Mark Hanson - Accent on Music

New!: Transcript and MP3 of Interview with Mark Hanson have been posted to the Interviews Section!

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Mark Hanson and I...I'm 5'11
just in case you were wondering

I first met Grammy winning Mark Hanson at Union Music in Worcester, MA in the spring of 2007 where he was giving a lecture on triads. By this time I had completed the Art of Contemporary Travis Picking and the majority of Beyond the Basics-Fingerstyle Guitar so I was pretty hooked on his teaching methodology by this point.

Mark’s instructional material is very clear, concise and assumes little musical background on the part of the student. He has chosen to cater to the beginner and intermediate guitar player although he is capable of teaching at an advanced level. He has music degrees from Stanford University including a degree in classical guitar.

I spoke to him afterwards and asked him to sign my rare hard copy of Triad Power and he handed out pamphlets for his week-long Accent on Music Guitar Seminar that he has each summer near Portland, OR. I figured he’d be promoting this and I had my mind made up before attending this lecture that there was no way he’d be able to convince me to travel to the other side of the country to go to guitar camp! No way!

On July 16th I made a phone call to Accent on Music. “Hello, Accent on Music?” I heard on the other line, immediately recognizing Mark’s voice from the many CD’s and videos I’d worked through. “Yes, Mark? This is Jeff Desouza. I can’t get into the dorms at the Lewis and Clark College, when are you guys coming to meet us?”

So I went! I had a wonderful time. Chris Proctor, Al Petteway and Doug Smith joined Mark teaching as well. I’ll reminisce about that whole experience in another article, but it was probably one of the wisest guitar learning decisions I’ve ever made, especially with the style of music I was interested in learning.

Mark’s site contains a wealth of great products including instructional book/cd combos, DVD tutorials, individual tabs, accessories, articles, FAQ’s and more. He has some of the best books for learning to play in the alternating bass style on the market, notable the Art of Contemporary Travis Picking and the Art of Solo Fingerpicking. If you’re interested in learning music in the style of Leo Kottke, Paul Simon, James Taylor and other similar artists, Accent on Music is a great place to start, that’s where I started!

Be sure to check out Mark's Youtube channel His way cool rendition of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Breakdown is fun to listen to and has lead me to projects such as arranging the Theme from Family Guy.