Free Improv
Instructor: Andy Reiner
All Levels; All Instruments
Featuring small group musical explorations in a welcoming environment with a strong focus on listening and musicality. A perfect introduction to improvising, and just as appropriate and deeper for more experienced players. It’s time to get weird!
Improv From Scratch
Instructor: Andy Reiner
All Levels; All Instruments
With our instruments, we will explore rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic improvisation strategies that enhance our musicianship in any style, while working to cultivate a healthy musical attitude – removing mental barriers and freeing ourselves to be creative, improvising musicians.
Chopping and Strum Bowing (Tracy Silverman’s new rhythm fiddling method, it rules!)
Instructor: Andy Reiner
All Levels; Bowed Stringed Instruments
This class combines both chopping techniques as well as the Strum Bowing Method. Both are described below:
Chopping – unpitched bow noises that turn the violin into a drumset. Learn the technique and feeling at an incremental pace. Take the oath and learn how to chop wisely, musically, and tastefully. You will emerge with the tools and strategies to practice your chopping into the future, and employ the technique wherever your creativity takes you.READ MORE
Don’t Be afraid to Be Awesome!
Instructor: Steve Muise
All Levels; All Instruments
“Don’t be afraid to be awesome!” This is the guiding principle embraced in all of my teaching. Come learn about school orchestras and fiddling programs through my lens. We’ll talk about ways that you may promote music in your own communities. I’ll bring 30 years of experience of teaching orchestra and traditional music in schools.
Tunesmithing
Instructor: Steve Muise
All Levels; All Instruments
Join a collaborative experience in tune writing. We’ll write a group tune together while gaining some take-away tips
for continuing composing tunes on your own. We’ll talk about inspiration, tune types,key and phrase structures, call and response, resolutions, a bit of theory and more.
Navigating Accompaniment Techniques on Stringed Instruments
Instructor: Steve Muise
All Levels; Bowed Stringed Instruments
How to employ notes, chords and grooves when accompanying other players, singers, etc. You will learn some basic music “string theory” that you can use to jam, play duos, use as a springboard for improvisation and more. We’ll play some basic chords, go over left-hand finger patterns, and bow grooves.
How to Play Your Bowed Stringed Instrument Better
Instructor: Steve Muise
All Levels; Bowed Stringed Instruments
Techniques will focus on: intonation, shifting, vibrato and tone production.
Learn ideas that you can take away to improve your overall playing, and apply to any style.
Tips, Tricks, and Techniques For Fiddle
Instructor: Erica Brown
All levels, All Instruments
We will touch on a little bit of everything in this class: from exercises to improve your intonation and speed; vibrato; double stops and chords; chopping; slurs; and more!
Please come prepared with a question to address a specific issue you are dealing with. My favorite thing to do as a teacher is to help my students work through challenges they may be experiencing and help them figure out the best ways to work through them. My goal is to give you a new tool to add to your toolbox, one that will help you overcome not only your current struggle, but future musical hurdles, too.
Calm Performance Anxiety with EFT Tapping
Instructor: Karen St. Clair
All Levels; All Instruments
Just imagine being able to calm any anxiety that you might have before a performance. Do you get anxious at the thought of performing or even jamming socially? Attending this EFT Tapping class will teach you how to calm any level of anxiety that’s been holding you back. Learn how to manage stress and anxiety by gently tapping on your energy meridian points (we all have them!) Enjoy the freedom of peaceful playing.
Expanding Your Guitar Fretboard Real Estate-144 Chords in an Hour
Instructor: Fred White
All Levels; Guitar
Do you want to learn to play “up the neck” and spice up your style? If you already have three or four or a dozen chords down, and want to multiply them exponentially, this brief course may be for you. If you’ve already tried to memorize lots of chords, but they don’t seem to be there when you want to grab them on the fly, this course is just what the doctor ordered. This will be a relaxed non-intimidating experience covering some introductory theory, chord chemistry, and physics. No test will be given.
