John Sheehan.net
"Dedicated Fingerstyle Guitar"
Send email to:  njfingerstyle@hotmail.com


Lessons:  
http://www.musicstaff.com/profile.asp?CustomerID=5544

 

MUSIC FOR ALL OCCASIONS!
Shows, Festivals: Original Instrumentals/Songs
Restaurants, House Concerts
,Corporate parties, Wedding Ceremonies: Finger Style Instrumental
including Classical Guitar and Renaissance Lute
Corporate parties, Cocktail Hours, Bars, Outdoor parties: Solo Classic Acoustic Folk /Rock, Blues and Rags
Bars, Outdoor parties :Classic Rock With 4 piece Band :Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Drums, Bass

Guitar and Banjo lessons
Call John at 973-962-9655

 

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Latest Recording News and Sincere reviews

12-15-09

 Good December morning to you, John.
Again, this year, my husband and I are doing our holiday chores and your Christmas CD is making it all go so much easier.  We love it!  At my husband's prompting, I just this minute purchased your other 3 CDs from the CD Baby site, where I found your Christmas CD a few years ago.  Our stockings will be full!!  Then I took a risk and tried to find a contact email for you directly.  We think you would be a wonderful show for our Calliope Folk Music concerts held at the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Pittsburgh.  The Carnegie is the main branch, located adjacent to the University of Pittsburgh's campus, in the same building as the famous natural history museum / dinosaur hall, but through a different entrance.  Performers usually have a short warm-up by another player/group, a short intermission and then the feature performer.  Artists are encouraged to sell their CDs during and after the concert.  We think the audience would really enjoy your music.  Here is their web site:  http://www.calliopehouse.org/index.htm  In any event, if you ever plan to play in the Pittsburgh area, we would love to plan to be there!  Until then, please know how much we are enjoying your music and appreciating your amazing technical skill.  Best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010!
 
Kathy & Tom Flaherty, Pittsburgh, PA

 

Thanks to Don Frio for hiring me to play the banjo on his song ,"Can't be Wrong". It really is a great song and Don is a great keyboard player! I am glad to add my banjo to the mix with an ex -student playing guitar. Lou Verrone has gone the distance and learned a thousand things since I taught him a small thing or two back in the early 80's.

6/18/07 Ed Ackerly release
Thanks to Ed Ackerly for hiring me to flatpick six tunes in the studio for his Bluegrass Banjo CD.

Hey John.
My banjo project is now complete.  I am very pleased with the final product. You did an outstanding job. Thanks a million!!!!!.
Regards, Ed

 

6/23/09 EzFolk Interview :

http://ezfolk.com/forums/forum36/7445.htm  
http://ezfolk.com/audio/index.php?c=an_interview_with_john_sheehan_6.22.09

3/17/09 , Songwriter, Arthur Dennis wrote:
 
"Awesome lesson John. Challenging and thought provoking as always. Much appreciation ."

Latest Guitar purchase consultations ,Tab Orders and Reviews Dec. 2008-Feb.2009

Thanks for your input and wisdom on the purchase of my Custom Bil Mitchell OM Guitar. Your suggestion on Honduran Rosewood is something I would never have thought of and, based on my own homework on Honduran Rosewood (after your suggestion), it looks like a homerun choice. Thanks for traveling with me to the luthier to review the guitar and pick the right appointments for the guitar. I am now more confident, and with your “blessing” I made the right choice.

I can’t wait to start receiving the tab you’re working on from my list I forwarded to you. I know you’ll pick the songs that best suit my capabilities and will enjoy playing, as opposed to any old song I may not have my heart in to play. With my constant travels here and abroad it’ll by like taking lessons from you transcontinental.
Ken Hagedorn, Wantage, NJ

That's YOU on guitar??? !!!! ???
Holy smokes! That's great!!! Will the site allow me to move one of those tunes to my home page?
http://www.bigbluegill.com/profile/BruceCondello  
Bruce Condello President and Co-Creator of:  http://www.bigbluegill.com/ 

"Close your eyes and listen to John Sheehan's songs. It's practically impossible to not imagine yourself walking through a thick fencerow hoping to spook up a ringneck pheasant. The first time I heard his music I imagined what might have happened if Segovia met Knopfler on an ice covered pond for some fishin' and pickin'. Calming, yet upbeat...I think John Sheehan's got it pegged. Really good stuff. "Bruce Condello

"The slide work in "Trout and day lilies" is phenomenal and has me on a Zeppelin flashback!" Bill "Musky" Mod ,Antioch Il.

