Instructor: Seamus Connolly
All Levels; All Instruments
Join Seamus as he plays some of his favorite tunes. This is part performance, part story telling.
All Instruments
Song Writing
Instructor: Joni Harms
All Levels; All Instruments
Joni Harms has 13 (Lucky 13!) studio produced albums under her country-western belt. She is widely hailed as an excellent singer-songwriter. Come to this workshop to learn how she approaches the art of songwriting. Bring your own ideas and leave with new inspiration and tools to turn your snippet into a finished piece.
Making Music for a Living
Instructor: Joni Harms
All Levels; All Instruments
If you choose to make music for a career….you must NOT expect an easy road; it will be very challenging at times, but It will also be very rewarding!
You will go places you never dreamed you would go, meet people you never thought you would meet, and best of all you will find self-satisfaction like no other job could give you! Come learn about Joni Harms’ journey and decide if you have what it takes to make this kind of journey yourself.
How to Manage the Band and All Their Personalities
Instructors: Joni Harms; Erica Brown
All Levels; All Instruments
Are you trying to pull a band together or HOLD a band together? It can be very difficult. Joni and Erica will tell you how they have handled this task over a successful career.
Communications with the Sound Technician
Instructors: Eric Weest Johnson; Bill Olson
All Levels; All Instruments
Bring up the mids! Do you have a DI box? Do you know sound technician lingo? Do you know how to talk with the sound guy? Eric, along with Bill, will demystify the this topic. This will be a very interesting and useful class for anyone who ever uses sound equipment!
Our Heros: Seamus Connolly and Don Roy Talk and Play
Instructors: Seamus Connolly; Don Roy
All Levels; All Instruments
Performance/Lecture
It’s difficult to imagine that our own musical heros also have their own heros. During this hour, Seamus and Don will talk about who influenced them and who they looked up to at the start of their respective musical journeys. You’ll hear these two recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship award join together to trade tunes and stories from their humble beginnings.
An hour with Seamus Connolly
Instructor: Seamus Connolly
All Levels; All Instruments
Performance/Interview
Spend this hour with National Heritage Fellow and recent recipient of the Gradam Ceoil TG4 honours for a Lifetime Achievement Award, Seamus Connolly. Seamus is a beloved performer and story teller and this is a rare opportunity to enjoy an intimate hour soaking up his knowledge and presence.
Playing for Dances
Instructor: Wendy MacIsaac
All Levels; All Instruments/Fiddle
Wendy comes from the land of the ceilidh, where dances are plentiful. Her insight into how playing for a dance differs from playing in other scenarios is steeped in experience. Learn the nuances involved in communicating with the dance caller, as well as reading the room for the type of dancers present. Consider the art of the dance set list, and how to prepare for the unexpected. Playing for dances is high energy, infectious fun!
Just How Old Are These Tunes Anyway? A Brief Historical Overview of the Fiddle Tune Repertoire
Instructor: Paul Wells
Lecture
There is widespread misconception about how far back in time the repertoire of tunes that we all know and love extends. One often hears that today’s fiddlers play tunes that are four or five hundred years old, when, in reality, the very oldest tunes still in common circulation date from the mid-to-late 18th century. The internet—which can be a wonderful resource—unfortunately is rife with misinformation. In this talk I will give a short survey of some historical materials regarding the development of the “modern” fiddle tune repertoire.
Wicked Good Fiddling: Traditional Music in Maine in the Era of Statehood
Instructor: Paul Wells
Lecture
A look at tunes drawn from published and manuscript sources of the 1820s that illustrate connections–or not–to present-day tradition.
Adding Improvised Variations and Fills to your Tune Playing
Instructor: Neil Pearlman
Intermediate/Advanced Levels; All Instruments
So you know a bunch of tunes but what now? How do you keep them fresh, interesting and exciting as you delve into them? In this class Neil will share some of his favorite techniques for adding spontaneous variations and fills to the fiddle tunes you know and love. We’ll cover a variety of ideas from adding occasional “jazzy” runs to re-purposing the ideas already present in the tune to give it an extra kick!