Preventing and Managing Stage Fright and Clam Recovery Tactics
Instructor: Fred White
All Levels; All Instruments
Did you know that most people who experience “stagefright” actually practice feeling it, increasing the likelihood it will be experienced when performing in front of others or playing with others? Join Dr. Fred to learn simple behavioral and psychological strategies for increasing your comfort and pleasure in your own practice, rehearsals, and performances. Hear true tales about some famous musical heroes and their journeys with “stagefright.” Learn tactics for preventing and recovering from “clams”…those times when you flub a note or phrase or your fingers turn into sausages that will just not get with the program!
(* Picturing your audience in their underwear is not a recommended strategy. No mollusks will be harmed.)
Bringing the Story Alive
Instructor: Elaine Malkin
Intermediate and Advanced Levels; Fiddlers
How do you make your tunes come alive and tell a story? In this workshop we will take a simple tune and discover how to reveal the energy, tone, color, and emotion within the piece. By focusing on phrasing, dynamics, and expression, we will play with the many stories that can be created with these tools allowing the tune to speak in a new voice. You will leave with many ideas to play with in your own repertoire.
Fiddler Hat or Classical Hat?
Instructor: Elaine Malkin
All Levels; Fiddle/Violin
Just what are the differences between being a classical player and being a traditional musician? How do you switch between the two roles and why might you wish to incorporate some techniques from the “other side” into your playing? Many musicians get their start in classical training then find themselves drawn to traditional music, while some traditional players pursue classical training to develop their sight reading skills and other techniques. Explore how these two modes of approaching the fiddle (ahem, violin) overlap and differ, and how to merge the strengths of both in your playing.
Making Trad Your Own
Instructor: Matt Shipman
All Levels; All Instruments
People make a living not only songwriting, but interpreting traditional songs and tunes and even other people’s songs. Learn more about thinking and hearing out of the box and using your own style and creativity to reshape and arrange or a song or tune. We may even choose a song and/ or tune and do this together as a group!
Chop and Groove for Fiddles
Instructor: Erica Brown
Experienced Fiddlers with Chord Knowledge Only
Chopping* is a rhythmic, percussive bowing technique that is used to provide backup to singers and while another instrument is taking a solo. It sounds a little like beat boxing on the fiddle using chords and different rhythms to create a really cool sound. It was made popular recently by fiddlers like Casey Driessen and Darol Anger.
*Being able to play and have a general understanding of chords is a must!
Harmony Singing
Instructors: Erica Brown and Matt Shipman
All Levels; Vocals
In this class we will illustrate the fundamentals of harmony and harmony singing for duets and trios as done in Bluegrass and Country styles of singing. We will learn to sing and identify different harmony parts and to sing specific songs in harmony with the rest of the group. This class is open to anyone who is interested in learning to sing or who already has some singing experience.
How to Back-up Singer
Instructor: Erica Brown
All Levels; All Instruments; Voice
In this class we will go over all the dos and don’ts of backing up a singer*. We will talk about how songs are structured, what to do in those little spaces between the lyrics, what to do and not to do while the singer is singing, when to chop, how to create a solo and some basics on how to arrange a song within a group.
*Please familiarize yourself with the following song before coming to the class:
Katy Daley- https://youtu.be/o8bmCZMOSpg
Cape Breton Piano*
Instructor: Mac Morin
The Cape Breton piano accompaniment style has become an inseparable sound to the traditional music of the island. This class is to point out some major aspects of the style with some examples of how it has evolved over the last 50 years. Participants will be able to learn the Cape Breton approach of accompaniment to a small medley of tunes.
*Participants should plan to bring their own keyboard to the event. There is a secure room to keep it in over the weekend if you choose.
Hearing the Chords
Instructor: Neil Pearlman
All levels, All Instruments
At sessions it’s not uncommon to be have a fiddler call out a key and start playing, but how does the accompanist follow along if they don’t already know the tune? Do guitarists and pianists have to develop an encyclopedic repertoire of tunes just to survive? Happily this is not the case.READ MORE
Improv Development
Instructor: Barry Saunders
All levels, All Instruments
This class will dig a bit deeper into covering forms and structures when improvising. More fun improv games and the blues form will form the basis for this class. We will also cover community improv and sharing the joy of music.