Mendocino Guitar Workshop

We will not be holding the 2022 Mendocino Guitar workshop this summer, but we plan to announce some MGW events later in the year, so please stay tuned!

We began the summer guitar workshop at Laurel Mill Lodge in the Santa Cruz Mountains back in the year 2000, and we moved the event closer to our home in Mendocino County in 2013–first at Jug Handle Farm in Caspar, and a few years later to the Albion Field Station just a few miles down the coast. Due to concerns around Covid, we canceled the workshop in 2020 and 2021. A lot has changed since 2000 and even more so in the past two years. Nothing can replace the in-person experience of living and breathing guitar 24 hours a day in a beautiful retreat in the redwoods and on the water with a variety of guest instructors, uninterrupted by the concerns of everyday life. But, it has become more challenging–for us, and for many others whose lives have been changed by events and the passage of time. We’re not saying that we won’t continue the MGW summer workshop, but we are re-evaluating the when, where, and how-long details, and until we have that figured out, we will continue to let it rest again this year.

We are, however, looking into the possibility of doing some MGW events online this winter, and we would love to hear from you and get some feedback about what you’d like to see. We’re thinking these might take form as a series of curated forums, topic specific seminars, and a little live music mixed in featuring some of our favorite MGW guest teachers. We would really like to hear from you as to what would get you excited about joining us for such events, so please respond to office@degrassi.com with your ideas!

Not your average Summer Guitar Workshop! Meticulously prepared curriculum on composing, arranging, and performing, plus 1:1's with Alex & Andrew help you take it to the next level.

The Alex de Grassi / Andrew York summer workshop was a great experience and helped me to grow as a musician. It was fun to work with such a diverse group of musicians and get informative instruction from both Alex and Andy. Both musicians helped to show a new perspective into my guitar playing!

The Mendocino Guitar Workshop has provided me with some of the most exceptional advice regarding technique and musical expression that I have ever received. Alex’s vast knowledge in steel-string playing, coupled with Andrew York’s mastery in both the classical and steel-string worlds, provide one of the most balanced and helpful workshops I have ever attended.

Past Events

Intermediate Ukulele Workshop with Alex de Grassi:

Saturdays, 10-12pm, November 2, 9, 23 & December 7, 2019

Location: S.P.A.C.E Dance Studio, 508 W. Perkins St. Ukiah

This workshop is designed to develop technique and arranging skills for the songs you already know and those you would like to learn. We will work with a handful of songs of mutual interest as the basis for exploring rhythmic variations, melodic lines, and expanded harmonic possibilities; each session building upon what was learned in the previous session. We will work as a group, but also incorporate some “practice time” into each session that would allow the instructor to visit briefly with individuals one-on-one. There will be assigned exercises and rhythms to practice in the interval between sessions with goals to be achieved by the subsequent session. Limited to 15 participants.

North Coast Luthiers Exhibit

July 12- 27, 2019

Panache, Highlight, and Prentice Galleries on Main Street, Mendocino

July 18, 4:30-6:30pm Reception with the luthiers simultaneously at all 3 galleries

Guitarists, like other musicians, are perpetually on a quest for an instrument that offers both playability—some might say a great “feel”—and the sound quality that best meets their needs for expression. If they can’t find what they are looking for among the big manufacturers of new guitars, they might turn to a limited production maker, or even order a custom instrument from a boutique builder where they can choose among tone-woods, top-woods, and other specifications within the guitar maker’s range of options. These are the kind of guitars typically shown at exhibits in conjunction with guitar shows and festivals all over the world and some of the makers of those guitars live right here in Mendocino County.

What is a luthier (LOOTH-ee-er]? The word derives from the French word for one who makes lutes—an early ancestor of the guitar—and while the term also applies to builders of bowed stringed instruments such as the violin family, today it is most often used to describe makers of plucked stringed instruments such as guitars, ukeleles, lutes, ouds, and yes, even banjos. Many keen observers of the history of guitar believe we are living in the Golden Age of lutherie, and certainly the quality, quantity, and diversity of handmade guitars being produced today stand as a testament to that notion. The multitude of choices facing a guitar player in search of their ideal instrument today is truly staggering!

This past July, in cooperation with both the Mendocino Guitar Workshop and the Mendocino Music Festival, three of the art galleries on Main Street in the village of Mendocino—Prentice, Highlight and Panache–participated in an exhibit featuring six of Mendocino county’s guitar makers with each gallery showing a few curated instruments alongside other works of art. The six luthiers participating were David Dart, Gregory Byers, Ken Franklin, Rick Micheletti, Steve Porter, and Morgan Daniel. The exhibit featured a variety of instruments including classical guitars, steel-string acoustics, lap steels, electric guitars, and ukuleles.

The two-week long exhibit ran concurrently with the Mendocino Music Festival from July 12-27 and all three galleries joined together to host a reception with the luthiers present on Thursday, July 18 just prior to the Mendocino Music Festival’s guitar concert across the street in the big tent featuring Brazilian virtuosos Badi Assad and Diego Figueiredo. We look forward to expanding the exhibit in the summer of 2020!

Ken Franklin, Luthier – Cerise

David Dart, Luthier – Lap Slide

Gregory Byers, Luthier – Classical

Morgan Daniel, Luthier – T-Style Electric

Rick Micheletti, Luthier – Koa Acoustic

Steve Porter, Luthier – Classical

Guitars in the Village

Friday, July 19, 2019

Participating shops and galleries around the village of Mendocino

Most of the students who attend the Mendocino Guitar Workshop are eager for a chance to play for the public and nearly all of them have been performing in school concerts, coffee shops, competitions, and some have been entertaining audiences professionally or semi-professionally for many years. With that in mind, we introduced the Guitars in the Village in cooperation with the Mendocino Music Festival in 2018, and with the overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback we received, it has become an annual event. Guitar players of all stripes are deployed in shops and galleries throughout the village for two hours on a Friday afternoon, adding a little spice to the already festive atmosphere of the Mendocino Music Festival.

Alex de Grassi & Andrew York & Workshop Students at the Mendocino Music Festival

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Preston Hall, Mendocino

Alex and Andrew have been performing a number of concerts together for the past several years in a program equally divided between duos and solos. Blending the sounds of steel and nylon strings, their repertoire consists of original compositions and arrangements that cross many genres—from classical, to folk, to pop and even improvisational jazz.

The duo has performed together at the Mendocino Music Festival every year since 2016 when Los Angeles-based Andrew York joined Alex in teaching at the Mendocino Guitar Workshop. A highlight of each concert is a guitar ensemble performance composed expressly for the workshop—in 2019, they premiered Durbin Watson, Alex’s composition for guitar orchestra. Check out the video to get an idea what to expect. Always something fresh off the page at this concert!