By
Instructor: Pam Weeks
All levels, All Instruments
Are you used to trying to figure tunes out by ear but have no idea how to read music notation? Or you can sort of use the ups and downs of the dots music to jog your memory of a tune, but there’s a lot you don’t really understand? We will start at the beginning of what it all means, with the goal of sending you home with the understanding and tools you need for practicing and improving your music reading skills!
By
Instructor: Pam Weeks
All levels, All Instruments
A class to exercise our “rhythm muscles”. We’ll be clapping, tapping, stomping, strumming, drumming, creating polyrhythm with the whole class, learning how to entrain our bodies with the beat of the music. We will explore rhythmic notation, how to count accurately using subdivision, and how to translate that to our instruments.
By
Instructor: Pam Weeks
All levels, All Instruments
For folks who have been playing for a while but primarily from sheet music. Folk music is, at heart, an oral tradition, and it’s important to become comfortable learning by ear. This class will break down and de-mystify the process!
By
Instructor: Pam Weeks
All levels, All Instruments
There’s a method to the madness of being creative that can give you greater success at writing your own music. We’ll take a little time analyzing common tune and chord structures, and and then spend the session brain-storming techniques to open up your creative well We’ll also check out alternatives to conventional music notation so you can remember what you’ve just composed!
By
Instructor: Pam Weeks; Bill Olson
In 1755 French people were expelled from Canada when the English gained control of Quebec and New Brunswick. Those who settled in SW Louisiana are the source of the vibrant, passionate Cajun music of today. We’ll learn a Cajun two-step and/or waltz and how to “second” (chordal accompaniment), concentrating on the markers that separate this music from other fiddling styles.
By
Led by: Pam Weeks; Bonnie Black; Joni Harms; Rob Flax; Fred White
All levels, All Instruments
How might we come together as instrumentalists and singers of all levels of playing and singing ability, and of experience in this form of music, and then ply them all together in a grand chorus of gratitude, praise and lamentation? This session will attempt to answer this question by an active involvement in that direction. One hoped-for outcome would be a sense of the possibility of organizing similar gatherings at home, as might meet the needs of the local community.
