Fil Pate

Musical Background

After his first 15 years of self study on the guitar in books, magazines and friendly suggestions by other players, Fil began his private Music studies with former Berklee School of Music professor Bobby Lee Rodgers. This period of learning started in 2008 and lasted for around 12 years as they met for long sessions and phone chatted for hours. The pair were also able to perform together in various settings such as in a duo or with their own bands and at festivals. During this time, Fil absorbed the recommended books, study materials and language from the enlightening performances and began to understand Music in a way that transcended the guitar. Music Theory and Composition became a passion and becoming fluent in the language became, and is still, his ultimate goal!

Now, firmly rooted in the foundation of the language of Music, Fil was ready to begin the quest of understanding all the types of Music he loved and creating his own original pieces all along the way!

Paying close attention to horn articulation and horn section arranging in Jazz music, Fil brought a saxophone and trumpet type quality back to the guitar along with learning chord voicings that relate to the way a horn section or piano might play.

Bluegrass, Blues, Celtic, Caribbean and Jazz.

This musical foundation and intense core theory study in both the Classical and Jazz worlds also relate to all aspects of modern music and Fil has been interested in finding the nuances and musical “accents” that make each of the many genres and styles of playing it’s own universe. This opened Fil up to being able to play much better within each genre and truly perform “in the style”.

This also has led to a great deal of very creative songwriting, which often serves as a Fusion of several genres and hard to pinpoint into any particular style.

Before this decade of dedicated Jazz studies, Fil was playing in the styles of Southern Rock, the Blues, Grunge, Folk and Americana, Jamband, Gospel, Old Time and Bluegrass along with hints of Spanish Music, Reggae, and a keen ear for early hip hop.

Afterward, Fil continued on studying and now with a fresh new purpose and method of learning! He began to find more books to absorb and continue to seek out mentors for private lessons including University of South Florida head of guitar department professor Larue Nicholson and head of Piano and Composition department professor Simon Lasky.

All along the way, Fil was able to be hired on to teach Music Theory classes at various types of music weekend clinics and retreats and through doing so he was able to attend classes himself and study with great players including Jazz mandolin masters Don Stiernberg and Danny Knicely. Afterward, Danny and Fil began an online study on mandolin and guitar plus fresh composition ideas for a few years and also were able to perform together in a wonderful trio.

In the Progressive Bluegrass and Acoustic Music world, Fil has been steadily growing right along side the Jazz studies and he has been playing festivals with established bands, his own bands, and as a member of the yearly retreats created by Virginia guitar and vocal virtuoso Larry Keel. Their longest running event is called Bass and Grass held in Georgia and they also took the concept to West Virginia for 3 years and called it Trout and Tunes. During these past 15 years, Fil was able to meet, study and play with some of the finest players to push the boundaries of Acoustic music including Larry and Jenny Keel, Steve McMurray and the entire Acoustic Syndicate, Jon Stickley and the entire Jon Stickley Trio, Jim Lauderdale, Caroline Pond and the entire Snake Oil Medicine Show, Tim Obrien, Jeff Mosier, Johnny Mosier, David Blackmon, Jeff Autry, Burle Galloway, Jared Poole, Will Lee, Gove Scrivenor, Walter Forbes, David Via, Mark Schimick and the entire Songs from the Road Band, Billy Gilmore and the entire Grass is Dead, Brett Bass and the entire Grandpa’s Cough Medicine, Billy Cardine, John Mailander from Bruce Hornsby’s band plus his own original music band named “Forecast”, Bobby Miller, Nikki Talley and Jason Sharp, Sam Burchfield, Ralph Roddenbury, and many more!

