Lowden Guitars launches Stay at Home, Play at Home series of lessons and performances

Lowden Guitars has announced a series of interactive lessons and performances, entitled Stay At Home, Play at Home.

The weekly Lockdown Lessons will be led by folk guitarist Zak Hobbs, with each installment designed to challenge the player’s ability, focusing on intermediate through advanced techniques for acoustic guitar. Players are encouraged to tune in to a short lesson led by Zak Hobbs each week and upload a video to social media, tagging #LowdenLockdownLesson to show their progress.

The Lowden Livingroom Sessions will feature three iconic Northern Irish Albums – Ash’s 1977, Snow Patrol’s Final Straw, and Foy Vance’s Joy of Nothing – being played by three artists each, over three weeks. The schedule for the Lowden Livingroom sessions is as follows:

14 May – 1977 featuring Ash’s Tim Wheeler
21 May – Final Straw featuring Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody
28 May – Joy of Nothing featuring Foy Vance

Company founder and luthier George Lowden said of the initiative: “We are privileged to have a tight-knit community of diverse and talented Lowden players and in this sometimes frustrating time of isolation, many of these players are confined to practicing on their own at home, away from their bandmates, collaborators, and teachers. We are pleased to put forward an initiative which focuses on drawing our diverse Lowden family together, encouraging them to ‘Stay at home, play at home.’”

Lowden’s managing director, David Ausdahl, added: “We are thankful to the wider friends of Lowden who have come forward to participate in our ‘Lowden Livingroom Sessions. As we pay tribute to iconic Northern Ireland musical talent and albums, we are recognising the more than 45 years our local artists have continued to play Lowden guitars at home and around the world. A special thank you to the Oh Yeah Centre, a Northern Ireland music institution which has given so many up-and-coming artists a start in their careers, for helping to make our ‘Livingroom Sessions’ a possibility. A special thanks as well to Zak Hobbs, an extremely talented guitarist in his own right, for leading our //Lockdown Lessons// to encourage our friends across the world to continue to further their music making during this important time.”

Find out more about Play at Home, Stay at home at lowdenguitars.com. Take part in the lessons and watch the performances over on Lowden’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube pages. For more guitar news, click here.