Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Nov 04/05) - Members of Sir Alexander Mackenzie school's guitar club were treated to a special workshop, Tuesday, put on by the Montreal Guitar Trio, who visited Inuvik as part of a short tour of the territories.

Trio members Sebastien Dufour, Marc Morin and Glenn Levesque started the workshop by playing a North African/Indian flavoured composition that certainly caught the guitar club members' attention.

"It's nice when you can show kids new music," said Dufour after the workshop.

"They are very open to different kinds of music, but maybe don't get a chance to be exposed to it."

Dufour added that the group, which has been together for nearly eight years - usually performs for kids rather than offering workshops, but he was pleased this opportunity presented itself.

During the hour-long session, Dufour, Morin and Levesque broke the club into two groups and got the kids to work on separate parts of a song. "Would you like to perform this with us tomorrow?" asked Dufour, following a successful jam of the tune. The excited club members were more than happy to agree to a performance.

"They taught me some new notes that I didn't know," said Alison McDonald, who just picked up the guitar three weeks ago. "So that was fun."

Fellow Guitar Club member Trent Gordon was equally impressed.

"They were good because the can play all kinds of music," he said. "And I learned how you can make drum sounds from the guitar."

Asked what he believes is the most important thing to keep in mind when learning how to play a musical instrument, Dufour had this to say: "Be open to different kinds of music, the more open you are the more you can learn."

Appropriate advice coming from somebody who has enjoyed a fair amount of critically-acclaimed success, playing in a group that composes its unique songs by marrying different styles of music from around the world.

Following a workshop for high school students and adults Tuesday evening, the Montreal Guitar Trio performed Wednesday afternoon for SAMS students and put on a show that evening at the elementary school's gymnasium.

All proceeds go towards the End of the Road Music Festival.