by Seattle
Circle, with Bert Lams and Paul Richards of the California Guitar Trio.
October 2002.
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Introduction
to Guitar Craft. The first full-length Introductory Course in North
America, hosted by the New Jersey Circle. With Frank Sheldon, Tony Geballe
and Fernando Kabusacki. September 2002.
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Atlanta
Beginning Circle. The first ABC New Standard Tuning/Alexander Technique Weekend
Retreat, in the North Georgia mountains. With Curt
Golden and Sandra Bain Cushman. July 25-28, 2002
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Colorado
Guitar Circle NST Fundamentals Weekend, Divide, CO. Curt Golden, Bert
Lams and
the Colorado team. May 16-19 2002.
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Guitar Craft Level One and Level
Two+,
Santa Barbara, CA. With Robert Fripp, Frank Sheldon, Bert
Lams, Paul Richards, Tony Geballe, Bill Rieflin, Debra Kahan, Sandra Bain
Cushman, and myself. February 2002.
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NST Weekend. Hosted
by the New Jersey Guitar Circle;
Curt Golden, Frank Sheldon
and Tony Geballe conducting. The first experiment with a 3-day
weekend.
March 2001
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Guitar Craft Level One and Level Two+
hosted by New Jersey Guitar
Circle. Sep 2000.
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A weekend
Introduction
to the New Standard Tuning, with Tony Geballe and Frank Sheldon,
hosted by the New Jersey Guitar Circle. April
2000.
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A
series of workshops with harmonic singer David Hykes. June
1999.
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The
Seattle Guitar Circle Weekend Retreat.
March
1999.
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Weekend
intensives with the New Jersey Guitar
Circle:
January
1999: general focus
October 1999: performance and service focus
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Weekend
intensives with the Bay Area Guitar
Circle:
January
1999: general focus
April 1999:
repertoire focus
July 1999:
performance focus
October 1999: practice focus
March 2000:
working together through Circulations
November 2001: fretboard knowledge
November 2002: fretboard knowledge part 2
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At-A-Distance. A series of courses
co-facilitated with Frank Sheldon in which participants work together,
though situated all over the world:
AAD2 (1998): Circulation
AAD3 (1999): Personal Practice
AAD4 (2001): Completion
AAD5 (2002): Time
AAD6 (2002): Knowing
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One-week
seminars in Buenos Aires and Santiago. October
1998.
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Guitar
Craft Level One and R&R Weekend. February 1998.
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Guitar
Craft
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I attended the
first Guitar Craft course in March 1985. In December 1985 I was part of the
first Guitar Craft Level II, which produced the album Robert Fripp
and the League of Crafty Guitarists, Live! In early 1986 I was
asked to join the team as an assistant Guitar Craft instructor. I have been
involved in Guitar Craft as a student, an instructor, a mentor and a member of the
League of Crafty Guitarists ever since. I have served in the role of Musical Director for the North American League of Crafty Guitarists.
Along with Frank Sheldon I am currently supervising the Guitar
Craft Circle that has formed in Seattle. Suffice it to say, a great deal of
what I know about guitaring and musicking I learned from struggling with this
material and this process. You
may wish to visit the Guitar Craft
website, which contains a complete calendar of Guitar Craft and related
courses and events, a number of rare monographs by Robert Fripp, complete
contact information for Guitar Craft worldwide, and the Guitar Craft Aphorism
Generator. Also of interest, the Guitar Craft Diaries
and an evolving Guitar
Craft Timeline.
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