Jim Campilongo Clinic

Join faculty host Kevin Barry for a clinic with Berklee American Roots Music Program guest artist Jim Campilongo. Jim has eleven albums of original material and guest appearances on dozens of recordings -- from the Bammie-winner's contribution on Cake's million-selling Prolonging the Magic to (most recently) doing lead guitar duties with The Little Willies, his band with Norah Jones -- Campilongo has played with JJ Cale, Al Anderson, Gillian Welch/David Rawlings, Peter Rowan, Martha Wainwright, Bright Eyes, Teddy Thompson, and Burning Spear to name a few, has earned two Gold records, and has written music for national ads for National Grid, Volkswagen, SBC, Michelin and Jack Daniel's
#berkleevs

[@misisipimike]

I took two lessons from Jim. I think at the time it was $25 an hour. The first one he showed me an incredible scale. I was already a sort of known guitar player in SF so he went for the more moderate stuff. The next week I showed up and he asked me how I did with the scale. I confessed that I hadn't worked on it. I just wanted to hang out with him and play guitar. He told me "Mike, you can hang out with me for free." I learned so much from Jim (and his friends) by going to his weekly shows. I saw him play with Norah Jones and there were only three people there. What I learned most from him is how to show up, play the gig, and appreciate the opportunity to learn on the fly. He is the nicest guy in the world. Years later I got to see him play on (I think it was) his 60th birthday at Yoshi's in Oakland with Nels Cline. It was easily the best concert I've ever seen.

[@misisipimike]

BTW there are three drummers in SF. One of them grew up with Jim. Ken Owen. Also there's Les James and Tony Sales.

[@jltrem]

Jim is a treasure.

[@christianscazzieri]

This guy has a whole pedalboard in-built in his bare hands. Just amazing.

[@robhead22]

Jim Campilongo is a national treasure! Buy his cds! Such a joy to listen to such a too shelf artist!! We are lucky to have him!!!

[@AnodyneHipsterInfluencer]

Love everything about this guy, especially his playing! A true American original.

[@shanetankey3340]

What a musician . Incredible. 👍

[@shanetankey3340]

And he is a top human being.

[@realitynuggets6204]

I regret not seeing Jim more in SF years ago. What a talented guy, so willing to share, and his mixed bag of music is so eclectic and awesome.

[@ampgent]

A testament to why technical virtuosity is not synonymous with good musicianship. What a thoughtful and creative musician!

[@andovideo]

Such a good, humble, honest guy.

[@davidvistas7556]

Jim is really special.. love him! thanks for this!

[@leohipaucha8768]

Jim is a great inspiration. Thanks a lot!

[@cb24203]

Wasn't expecting all the Joe Bonamassa jokes 😂😂😂 "Alpha Blues"

[@hearpalhere]

This was thoroughly enjoyable, thank you for uploading this! There were so many great stories from Jim, it really felt like you were just hanging out with him at someone's house or something. I love his attitude regarding knowing what a song is about and trying to convey the emotion of it. He's very humble and I love his approach to his playing too.

[@toastoftowne1076]

This was absolutely fantastic. Hard to hear but great non the less. Thank you

[@billnelson9413]

Yep that was awesome 👏

[@gushutchinson8758]

I've never clocked this character before...I'm going to be alright finishing my songs. Great attitude...need to listen to the man's music asap!!!

[@Vern859]

He plays music differently, and i like that..👍

[@lightkeeper3341]

Thank you a lot for sharing this clinic with the world! is an amazing thing to be at my house and listen to jim give an extended clinic about guitar.

[@vittoriocarosio1360]

anashe

[@Bob-ir2bj]

Well appreciated, thank you. Please look into audio volumes and balance improvements in the future, after all, it is all about sound.

[@BuddaGuedes]

Super great clinic. Thank you so much

[@josephcorcoran8714]

I agree. I love his playing. It’s good to see you here Budda.

[@UncleDansVintageVinyl]

This man is a genius.

[@JerryCherryBand]

Beautiful interview and playing. Thank you for posting.

[@ejtonefan]

This was supposed to be a guitar clinic not an interview.

[@georg.camerone56]

Totally excellent! The guy is so humble. But by crikey, the Cat can play!!!!! Love it :) Audio was awful low, had to crank my studio, guess it would be bad on a pc/phone etc. But thank you for uploading - respect.

[@stevehowell231]

Love Jim's way!

[@philipellis7039]

Presumably they don’t study sound recording at Berkeley! Just listening to the part where he talks about self promotion,etc. Now I have never been a great musician and hardly play at all now but I played in bands and other guitarists, invariably better musicians than me, didn’t or couldn’t get a gig or felt they couldn’t. And it’s that realisation that someone has to book the venue, do the Facebook page, manage a band diary,etc,etc, and if you are prepared to be the person who does that you are ahead of the other 300 guitarists who can play the same three chords as you. And interesting about the do one thing for your career every day, I was listening to a recent interview with (comedian)Jimmy Carr who said that almost word for word. Eventually you get the cumulative benefit of it (or not, I guess we don’t see many interviews with people who did all that but still had failed careers!).

[@JulesLeyheGuitarPlayer]

This kicks so much ass, not sure why so many people can't hear it very well- just listen closer if you can't hear it/ you can easily figure out what the q was based on Jim's response- come on people! Jim you're the man, this was thoroughly enjoyable. I'm a Berklee grad and the advice you give the Berklee students is spot on!

