Adrian Freed

The current growth of the Arduino platform is fueled by the many new boards that make it easier to squeeze Atmega processors and their associated peripherals into ever smaller spaces or unusual places such as clothing. Neather hoarding or fetishism explain my large and growing collection of Arduinos (official and unofficial) - I use them to test the sketches and libraries that I share and to teach people how to pick the best one for their applications in

Thanks for these flattering comments. The best complements you give are with all the wonderful things you have been inspired to make after taking my classes.

"Adrian is such a gifted teacher and I really felt like the environment allowed me to see that this area is doable by people and it's not as mysterious as it feels when I work on it on my own. I loved it."

Julien

"Thanks so much, it was a great workshop, you were super."

This is a summary and then expansion of a riff of mine from a debate on the grades vs learning issue in the middle of a fascinating high-paced jam session on the future of education and new contexts for schooling at foocamp 2009.

Dates:Saturday May 15 and Sunday May 16, 2010

from 10am to 5pm

Description

Originally recorded on his "Ship of Fools" album, this song illustrates John's arranging approach where he combines three ideas: double stop harmonization on the center strings, melodic motion along the strings (instead of across), and the outer strings as pattern picked rhythmic drones. This synthesis of British Isles source material, American pattern picking, European harmony and North Indian chordophone technique is a distinctive feature of his guitar style. Here is the original song he is teaching.

John Renbourn took up Sitar after Ravi Shankar's visit to England in the 1960's. Many of his guitar arrangements subsequently reflected modal melodic arrangements on the middle strings with drone accompaniment on the outer strings. John set this one up in standard tuning requiring some clever harmonizations and partial barre chords. John told me that "Lord Franklin" reflected his early approach to this before Davey Graham showed everyone how much easier this sort of thing was in alternate tunings, e.g. DADGAD.

This is the third musical instrument controller I have prepared for Maker Faire. This one combines lessons learned from the previous two: the tablo e-textile controller and the large koto/guitar hybrid from last year.

Django Reinhardt's solos use many figures inspired by the button accordionists he worked with. These can be seen in the chromatic and diminished chord runs here.

This clip includes a performer of National tenor guitar playing strums typical of the banjo's role in early jazz bands. This illustrates the transition from banjo to guitars in the jazz rhythm section.