" I  found 'Faces of the Past' purely by accident. I googled "guitar tablature" and ended up on a site with that song. I liked the way it sounded and could almost figure it out on my own but couldn't quite get it. So here I am asking for the music. Am looking forward to learning and playing it."

Best regards, Jim Moncur, Clear Lake Shores, TX 

Kevin Moloney from Michigan  inspires John to discuss composition techniques:

If you don't mind, can I ask some advice?
I started playing guitar relatively late (age 18), although I had been playing piano and organ since I was six.  I switched from keyboards to guitar because I couldn't get the feeling of a bent string on a keyboard.  Also, because I'm a lefty, I figured I'd never be able to "flip" a piano like I could flip a guitar.
I still love keyboard music, especially older boogie-woogie piano, and classical pipe organ (Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, I think, was the equivalent of rock in its time, and the ending, with the mix of suspended and the transition between major and minor chords still brings Goosebumps when I hear it).
As for guitar, I've never taken lessons.  Pretty much it's all self taught, listening to others play and copying them.  That has pretty much become mixed in my head as a bunch of riffs that I can piece together, but I don't really feel like I "own" the instrument like I should.  I have written some songs that are unusual and really cool, but they are very scripted, and stiff.  At one time, I was really good: I listen to stuff I recorded in 1986, and, while the occasional goof came out in the first take (there were never any second takes) and I ask myself...how did I do that?  But now I feel like everything I play sounds the same.
Have you ever had to deal with this, and how did you overcome it?
Thanks.  You are an inspiration.
Kevin

Nice email Kevin. I am a real Bach enthusiast as well.
Do you play in open tunings at all? How’s your knowledge of Scales ,modes and chords? Chord scales etc.?

 I’ll try to say some pertinent things about my way of learning music that I hope will be useful to you. Approaches can be purely intuitive (going by sound only and not knowing the notes you’re playing )  , writing in a standard genre which has it tendencies, or by combining intuitive ideas with  rational developmental ideas like key changes ,changes in mode, meter ,tempo and other devices.
   As far as 'Trip to Spain' is concerned ,it was the result of ‘making up’ my own tuning .I knew that an A minor chord was composed of A, C and E notes so I tuned the strings of standard  tuning to their closest A minor note. This tuning being somewhat ‘flubby' I moved everything up a half step to a tighter Bb minor. The lesson for me here was ‘make up’ a tuning and work out somewhat unusual sounds that are easy to find. An intuitive ear approach.

 With 'Beauty Road' and 'Sleepy Eyes' I started in a tuning I was limited in; Eb which is really just commonly played Open D or Open E.
With my desire to find the right tightness for my guitars setup and gauge strings( D was too flubby and E was too tight) Eb solved the problem. When I ran into trouble developing these two pieces I switched back to standard tuning ,developed a chord progression that complimented what was already done and then went back to Eb tuning and found ways to play those chords. A knowledge of transposition learned at school was put to use. A combination of intuition and rational thought process was developed with this method.
  At other times I learn a few tunes by other artists and after a few nights of dreams start finding ways to disguise them into my own songs. LOL
With standard tuning songs I usually just start feeling out a mode or scale and look to develop phrases or themes sometimes just developing chord progressions sometimes working from riffs or developing melodies. A really cool way to play is think  a rhythm and then work out the pitches  and riffs that fit the rhythm. This helps developing ideas that can be altered later to be more effective or achieve a better balance.
It is very important to hear the music coming out of your inner ear as opposed to thinking it .Also write and play within your means honing anything  difficult or not relaxed into a better more communicable  phrase.
Hope this helps you or better yet inspires you again!
John
 