One huge source of Fil’s musical knowledge plus networking and making great music with the finest players in Acoustic Music and beyond has been the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak Florida. Fil began attending festivals and workshops there in 1998 and was asked to perform on the stages in 2010 by the great Jeff Mosier, Johnny Mosier and David Blackmon band. SInce then, Fil has had the opportunity to meet his heroes such as Vassar Clements, David Grisman, Del McCoury and the entire Traveling McCoury’s, Peter Rowan, Bryn Davies plus has had a chance to play on stage and in the campground with Darol Anger, Yonder Mountain String Band, Donna the Buffalo, Grandpas Cough Medicine, Larry Keel, Keller Williams, Vince Herman, Drew Emmitt and Andy Thorn from Leftover Salmon, Greensky Bluegrass, Infamous Stringdusters, Applebutter Express, Nikki Talley and Jason Sharp plus in his own band Oak Hay and as the Fil Pate Trio with Brett Bass.

During the 2020 pandemic, Fil was at home immersing himself in the study and practice of music and made lots of self discovery through ordering books and the ever growing youtube music tutorial universe. There was a spike in the level of online instruction during that time and, unlike previous years on youtube, one could start to find college level concepts presented by highly knowledgeable instructors.

Throughout his musical journey, Fil discovered the music and guitar playing of modern composer and Jazz guitar virtuoso Kurt Rosenwinkel and was very inspire by his approach to music. Fil was able to take 2 of Kurt’s online masterclasses presented masterfully and with a wealth of information, hand written materials and digital assets such as backing tracks, unreleased material and study guides.

In 2022, Fil was able to attend the Alternative guitar Summit in upstate New York where he met and studied with Kurt plus an incredible host of instructors and personal heroes including Isaiah Sharkey, Bill Frissell, John Scofield, Julian Lage, Mike Stern, Gilad Heckselmen, Joel Harrison, and about 125 of the best guitarists in attendance from all around the world. This proved to be a meaningful time in Fil’s recent development and sent him on several new paths of guitar and composition study. From these clinics came new books for reference including 2 Jim Hall books, Modern Jazz Songs for Guitar and the newly released “Utlimate Collection of Songs” by Kurt Rosenwinkel which Fil is currently working out of.

The mandolin came into the picture for Fil in the year 2000 after having become comfortable with Rock and Bluegrass guitar for many years. The instrument quickly became a passion and took it’s place in daily studies. Starting with Old Time and Bluegrass music, Fil began to map out the fretboard and hear where the higher registered instrument belonged in the sound. At first, Fil took the route of studying and playing the instrument as if it were a fiddle and used lots of guitar phrases in his melodies and improvisations. Players who influenced this style were Sam Bush, Chris Thile, David Grisman and Mike Marshall plus the Bluegrass Jamband style of playing by Jeff Austin, Drew Emmitt, Michael Kang, and John Skehan from Railroad Earth. Later he began to study the powerful mandolin technique of Bill Monroe and players such as Ronnie McCoury, Chis Henry and Red Henry, Mike Compton, and Jess McReynolds.

in 2018, Fil was able to head out west to Alta, Wyoming and teach advance mandolin studies and the prestigious Targhee Music Camp. While there he was able to study, hang and perform with world class instructors Tony Trischka, who taught Bela Fleck, Sharon Gilchrist, Joe Craven, Mike and Ruthy from their band The Mammals, Eric and Susy Thompson and more!

Currently, Fil has developed many Musical ideas on the mandolin and innovates new techniques to bring fresh sounds to mandolin playing in general. Staying busy with the playing and teaching the mandolin, Fil performs regularly in the style of Gypsy Swing, Bluegrass, Newgrass, Jamband, Jazz, Pop Covers, and his own mix of blended genres and original music at his Solo Loops performances.

Fil brings a vast and rich 26 year professional performance experience combined with a 17 year formal Musical study experience and an unparalleled work ethic to each lesson, workshop or clinic he teaches and strives to condense the knowledge he’s gained into a nice distilled explanation of the language of music. Fil is highly skilled at listening to the students and then sharing exactly what they need at the time for the fastest development possible.

Fil’s specialty is on stringed instruments, mostly including Guitars, Mandolins and Basses and has many virtuosic techniques to share for stringed instrument players in Any Genre. Fil has also developed Music Theory and Composition ideas that apply to any musician and vocalist and has become more fluent in the language each day.

