Seminars
David is constantly developing his knowledge and sharpening his skills as a songwriter, guitarist, and worship leader. He has studied with 5 of the best acoustic guitar players in the world, has won national and regional competitions for his songwriting and guitar playing, and has led worship at hundreds of gatherings. He has been teaching professionally in various settings for over 10 years.
David is a dynamic instructor and clinician. His desire to give back his knowledge is so strong that he has created multiple seminars. These seminars are available to churches who are already hosting a concert. David also does private consultations with church worship teams. Please learn more by reading the information below.
How does it work?
1. A church that is already hosting a concert invites David to teach a 3-hour seminar on the same day in the afternoon.
2. The hosting church decides which seminar, or which combination of seminars David will teach, and makes photocopies of the applicable worksheets (David will provide a master copy to the hosting venue in advance)
3. Together with the hosting church, David promotes the seminar with posters, flyers, and website support.
4. Students register in advance with the hosting venue. Tuition is $40.00 per student, for a full 3 hours of solid teaching.
5. David teaches the seminar with a multimedia presentation for different learning styles. Students are blessed with an exciting, educational and inspiring seminar, and many return to the concert the same night to see David put his teaching into action.
6. After tallying the tuitions, if the total is less than $400.00 (less than 10 students), the church is responsible to cover the remainder. The money for this does not come out of the freewill offering at the concert. Also, if the total for the seminar is more than $400.00, the additional money goes to support David’s ministry of teaching. It is not used to meet David’s performance fee in the freewill offering for the concert.
Breaking the Mold: Creativity on the Acoustic Guitar ANSWER KEY (PDF)
Rhythm Guitar: The Next Level
ANSWER KEY (PDF)
The Peripheral Worship Leader
ANSWER KEY (PDF)
David’s NEXT seminar:
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Evangelical Free Church, Bozeman, MT
FOR STUDENTS
FOR HOSTING VENUES
The Capo: A Guitarist's Trusty Companion
ANSWER KEY (PDF)
Writing Songs for Thirsty Souls
ANSWER KEY (PDF)
Seminars Available
The Strumming Fool: A Guitarist’s Guide to Creating Strumming Patterns (New!)
In this seminar designed for auditory and visual learners, students will learn multiple useful strumming patterns that can be used immediately. These patterns, captured in rhythmic notation with a special “voiced” and “silent” strum arrow system, are ideal for multiple settings. They work for many worship songs, pop songs, and more. The class includes a section on developing a system for creating your own exciting patterns and textures, featuring selective palm muting, partial strumming, hybrid picking, and more.
The Fingerpicking Fool: A Guitarist’s Guide to Creating Fingerstyle Patterns (New!)
This intermediate class is designed to help the fingerstyle guitarist move to the next level while accompanying a melody as a rhythm guitarist. Students will learn the Spanish system of using individual fingers with the picking hand, and explore several common fingerstyle patterns in standard tuning and alternate tunings. The class also includes a section on developing creative new textures with fingerstyle guitar.
Writing Songs for Thirsty Souls
Learn the key elements of crafting powerful lyrics and edifying music in this exciting seminar. Concepts include: developing your songwriting toolkit, learning what makes a great song, crafting excellent lyrics, merging words and music, understanding song forms, realizing your potential, preparing for inspiration, and more! (For songwriters of all experience levels, ages 16 and up)
The Peripheral Worship Leader
This seminar is for people who want to raise the standard of how they lead worship, either individually, or as a team. Concepts include: defining worship, finding the balance in leading worship, developing a varied repertoire of songs, and a pictorial journey through the Tabernacle of Moses. (For anyone involved with worship – no musical background required – ages 16 and up.) *Note: This seminar is most often taught in combination with a private worship team consultation. Please visit the Consulting link to learn more.
Rhythm Guitar: The Next Level
Designed to enrich the skills of the rhythm guitarist, whether for worship leading or songwriting, this seminar covers practical aspects that any guitarist will find useful. Concepts covered include: fretboard mapping, strumming patterns, fingerstyle, bar chords, the CAGED system, chord transitions, and more! (For students ages 16 and up, with 6 months of experience or more.)
The Capo: A Guitarist’s Trusty Companion
Discover how a capo can make things easier, different, or more interesting in this in-depth seminar. 7 different customized capos are examined (Kyser, G7th, Shubb C8B partial capo, Shubb C7B partial capo, Shubb “sawed off ½ open A” capo, the Third Hand capo, and the Glider capo). These capos (along with a total of 20 ways to use them) are demonstrated, to help guitarists expand their playing and their creativity. (For students ages 16 and up, with 2 years of experience or more. Bringing a capo to the seminar is strongly recommended.)
Breaking the Mold: Creativity on the Acoustic Guitar
This seminar is designed for those who want to explore the guitar in new and exciting ways, by thinking “outside the box.” Concepts explored include: 8 alternate tunings (DADGBE, DADFAD, DADGBD, DADGAD, DGDGAD, DADGCD, CGCGCD, and FADFCE), 2-hand tapping or the “touch style,” non-traditional playing styles, artificial and normal harmonics, and the use of a loop station to stack and layer live sound. This is truly a unique and inspiring class that will help you broaden your horizons. (For students ages 16 and up, with 5 years of experience or more.)
Build Your Own Rhythm Guitar Seminar
This seminar is for students and hosting churches who want a custom-tailored presentation. In the same manner as choosing your toppings on a pizza, students are able to pre-register and fill out a form where they list their preferences for specific available topics. The concepts which can be covered range from preparation fundamentals, to harmonic and rhythmic fundamentals. At least 24 different subjects are available, and David is able to teach them in order of students’ priority, for as long as time permits. (For students ages 16 and up, with 6 months of experience or more.)
Each of the above seminars can be taught in the following formats:
Option A: 3-hour seminar (David teaches 1 seminar from the above 8 options, in a 3-hour session, with a short break part way through.)
Option B: Two 90-minute “mini-seminars” (The hosting venue selects 2 of the above seminars. David teaches both, but some concepts are abbreviated.) Click here for some suggested pairings.
Option C: 50-minute workshop (David teaches a very abbreviated version of one of the above seminars per workshop slot. This option is available for conferences only.)
As mentioned above, tuition for a 3 hour session (either Option A or B) is $40.00 per student. Sometimes, the hosting church will help defray the cost per student by contributing a partial amount per student (example: if the church were to agree to pay $20.00 towards each student’s tuition, each student therefore would pay $20.00.) This is up to the hosting church to initiate.
The David Harsh Guitar Symposium (Held once a year)
David describes his conference 1-hour seminars as “a snack,” and his 3-hour afternoon seminars as “a meal.” For students who want to experience “a feast,” David now offers a residential guitar weekend once a year. It’s called The David Harsh Guitar Symposium. A maximum of 10 intermediate guitar students spend the weekend learning from David as he presents over 10 hours of solid teaching, including subjects from many of the above seminars (as well as additional subjects that expand upon the seminars.) Students must be 18 or older. To learn more about this incredible weekend, please click here.
"Finding a talented performer who is also a good instructor is as difficult as finding a champion race car driver who loves to show teenagers how to drive safely. David has a rare combination of talented performing and skilled instruction."
- Paul Brower, Edmonds SDA Church, Edmonds, Washington 
David teaching at the Christian Musician Summit in Redmond, WA
Click here to learn about David's 2011 Guitar Symposium.
