MUSIC: LARRY CORYELL, GUITAR GENIUS
Read Larry Coryell's Review of The Guitar Explained:
"Paul Santa Maria is one great guitarist and composer; his system of teaching guitar is revolutionary as well as salutary, because Paul doesn't require that you read music; he has his own system that works just fine -- you'll get what you need to become a better guitarist from Paul Santa Maria."
~ Sincerely, Larry Coryell
First of all, Larry owned two copies of my book, which he insisted on paying me for, even though we worked together. He kept one with him on the road and one on his piano. He really believed that I had discovered new ideas and methods. I did. I happen to believe that my book is the best guitar manual of it's kind, and when the summa cum laude Jiulliard graduate /Library of Congress employee who reviewed my book for copyright asks "Can I keep studying from your book?" after granting the copyright, then what more do you need to know? Huh?
You need to Google Larry Coryell if you really want to know why he mattered and why he was widely called "The Godfather of Fusion". Along with Steve Marcus (The Count) he was the beginning of adding rock and classical styles to Jazz ... enough cannot be said. Steve Marcus was a dear man and an incredible sax player who is listed in the "Who's Who In Jazz" book. He was the featured soloist for the Buddy Rich big band for 12 years and then was the new leader after Mr. Rich passed away until his own early demise; he was a great friend as well and loved my music and my book and I am damn proud to say he conferred upon me the Jazz musician title of "Cat"! Now THAT's a testimonial!
Sadly, Mr. Coryell (whom I did some great music with) passed away 2/19/2017.
He will always be remembered for his amazing chops and compositional abilities.
Please visit his site. And, go to iTunes or Amazon, search my name for my stores on those sites and check out the music we did together, specifically "Pascual Lives", "Life Is Koo-Koo", (the chart for Koo-Koo is the last page of The Guitar Explained,) "Inseparable", "Our Love Is Here To Stay", "Concierto de Aranjuez" and more.
MUSIC: MARK EGAN, 7-time Grammy winning bassist
Here's Mark Egan's Review of The Guitar Explained:
"The Guitar Explained is a groundbreaking approach to understanding the guitar and bass guitar from a universal musical perspective. It's a very useful guide for expanding the understanding of the bass OR Guitar fretboard."
Mark Egan
MAR EGAN's BIO:
His unique fretless bass sound and style is both distinctive and versatile making him one of the most in-demand electric bassists on the music scene today. With three platinum and three gold albums to his credit, Mark has recorded with the likes of the original Pat Metheny Group, Elements, Sting, Gil Evans, Carly Simon, John Mclaughlin, Cyndi Lauper, John Abercrombie, Michael Franks, Stan Getz, Bill Evans, Judy Collins, Marc Cohn, Duran Duran and Joan Osborne.
He has performed and recorded with legendary artists such as Pat Martino, David Sanborn, Larry Coryell, Chet Baker,Jim Hall, Marianne Faithful, Ali Ryerson, Joe Beck and Lew Soloff. He also has co-led the group Elements with drummer Danny Gottlieb since 1982. With ten recordings to date, the group continues to tour worldwide featuring artists such as Bill Evans, Clifford Carter, David Mann and Gil Goldstein.
Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, after high school he studied music at the University of Miami under the direction of the great jazz educator, Jerry Coker and moved to New York City in 1976 with singer Phyliss Hyman’s group with Hiram Bullock, Clifford Carter and Billy Bowker.
Mark quickly became established on the New York music scene recording and playing with David Sanborn, The Pointer Sisters, Vickie Sue Robinson, Sonny Fortune, Steve Grossman, Mark Murphy, Eumir Deodato and Stan Getz. It was during this time that former U. of M. classmate Pat Metheny asked Mark to form the original group along with Lyle Mays and Danny Gottlieb. They spent the next four years touring worldwide 300 days per year and recording two records, The Pat Metheny Group and American Garage.
Since that time Mark has released seven recordings as a leader:
Mosaic, A touch of Light, Beyond Words, Freedom Town. As We Speak, Truth Be Told and his most recent release About Now.
In 1993 Mark launched an independent record label, Wavetone Records, which has twelve releases and is distributed worldwide.
He continues to compose and record at his Electric Fields recording studio where he produces his group Elements, solo projects and various artists.
I am honored to have Mark Egan on my site!!
PAUL SANTA MARIA ARTS © 1953 - 2088(+/-) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
TEACHING: A Proud Dad writes ...
Paul Santa Maria changed my son's musical future ... After 2 years of wasted money with instructors that want to teach line-by-line out of a book, my son could play from sheet music, but really didn't understand the guitar or his way around the fret board... in one short summer, Paul taught him more about guitars and proper technique than he ever would have learned from the other instructors. I really feel that every new guitar should come with a copy of his book ... Richard King, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Pete Bought My Guitar Book 8.12.2021
Paul,
Thank you for the beautiful book I received today. It arrived in perfect condition thanks to your extra efforts packing it. Thank you also for the personal note and for taking the time to sign my book ! I look forward to reading it, studying the systems, theories and illustrations. There is a wealth of knowledge within your book, that will help me advance my guitar playing. After trying to teach myself guitar for many years with limited results, I took lessons for 4 years and that helped me improve. But I got to the point were I felt like my learning had slowed. Your book is exactly what I need to gain some new theory and knowledge, and re charge my enthusiasm for playing guitar ! I wish you success on ebay, and in every way going forward.
Pete B.
TEACHING: A happy grandmother writes ...
This is an unsolicited testimonial from a grandmother whose daughter bought her my book and a block of 4 lessons for her and her 11 year old grandson for Christmas.
I only did 3 lessons at this point, so I guess we have another satisfied customer.
By the way, they are both absolute beginners and the boy is a bit challenged with attention as any 11 year old boy would be (he'd rather be playing basketball) but I'm getting through to him and his gradmom, both are doing very well for this stage of the game. I'm teaching them right out of my book and also about tuners, strings, etc.
1000 % ... can't beat that!!
ART: COMMENTS THRU THE YEARS...
"You Didn't Draw That"
~ Literally hundreds of people over time in my life
"That's Not A Pencil Drawing, That's A Photograph"
Hahahaha ... I LOVE that one! Again, literally hundreds of people shown my work over the years.
"But ... but ... I'm Not Sure What I'm Looking At"
"It's a pencil drawing...it's a pencil on paper drawing ... ~me "
"Oh My God"
- as the realization sinks in, it brings a smile to my face!
The New World: "Is This Photoshopped?"
Since about 2000, people have now come to believe that, although all my drawings are clearly dated 1975 - 1988, that somehow, before even the kernel of Photoshop existed, and that personal computers DID NOT EXIST, that I was using Photoshop instead of a piece of Bainbridge cold press no. 3 high rag content drawing paper produced until about 1970!
Of course, to re-assemble a piece of art bigger than a flatbed scanner, you would use a program like Photoshop to scan sections, then stitch them together and make a final file which then gets printed. So in the new world, yes, Photoshop is used but 12-45 years+ after the drawing was done entirely by hand, mostly in motel rooms with no magnification on those crappy little tables they had back then, when I was on the road with bands.
"No, It's A Pencil Drawing On Paper, and This Is A Photo Of the Drawing"
` Me, forever and ever, it seems ...
