Curt is home from a very successful Guitar Craft Beginner's & Intermediate Course near Seattle,
and now working on the final shows of the Tuning the Air Winter/Spring season.

Curt Golden

guitar instruction

With the guitar, the best thing we can do for ourselves is learning how to learn. Then, no teacher and no method can hold us back.

CURT GOLDEN is offering private instruction in Seattle, for beginners through advanced players. The primary focus of the approach used is HOW to play, rather than WHAT to play, with an emphasis on mechanics, fretboard knowledge and ear training.

Curt Golden is a guitarist, instructor and performer with 35 years experience; proficient in many styles. He is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, and for the past 22 years has been an instructor and mentor in Guitar Craft.

Since 2005 Curt has produced and performed in Tuning the Air.
Curt Golden at the Atlanta School
Curt Golden (photo: C Florkowski) 
click here to email


learn more:

Overview: the basics of my teaching approach

Guitar Tunings: New Standard Tuning (Guitar Craft) and traditional tuning
Biography

and more:

Inevitable MySpace Page
Tuning the Air
Seattle Circle
Guitar Craft

and, the Blog is back


And for those on the East Side, I teach one day a week at Plateau Music located in the Klahanie shopping center in Issaquah.


In the News:
Updated June 15, 2009



Seattle Circle's Monthly Open Circle.

Circle (photo: Ingrid Pape-Sheldon)
The next Open Circle will be June 27, in order to accommodate the Guitar Craft course near Seattle the first week of June, and the Fourth of July holiday the first Saturday of July.

Seattle Circle proudly announces a series of Monthly Open Circles, led by Curt Golden.

These Circles are free, and open to anyone with or without prior experience. They take place on the first Saturday of every month at Fremont Abbey Arts Center, from 10am to Noon.

This is an opportunity for players of any skill level to experience the Guitar Circle. Work in the Monthly Open Circle is done on acoustic guitars, using the New Standard Tuning. Curt Golden directs the workshop, and members of the Tuning the Air company typically take part. The emphasis is on playfulness and creativity, as we explore the various techniques utilized in Tuning the Air performances.

Participation in the Monthly Open Circle is FREE. Reservations are required.

*Players without prior Guitar Craft or Guitar Circle experience are encouraged to contact workshops@seattlecircle.org to learn more about the New Standard Tuning.

Schedule for the balance of 2009:
  • June 27  - June and July rescheduled and combined due to Guitar Craft course in Seattle in June and the July 4 holiday
  • August 1
  • September 5
  • October 3
  • November 7
  • December 5





Tuning the Air
Tuning the Air! The Winter/Spring Season

THE SEVENTH SEASON IS ALMOST OVER.
FULL HOUSES ARE NOT UNCOMMON!!! And there are only 2 more shows
For the best seats, BE SURE TO GET THERE EARLY!!!


Tuning the Air's seventh season runs February 5 through June 25th at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center.

Tuning the Air is a unique performance project of the Seattle Circle employing a live 'surround sound' configuration with musicians encircling the audience. Rather than touring in pursuit of an audience, Seattle Circle is bringing the concept of the location based performance team to Seattle. Join us for another year of music with the audience at the heart of every performance.

Every Thursday evening 8:00pm
Fremont Abbey Arts Center
4272 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103
doors open at 7:45pm
Admission $10

The Stranger (July 9, 2008)

"Seattle Circle, an octet of acoustic guitarists, use space masterfully. I caught their Tuning the Air concert series late last year at CHAC and a few weeks ago at their current home, the Fremont Abbey. Neither venue should win any prizes for design; both are boxy and functional. The Fremont Abbey has a ceiling that somehow looks lower than it actually is. Despite such flaws, Seattle Circle take sonic command of the space. The ensemble sit on stools placed on slightly raised platforms. All eight musicians ring the audience in a tight circle and envelop you in music.

I can't decide what is more impressive about Seattle Circle—their astonishing collective precision or how their seating arrangement transforms the music. It's like being inside a giant zither; strums, chords, and melodies not only sail over your head, but tilt and rotate around you. The sound moves with a method. Seattle Circle rely on virtuosic listening as well as on cues such as eye contact and gently pushing the guitar's headstock toward one another to "pass" the sound around the circle.

The music ranges from winning covers of "Kashmir" and Brian Wilson's inconsolable lament "In My Room" to pieces influenced by the classical guitar tradition, flamenco, progressive rock, and the avant. Seattle Circle always open with "Tuning the Air," a marvelous Steve Reich–like tapestry of meticulously picked notes. If you plan to catch the two remaining Fremont Abbey shows, arrive early for a plum seat in the center. Recommended."



Guitar Craft News

In his February 14 diary Robert Fripp announced that on March 25, 2010 Guitar Craft will cease to exist. The entry reads:


15.26    The following has just gone out to various members of the Guitar Craft Team…

i am recommending that on thursday 25th. march, 2010, Guitar Craft's 25th. anniversary, Guitar Craft ceases to exist. the website would close down, other than the words: Guitar Craft has ceased to exist. perhaps with anyone interested in the work of a Guitar Circle may contact...

in other words, i am not wedded to the specific form that a particular intention may take.
 
this has been a focus of personal reflection for some time. on thursday evening this seemed right; on friday morning it felt right.

not sure what might happen after that, if anything at all; and very happy with not knowing. the last time i was at this moment, to the same extent, was in 1984, setting off to claymont to allow the future to present itself. on that occasion, the future presented Guitar Craft and my Wife.

i considered waiting until next week & discussing this in person with several of you, but feel it better to contact you, sooner rather than later; and i would be grateful for your views.










orchestra of crafty guitarists, san cugat, spain, february 27, 2009

Robert Fripp and The Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists
Teatre la Unió, Sant Cugat Del Valles, Spain
February 27, 2009





Olympic Mountains


Photos: Curt Golden portrait: Christina Florkowski
Curt Golden at the Atlanta School: Debra Kahan
Tuning the Air Winter/Spring 2009 Poster: Christina Florkowski
Guitar Circle: Ingrid Pape-Sheldon
Guitar Craft Knot: Steve Ball
Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists: Robert Fripp/Mariana Scaravilli
Olympic Mountains: Howard Snyder