Live with Howard Levy, Bryan Sutton, & Béla Fleck
In last week’s installment of our live-streamed series “Live Dispatch from Home,” ArtistWorks’ CEO and cofounder Patricia Butler hosted ArtistWorks harmonica instructor Howard Levy, bluegrass acoustic guitar master teacher Bryan Sutton, and special guest Béla Fleck (world-renowned banjo player and co-founder of Béla Fleck & The Flecktones) for an afternoon discussion on, “Becoming a Confident Player.” These three musical masters took a deep dive into what it takes to become a confident player on any instrument and shared their approaches and techniques to becoming fearless musicians. In addition to sharing their secrets, they demonstrated their ideas and rounded out the discussion with some amazing live musical performances.
As a two-time Grammy Award-winning master musician and a founding member of Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, Howard Levy has truly expanded the capabilities of the harmonica. His pioneering “overblowing” and “overbending” techniques have made the diatonic harmonica a fully chromatic instrument, allowing for near limitless musical possibilities. In addition to sharing the stage with world-renowned banjoist Béla Fleck, Howard has recorded and performed across the globe with artists such as John Prine, Chuck Mangione, Dolly Parton, Donald Fagen, Paquito D’Rivera, and more.
LEARN MORE: Want to learn harmonica from a master musician like Howard Levy? Try a free online harmonica lesson now!
Howard was joined by fellow ArtistWorks master instructor and bluegrass acoustic guitar virtuoso, Bryan Sutton. A three-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist and ten-time recipient of the International Bluegrass Music Associations’ ‘Guitarist of the Year’ award, Bryan is widely considered to be the best flatpick guitarists since the late great Doc Watson and has performed and recorded with countless musical greats including Dolly Parton, the Dixie Chicks, Rhonda Vincent, Béla Fleck, Tony Rice, Chris Thile, and more. Bryan will also be joined alongside Sam Bush, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Stuart Duncan as the House Band for this year’s 48th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival. ArtistWorks master teachers, Andy Hall and Noam Pikelny will also be performing with their groups, The Infamous Stringdusters and Punch Brothers respectively.
LEARN MORE: Want to learn from a bluegrass guitar master like Bryan Sutton? Try a free online guitar lesson now!
Joining the conversation alongside ArtistWorks master instructors Howard Levy and Bryan Sutton was special guest Béla Fleck. A fifteen-time Grammy Award-winning musician, Béla Fleck has been nominated in more categories than any other artist in Grammy history and is a powerful creative force in the worlds of bluegrass, jazz, classical, pop, rock, and worldbeat. Béla was a longtime member of the band New Grass Revival and founded his own critically acclaimed group, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, in 1988 alongside Howard Levy, Victor Wooten, and Roy “Future Man” Wooten. In addition to playing with both Howard and Bryan a myriad of times, Béla has shared the stage with many bluegrass, rock, and jazz greats, including Doc Watson, Jerry Garcia, Edgar Meyer, and more. Béla has also appeared on dozens of recordings as both a bandleader and a guest.
Watch and absorb this great conversation on the role of confidence in music and learn how to become a rock-solid musician from three masters of the craft here:
Try out some free sample music lessons here and see what makes ArtistWorks courses some of the best online music lessons around!
