The Boston Globe calls singer-songwriter Willy Porter "an acoustic picker with the Olympian speed of Leo Kottke, bolstered by rootsy vocals and twisting, offbeat lyrics.” Listen To This agrees; "If you’ve never heard of this guy before, you are in for the musical discovery for a lifetime - he plays guitar perhaps greater than anyone else on the planet."

The Washington Times says Willy "captivates an audience as completely as can an entire rock band," which is why he has toured the planet opening for the likes of Paul Simon, Sting, Jeff Beck, Jethro Tull, Tori Amos, Rickie Lee Jones and The Cranberries amongst many others.

We’re thrilled to welcome Willy to the family with his first TrueFire course, Song Synthesis. Guitarists, songwriters, and singers alike will also be thrilled on this ear- and eye-opening learning adventure that reveals Willy’s creative, harmonic, and rhythmic approaches for songwriting.

”Taking a core concept and using the guitar, lyric and vocal performance to distill and to identify the emotional content and synthesize it into a song is my approach to songwriting. I’m excited to share some of the key concepts and techniques that go into the synthesis of my own songs.

We’ll dig into the relationship of the guitar and vocals and how they come to be. I’ll show you how I create grooves, use open tunings, dynamics, and how ideas on the guitar evolve toward a polished part.

We’ll then take an in-depth look at three-song studies to help you better understand the way I apply these approaches in both composition and performance - and how you also might use them in your own songwriting and performance.”

In the first section of the course, Willy presents and demonstrates 7 of his key concepts and techniques: The Marriage of Guitar & Vocal, Writing Genesis, Advantages in Alternate Tunings, Rhythmic Groove, Using Dynamics, Embellishments & Polish, and Sonic Approaches & Gear.

In the second section of the course, Willy illustrates all of the key concepts and techniques from the first section across 3 comprehensive song studies of "Paper Airplane", "Hard Place", and "This Train".

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