[@tonezilla7077]

Does anyone know where to find the tune "Denise" he wrote and played here? I can't find a studio version anywhere. Such a great melody

[@michagonet3716]

This is so good! It’s a pity that nobody turned the mike on…

[@maxpeck4154]

6:13 Yes and no. Some guitars have strings behind the bridge. That string length between the nut and the tuners would be IN FRONT of the nut... not behind.

[@brianbard3846]

What these students I think don't understand is that if you don't like music probably more than playing you can't force yourself to be interesting and to constantly strive to find the music that you need,today. There's no magic formula for or a chart to be something musical.

[@joebubbit]

Can't hear it too well.

[@StretchyPsyche]

What's the piece at 1:20:04? Thanks in advance.

[@miamicelebrations]

The audio is too low unfortunately

[@joseph2832]

Rough audio!

[@gushutchinson8758]

Hit that long looming note and let it float I'm going to zip up my guitar and when I've gone too far I'm going to zip down my guitar.. Australians in Europe, and dub housing. John fahey? I like this man's approach. That piece he played was VERY Beefheartian ..FLAVOUR BUD LIVING for example

[@thedevilinthecircuit1414]

Among all the 'finesse' players out there today, Mr. Campilongo is at the top. He conveys more emotion in his compositions than most lyricists could ever hope to.

[@ejtonefan]

have you not heard Ted Greene?

[@yobhsiFehT]

Hm... I wonder what the questions are that are being asked 🤔

[@gushutchinson8758]

Does Jim like Charlie Hayden?

[@buzzfretwear2906]

I wonder if Rickie Lee Jones watched this? 😉

[@sooparticular]

MY GOD HE TOOK MY BREATH AWAY WITH ROUND MIDNIGHT

[@ejtonefan]

No can stretch strings on jazz tunes

[@frederickthompson8686]

This was great. But please work on improving the audio! It was horrible. Impossible to hear in some places.

[@golds04]

Wonderful guitarist: but perhaps a bit ignorant about what jazz is. Or isn’t. Great upload. Thanks.

[@MarkJVSomers]

Real interesting, and so much I agree with, which is always nice, I guess. (Joe Pass, no, Muddy, yes!)

[@daveduffy2823]

Jeez, I can barely hear him, but the guitar is loud. Some music college, can’t even get the sound right.

[@ejtonefan]

Did anyone learn anything about guitar and music?

[@douglaslounsbury8898]

Audio sucks!

[@a071831x]

No disrespect Jim. I am referring to the part where you say how much you have to do on a daily basis to make a living as a professional musician. You seem to be accepting that the music industry was screwing, robbing musicians during the 20th century . Comes the 21st century, and the exploitation of musicians by greedy, corporate shits that are insatiable ("Money, money, Power, power, Swindle those troubadour cocksuckers, hahaha...") has gone exponential. And you all seem to accept it. You musicians can change all this. You can take back what's yours: Control over your music. If you are ready to make a change , I will come to NYC tomorrow and give my life to that cause.

[@gushutchinson8758]

The use of the fancy word niche if pronounced Nitch instead of Neesh is a kinda waste ..all.potential poshness lost !!

[@jerryknipper135]

Sound is horrible! Can't even make out what he's saying. What's the point?

[@mymixture965]

I would be careful ditching all these other guitar players, he is not in the position to say these things about other players just because he has a different taste. I don't like this, no matter how he plays. Only idiots do this, sitting as the teacher in a clinic and putting other player down and say my approach is better, really stupid to do this. So, thumbs down for Jim.

[@m.charron]

Who's he ditching? He mentioned a few things that he doesn't care for and made it pretty clear it's his opinion. He literally said, 'this is my way, not the best way.'

[@MrRFasters]

Before you put him down. Listen to what he says. He explains clearly he wants to illustrate his style in contrast to other players but he doesn t like to do so but doesn t how else to do it. Then he explains he does nt like the blues style of Joe Bonamassa. And he explains that he looks precisely for the emotional tone and melody/harmony the song requires and he critizes musicians that stuff al kinds of sad kyrics on some majir tunes. Thats rightfully helping students to know and connect to what they are doing. So what? Im certainly not a pro musician but even I got something out of this. Kudos and tx for that !!!

[@mymixture965]

@@MrRFasters Let me put it this way. There is an unwritten rule among musicians that you keep your mouth shut on other musicians, you praise the ones you like and say nothing about the ones you don't like. As a musician you better do this, specially in an interview situation or in front of a camera. You should respect the achievements of other players, you should respect other players beyond of the style they are playing. It does not matter if you like it or not, mind your own playing, mind your own business. To become a good player, a good musician is so hard, every musician knows how hard this is, practicing every day, your whole live, devote your live to your instrument, I respect every one who does this, if I like it our not. But ok, he speaks open, I would never do that.

[@MrRFasters]

@@mymixture965 I understand and respect your view. And I do think it s a valuable and wise policy and practice in life. But look at it from the other side. This is a learning vid for student musicians. And the world does exist out of pros & cons, good & bad, the beauty & the beast.. When developing your personal style it develops within this context. Is Jim would leave out the bad, the cons and the ugly - from his point of view - wouldn t he leave out say 50% of his learning journey and lessons for the students to pick up and ponder over?

[@mymixture965]

@@MrRFasters I am a teacher as well and I tell my students what I think about other players, but not in front of a camera, that is the point....and hopefully with a little more respect.

[@bjohnson515]

Too much talk.

[@ledaswan5990]

I think that’s the point. There are plenty concert clips on KZbin

[@ejtonefan]

Words don't convey guitar tone. It's all about guitar tone. His amp doesn't sound like it was mic'ed for tone.@@ledaswan5990

[@norbertogustavoblanco1700]

I don't understand how Jim has a big tone using 0.9!!!