Something else plays into the lack of new blog posts...We want much of it to be an insight into what we do here from a student perspective. The last couple of years having student volunteers willing to contribute has been a little hard to come by. This fall a new concept was unveiled at a staff in-service day in Winona. The college is looking to incorporate contributions from students college wide and spotlight their work online. It's early in the implementation and not yet integrated on the college website but you can catch a "sneak peak" here.
Inspired by this and the need for more student perspective on our blog, first year guitar students will be required to contribute one post about a repair they will work on in our spring semester "Guitar Repair" class. (Sssshhhhhhhh, they don't know that yet). So if you're reading this and considering a future in the guitar program, please consider offering up content for our blog!
And Now For Something Completely Different
As part of our second year program (Guitar Development and Production) we have set aside 1 credit of class time for "Special Topics". The idea is to have people from outside the Red Wing bubble come here to talk about a variety of things happening in lutherie today. Last year we had Derek Zelenka come up and share his experience working at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville Tennessee. Derek is a graduate of the guitar program here in Red Wing and had a TON of knowledge to share. The students really enjoyed meeting him and learning about repair, restoration techniques and the realities of life after school. This year we are very excited to bring in Tim Thelen of the Lutherie Shop and Bilt Guitars based in Des Moines Iowa. Tim is also a graduate of our program and is a whiz at repair work, building innovative yet retro electric guitars and all sorts of touch up work most shops won't consider trying. We're really looking forward to that coming up in December.
We're always discussing other ideas for people to share their knowledge and we'll be sure to keep you posted about what this "Special Topics' course is all about. We strongly believe in a lifetime of learning and with lutherie, there is an endless well of knowledge to be gained and shared which is another reason we love lutherie.