Fil has also spent many years producing albums in studios by finding the right balance in the sound and can truly hear the right mix, arrangement and orchestration within a piece of music. After recently becoming a digital sound engineer himself his ear has been even more finely tuned to the nuances in each instruments’ sound within a mix.

Fil is the producer of 3 albums for his rock band Shane Meade and the Sound, an original organ trio Rock Fusion record with his band Frineds of Fil plus 2 recvent Singles, plus a concept album for vocalist Tony Caruso. Fil also appears on several records as a player and composer.

For the past 4 years, Fil has been studying privately online with Berklee graduate, online educator and highly skilled performer Dani Rabin from the band Marbin. Dani’s insights into the guitar itself are laser focused and his attention to detail with harmony and rhythm is unmatched. These sessions have connected so many of the ideas Fil has come across in his past 31 years of study, plus it has added so much depth in understanding the true language of Music from traditional sounds to modern fusion and ultimately guiding Fil’s original material to it’s full potential.

History

Fil has always been surrounded by stringed instruments! He received his first guitar to explore at the age of 2 along with drums and encouragements to learn and play music. He had rhythm! After opting to enjoy childhood ambitions, the guitar was replaced with sports and time in the woods in the beautiful mountains of north Georgia. During this time of his teenage years, Fil joined a choir and was always listening to and performing music in church along with soaking up pop culture on the radio and through cassestte tapes, CD’s and vinyl records. All throughout primary school Fil was exposed to Music and Mountain Heritage through the Foxfire program and regularly heard Bluegrass performances at school assemblies and in the classrooms. The first real experience with a guitar was through this program and a project in which he and a partner wrote a Talking Blues song and performed it for the teacher. His teacher liked it so much that he asked Fil to perform it at the football banquet in front of a large audience. The name of the song was “The Talking Tailback Blues” and was about the throws of high school football practice. Since that show, the only time Fil put his guitar down was for a few months of boot camp and training in the US Army only to quickly get it back in his hands and start to jam with his Army buddies. Fil Learned quite a bit from one particular fellow and after leaving the military with an honorable discharge he continued to grow on the guitar with those ideas as he went to college for Mechanical Engineering in Statesboro, GA. Soon Fil decided to combine his interests of engineering, mechanics and guitar by attending a school for Guitar Building and Repair.

The degree in Luthiery brought more guitar networking and guitar knowledge from the inside out as well as meeting new players and technicians.

During this time Fil was able to attend a Jeff Beck concert along with many Derek Trucks concerts and was highly inspired by their work.

Fil moved to the mountains of North Carolina after Luthier school and took in instrument repairs while meeting and playing with new musician friends. Fil began to play solo gigs and with bands in the area along with helping organize mini festivals at various venues in town.

In 2004 Fil moved to Tampa, Florida and got a job as String Instrument Technician at a local Music Store named Music Showcase and ultimately remained there for 16 years repairing hundreds of instruments each year. While in the shop, the knowledge always grew as there was also a brass and woodwind horn shop with technicians who gave him countless suggestions on what horn music to listen to and to learn. They listened to Jazz every day and discussed it all day most every day. Fil received a real listening education and made lists of every single suggestion and followed it through. Lots of this music is still in Fil’s band setlists today.

Camps, workshops,open jams and retreats

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Bass and Grass has a huge place in my heart! We are in our 13th year of gathering on the beautiful property at the Green Bell Barn in Perry, GA to play music and extract fish from Goose Lake! Click the photo above to check out the website and join us for the next amazing weekend!

Music Theory Summer Camp on Zoom

Summer long group classes explaining various types of Music Theory and how it applies to songwriting and improvisation on any instrument! Weekly sessions with written materials and recordings available! Send me an email if you are interested in joining us!

Open Bluegrass Jams

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This is the best way to inquire about online and in-person lessons, camps, jams and also to find out general information about building music workshops and clinics from scratch!

From Fil