(It was on ) ( "Notes for suburbia" ) that I discovered the 5" Ricercare " . I often listen because it is great!
Friendly
J.C. ,France

That CD is really great. Thanks. Of all the tunes O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is one of the most beautiful
guitar songs I've ever heard. You did a really nice job on it. There are parts of it where it sounds like you are losing yourself in it and it really blossoms. In case no one told you, you are a heck of a guitar player!!
Thanks again-
Rick Conte, Lambertville NJ

 You are an EXCELLENT guitar player, and I do know my guitar players!  Been playing since 1980.  Would like to purchase tab for "Trip to Spain."  Would like very much if you could sign the tab. I have PayPal, for your convenience. You definitely rock, Sir!
Kevin P. Moloney ,Metamora Michigan

Rebel Red says:
"The song "Modern Man" is a hit!"

Robert Clinton review :
Great album!
The song "THE CLIFFS OF MOHER" struck a nerve.
Robert has some photos of the beautiful Ireland ,Cliffs of Moher (moor) in a studio in Sugar Loaf NY.

Daniel Flores Review:
I heard about Mr. Sheehan while looking for acoustic music on Rhapsody, I've also seen him on several you tube broadcasts.  Love his music and hope to learn and hear more from him.

Wedding Music Testimonials:

John,
Thanks so much for making our wedding ceremony perfect, you were awesome! I'm so glad we used you, you really added a lot to the ceremony .
Thanks again!
-Sara and Matt

Aloha, John!

Anyway, we too thought the wedding went off perfectly, and we couldn’t have done it without you, especially. The ceremony music set the perfect mood and everyone was complimenting us on “the guitar dude”. :)  When we first saw you at Andre’s way back we both got a very good feeling about you, and on the day of, you and your music created the romantic and relaxed atmosphere we were going for. It goes without saying that we would love to help in building your wedding clientele any way we can.

We look forward to seeing you at Andre’s again too! We’ll be there soon...first Friday of every month, right?

Mahalo (thank you) again!!!

Jaime (& John)

 

Peter Kaukonen and John playing 'Key to the Highway' at the Warwick Valley Winery' 7/6/07 show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFTeuFwl5AA&mode=related&search=

Peter Kaukonen show photos: http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/559805054GqHXue

Download John's tunes:
http://payplay.fm/johnsheehan
 
http://payplay.fm/johnsheehan2
 
http://payplay.fm/johnsheehan3
 
http://payplay.fm/johnsheehan4

Great international Finger style sites:
http://www.fingerstyle-guitar.com/john%20sheehan/

http://www.fingerstyleworld.com/usa_j.htm
http://akoestische-gitarist.beginthier.nl/  

Friday May 18,2007 New Jersey Herald

 Bob Dylan's music has been a constant thread throughout my life. The first Dylan song I remember singing as a child was 'Blowin' in the Wind', a song I heard my older brothers and sisters often sing. After college I found myself singing and playing guitar on the same street corners in Greenwich Village that Dylan sang on. Street corners like MacDougal and Third and neighboring streets and Washington Square Park were popular busking areas. Throughout the years I've been teaching students how to play Dylan's songs and have been a performer at the Warwick Winery Dylan Fest every year they've held the event. So in short he's an unavoidable influence since child hood and to the present day!

For more photos of the evening with John Hammond, myself and friends, click the following link: 

http://community.webshots.com/user/johnsheehanguitar

"Old Mill Rag" licensed for six months of use in UK/Ireland's Sky Digital's TV and Cinema Ad

"I think the penguin music is so wicked. Maybe when I have learnt a lot more notes I might be able to play it too," Hannah 9 yr. old  Burnham, Buckinghamshire UK

"It's a pleasure to get some great music like yours onto an ad, I'm chuffed they used your track as it was a great bit of music in it's own right as well as being perfect  for accompaniment of the penguins in the commercial! "
..Pete Diggins, Sky Digital UK