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'Live, eat and breathe your music'

Guitar Workshop Plus sets up shop at Quest University for five-day music session
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For just one week this summer, Quest University's hallowed halls of learning will resonate with vocals and the sounds of guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards. That's because the new private university is playing host to a prestigious Canadian music program, Guitar Workshop Plus.

Founder of the program, Brian Murray, has had almost 14 years experience running music workshops. His original vision for the camp was simple: Murray wanted to offer a fun, non-competitive, supportive environment for musicians to learn in.

"Something that you can't get anywhere else," he said. "So you just go live, eat and breathe your music."

As the name suggests, the workshop isn't just about guitar. Rather, over the years, it's grown to include bass, drums, keyboard and vocals, a structure that allows people to focus on their choice of style of instrument, and walk away from the whole experience with an improved skill set and materials to work at for the rest of the year.

"I made a living as a professional guitar player for 20 years, so I know a lot of things that I experienced were with 'schools' where guys would be getting up there and sort of cutting heads with each other," Murray said.

All of the musicians were focused on one-upping each other, and for Murray, that isn't what music is about.

"It's not a competition, it's supposed to be a sharing of musical ideas."

The intimate workshops offer a simultaneously structured and laidback approach to learning, featuring local musicians as players and teachers, and some of the biggest names in the industry as guest speakers and instructors.

"It's a really unique experience for the students, because a lot of these artists will play 20,000-seat venues when they come to town."

This year, the workshops will include a range of iconic artists, like Paul Gilbert of Mr. Big and Racer X, blues great Duke Robillard, bass master Stuart Hamm, Hall of Fame inductee Rik Emmett, Andy Timmons, Greg Howe, Don Ross, Mark Kelso, and guitar designer Robert Godin.

"The thing about the artists that come in to do these things is they kind of want to give back. They're not necessarily doing it for the money - although they don't come cheap," Murray said with a laugh. "But they could make more money if they were on the road."

The program is designed to cater to aspiring musicians of all ages and abilities, attracting teenagers, music students, adult hobbyists and professional musicians. They offer a range of courses from beginner to advanced, focusing on blues, jazz, rock, acoustic and classical.

"When we first started it, it was trying to create something unique, but it also became a program that has filled the void," Murray said, pointing out that education cutbacks usually result in cuts to arts programming.

"We found that we ended up being the prep program for people trying to get into the schools for the arts."

Each day consists of morning and afternoon classes with hands-on instruction, late afternoon clinics for songwriting, improvisation and vocals, plus ensemble performances and evening concerts.

There's also usually a pretty even split between the number of adult and teenage students.

"Obviously, you have the teenagers who are the wannabe rock stars because they just started playing recently," Murray said. "...And then you have the other teenagers who are a little more serious about it. They have aspirations of getting into a college or university program."

Squamish's Scott Verbeek definitely fits into the latter category.

The 18-year-old guitar player took part in the program in 2007, opting to try his hand at the Shred class, which offers a challenge for fast players.

"It was pretty cool," Verbeek recalled. "It was seven days of just straight music - you learn every day and then at the end, usually a guest comes in."

This year, Verbeek is stoked to get to work with Gilbert, who he says has been a huge musical influence. And though he hasn't registered for the 2009 session yet, he plans to sign up for Shred again, especially since Quest is just two minutes from his house.

At $775 for off-campus students or $1,125 for the full-deal, the program is a big investment of time and money, but Verbeek said he's found it to be well worth the price.

"You learn a lot... and you're always in class and talking to new people, and you're not just learning from teachers, you're learning from kids you meet, you know?"

Old or young, participants support one another and share their sound and style with one another during the course of the weeklong program, expanding their musical horizons in the process.

"So you'll have this heavy metal kid who's never even heard an acoustic guitar before, or a jazz tune before, and they're sitting there in the faculty shows or the student concerts and they're being exposed to the music," Murray added.

Something must be working; Guitar Workshops Plus has a 60 to 70 per cent return rate with participants, and the program usually sells out, with students coming from around the world to participate.

For the 2009 summer workshops, Murray is hosting two sessions in Toronto in late July, and another in Squamish, at the new Quest University campus, from Aug. 9 to 14.