Guitar Craft

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Guitar Craft (GC) is a series of guitar and personal development classes, founded and often presented by Robert Fripp, who is best known for his work with King Crimson. The Introduction to Guitar Craft (2004) describes GC as three things:

  • A way to develop a relationship with the guitar;
  • A way to develop a relationship with music;
  • A way to develop a relationship with oneself.

In the wider guitarist community, GC is best known for having introduced the New Standard Tuning, Fripp's term for the guitar tuning that came to him in 1983 (C, G, D, A , E, G low to high), and that he had personally switched over to by 1984. In GC itself the tuning is only one tool used towards a wider aim of re-directing the student's guitar playing from scratch.

New Guitar Craft students are not expected to have any guitar experience at all, and it has been suggested, by Fripp and students, that previous experience can sometimes work against the course objectives, because of the expectations it places on the course and on music in general.

Some course activities have little or nothing to do with the guitar, such as relaxation techniques, house and kitchen work, Tai Chi Chuan and the Alexander Technique.

The League of Crafty Guitarists is GC's official performance ensemble, directed by Hernan Nunez since 2002. The Tuning The Air project is directed by Curt Golden, in Seattle, since 2005.

Other representative Guitar Craft related groups are ZUM, The Bigtime Trio, The California Guitar Trio & Los Gauchos Alemanes, notable players and instructors include Curt Golden, Luciano Pietrafesa, Tom Redmond, Fernando Kabusacki, Martin Schwutke, Hernan Nunez and Tony Geballe. Trey Gunn -- a King Crimson member and associate on other Fripp-related projects -- first met Fripp via Guitar Craft.

There are GC related Guitar Circles working and performing currently in the USA, Argentina, the UK, Spain, Japan, Mexico, Italy and Austria.

GC Courses take place regularly in Latin America, North America, Japan and Europe.

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