Writer: Helena San Roque
Photography: Leire Baztarrica (@leirebaztarrica)
Note: Quotes edited for clarity
Deep in the heart of Santa Clarita Valley at Impulse Music Co, purple and yellow stage lights flooded the room as Mark Lettieri, a member of the Grammy winning, contemporary instrumental band, Snarky Puppy, held a free master class, which lasted from 6 to 8pm on Saturday night Jan. 8.
The audience, a mix of all ages, watched in awe as he played original music — they had the chance to ask the San Francisco-born and Fort Worth Texas-based guitarist questions regarding his songs, gear, and, of course, guitar practice advice.
He performed a handful of songs, such as, "Point Iz", a heavily R&B influenced piece and "Seuss pants", a heart-felt, sparkly, blues song he wrote for his daughter from his album "Things of That Nature" (2019). He also played "Catboy", a psychedelic rock track he wrote for his beloved cat from his album "Futurefun" (2013) and "Tidail Tail", a song from his new modern funk-centered album, "Deep: The Baritone Sessions" Vol. 2 (2021)
Far Right: C.J. Hockenbury, co-owner of Impulse Music Co, records the demonstration
Key traits of Lettieri's playing are his funky rhythm and melodic soloing, both of which require a good sense of time, something even seasoned musicians struggle with. When asked for advice on the matter, he replied:
"Stuff like looping can be great practice. Now, a lot of this is just learning how the looper feels, so it's not the greatest practice, but it's good and it's musical. I think that's the good thing about practice. If you find a way to make it musical, it makes it more fun, meaningful, and less like an exercise. "
He gave a detailed example:
"Here's one cool thing you can do if you have Logic or a program. You can drop a drum loop in, whatever loop, come up with a [chord] progression or a part, record yourself playing to that loop with no [metronome] click, turn the loop off, play your recorded guitar part with the metronome, and see how it feels. Then, you can do the reverse of that."
Although a passionate guitar player since his middle school years, Lettieri did not initially pursue music:
"I graduated with a bachelor of science in journalism [at Texas Christian University], with an emphasis in advertising and public relations with a minor in English. And I don't know where my diploma is." He responded, after an audience member asked him about the early stages of his career.
Hint: Scroll all the way down for a close up of his pedal board
"I played in a Texas country band, and the drummer of that band had a friend who owned a promotional products company. Pens, sports wear, mugs — probably whoever made your hat."He jokingly pointed at an audience member.
" I worked for that company doing account management for two years while I was taking any gig imaginable." From playing gospel in churches to rocking with cover bands in clubs, Lettieri did it all.
"And it was just about saving a bunch of money, man, until I finally was like 'Alright, lets try it!'
I guess I could always go back [to the day job]. But I just, kinda, didn't go back."
Coming from humble beginnings, his first guitar lessons didn't come from a fancy conservatory. They came from a friend's mother.
"I think I was eleven when my mom was teaching [my friend] and I art. In exchange, [his mom] taught me guitar." As he started moving on from basic open chords, Lettieri started taking lessons from traveling guitarists around the area. He also referenced Joe Satriani and Jeff Beck as some of his early influences.
After years of guitar lessons, mornings spent waking up on studio couches, and a couple days of physical therapy for his hands, Lettieri's latest piece, "Deep: The Baritone Sessions: Vol. 2", was nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the 2022 Grammy Awards, besting over 20,000 other submissions for the final 5.
"If you had told me at 14 when I was writing my little tunes that one day this would happen, I would've thought you'd be from outer space."
His story serves as inspiration to people who do not necessarily have a music degree or formal music education, but still wish to pursue a career in the industry.
The Fiore in Amaryllis red
He even has his own signature guitar, The PRS Fiore (Italian for "flower"), which was made in collaboration with a sponsor of the event, Paul Reed Smith Guitars (PRS), a Maryland-based guitar company famous for their elegant design and careful attention to detail.
The Fiore is made out of a swamp ash body, a maple neck, and now comes in 4 colors: Sugar Moon white, Black Iris, Amaryllis red, and Larkspur blue. The guitar comes with PRS single coil pick ups in the neck and middle position plus a humbucker in the bridge position.
It's equipped with a special feature—the ability to combine multiple pickups together in the same position— just by pulling the middle tone knob. For example, if you're on position 1 (the bridge pick up) or position 5 (the neck pick up) you can have both of them on at the same time.
Around 11 sounds are achievable in this guitar, according to Lettieri.
As a guitarist playing in multiple genres such as neo-soul, R&B, funk, and country, it's important to have a guitar that can act like a Swiss Army knife for sound:
"I need to be able to do all that with one guitar. I got to have to have my funk rhythm, I got to have my lead sound, and I got to have my super soulful neck pickup sound. The whole idea is that they sound like one complete unit."
Lettieri didn't leave out the most notorious instrument in his arsenal:
The baritone guitar—the star of his new album.
Mark Lettieri with his baritone guitar
This particular one in the above photo comes from a small guitar maker, Bruno Bacci Leonardo. With 6 heavy-gauged strings and a longer scale neck, the baritone guitar, rarely seen up front in the music scene, went from floating around spaghetti Western tracks to becoming a trademark of Lettieri's sound.
"About 2015, I started fooling around with the Baritone Guitar prior to playing it in a funk context. I started grooving one day playing Prince riffs and I was like, wait a minute, this is a whole other vibe — there's a whole other language that I can explore."
Lettieri took this opportunity to weave himself into a new angle and started uploading videos of his baritone funk jams on social media:
"I had this goofy thing called Baritone Funk Thursday's. It was terrible a name, a terrible name but it was just terrible enough that people remembered it," Lettieri paused after some laughter from the audience. "And people seemed to dig the videos enough to ask, 'Well, when's your album coming out?' I was like, 'What're you talking about man? These are Instagram jokes.'"
From there, he released his first baritone guitar-centered EP, which lead to the creation of "Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol.2":
"I went all out. Ten tracks: longer, bigger, more explosions... I got a bunch of guests to play drums and bass. There's a Steve Lukather guitar solo on one track, there's a horn section—it's a big extravaganza."
What started off as "Instagram jokes" lead to one of his greatest successes with many more to come.
There's one thing we can also learn from Mark Lettieri: as important it is to be technically skilled, if you're interested in growing a following as an artist, it's a good idea to have a niche within a community and above all, t0 have fun with it.
Who knows? You might get a Grammy nomination.
Left to Right: Winn Krozack (Composer, Producer, Audio Engineer. West Coast Artist Relations Manager at PRS Guitars Los Angeles) C.J. Hockenbury, (co-owner of Impulse Music Co.) Bobby Serrato (Regional Sales Manager at PRS Guitars) , and Mark Lettieri (Guitarist/Producer for Snarky Puppy )
For more of Mark Lettieri's music be sure to follow his social media and stop by his website:
www.marklettieri.com
Instagram: @mark.lettierri
Interested in events like these? Check out Impulse Music Co.
Instagram: @impulse.music.co
Website: www.impulsemusicco.com
BONUS MATERIAL (if you've read this far): Close up of Mark's travel pedal board
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