The Irish Tradition in America: An Interview with Seamus Connolly
Instructor: Seamus Connolly
All Levels; All Instruments
Interview
Join fiddle scholars Paul Wells and Sally Sommers Smith as they chat with National Heritage Fellow Seamus Connolly about the musicians and personalities that have made Irish traditional music so prominent in America today. Seamus is a storied player, performer, teacher, and collector of Irish music; he will share with us some of his rare recordings and reminiscences of his own musical heroes. Come listen, learn, and ask a question!
Participation: The Irish Session!
Instructor: Seamus Connolly
All Levels; All Instruments
Join Irish-American fiddle legend Seamus Connolly for informal tunes, tales, songs, and refreshment as Fiddle-icious Traditions invades DaVinci’s Restaurant in downtown Lewiston for an evening of music and fun! Saturday evening, April 18, 2020.
Practicum: The Irish Session
Instructor: Seamus Connolly
All Levels; All Instruments
Are you mystified by the unspoken rapport that develops in a good informal Irish traditional music session? Seamus Connolly will introduce you to some of the basics: tune types, combinations, etiquette, and some familiar tunes from his vast store of lovely Irish melodies. Learn what makes a tune sound “Irish” and techniques necessary to achieve that sound.
Tunewriting
Instructor: Andy Reiner
All Levels; All Instruments
Tunewriting is for players who want to explore the compositional side of traditional music. In this workshop, we’ll dissect fiddle tunes to find out what makes them tick, explore different compositional strategies, discuss how to use melodic development to turn a small phrase into a coherent fiddle tune, and learn how to open ourselves up to receive those magic bits of inspiration. As a group, we will collaborate on writing a new tune together, and attendees will leave with a new skill set and inspiration for writing new tunes into the future!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
Improv Basics
Instructor: Barry Saunders
All levels, All Instruments
This class will go over some of the fun ways to get your feet wet and create your own sounds! We will cover creative improv games and getting through the tinge of anxiety that can be there for some. We will also cover community improv and sharing the joy of music.
Demystifying the “Dots on the Page”
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!
Timing is Everything!
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.
Learning by Ear
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!
Tune Writing
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!
Cajun Music
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.
Sacred Fiddle and Song
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.
Creativity in Music
Instructor: Rob Flax
All levels, All Instruments
The most direct way to foster “creativity” is through “creating!” This workshop is designed to foster courage for improvisation and composition using the abstract musical structures fiddlers already know, and encourages participants to embrace simple constraints as strategies for inspiration. When creating new music there are no answers, only better questions.
Improve Your Improv: Building More Compelling Solos
Instructor: Rob Flax
All Instruments
Multi-instrumentalist Rob Flax has a Masters degree in Contemporary Improvisation (“C.I.”), from the New England Conservatory, and in this workshop he shares secrets and insights from the C.I. program plus concepts developed over many years of performance. Participants will focus on deconstructing what makes a solo “compelling,” learning compositional strategies and exploring the importance of the human voice to craft better solos. Each participant will also have the opportunity to take a solo and receive feedback, masterclass style (but this is not required to participate!)
Play faster – sound better
Instructor: Elaine Malkin
All levels, All Instruments
This is a hands-on workshop on improving technique for both hands, tone and intonation tips, and fiddler tricks to make a tune come alive.
Learn a Québécois tune with the traditional style and ornaments
Instructor: Elaine Malkin
We will learn a tune from Quebec with the traditional style and ornaments.
Share your music in your community
Instructor: Elaine Malkin
I will teach choosing the repertoire, how to begin a tune strongly, and how to deal with any difficulty that might arise.READ MORE
Playing in a small ensemble
Instructors: Matt Shipman; Elaine Malkin; Erica Brown; Neil Pearlman
All levels, All Instruments
In this workshop we will work on the elements of playing with others in a small ensemble. Working with instruments different than your own is a great way to expand your musicianship and listening skills. We will work on arrangements, medleys and harmony.READ MORE
Sound equipment
Instructor: Bill Olson
All Levels
Sound amplification is often needed for a concert or a dance, maybe to play for a large audience, or a noisy one (like at a dance). Or maybe for ensemble playing, with instruments that project differently (A mountain dulcimer tuba ensemble comes to mind.) There’s SO MUCH gear out there. New, used, big, small expensive, cheap…yikes. Where do you begin and what do you really need? We’ll try to dispel some myths and point you in the right direction.
Reducing Stress with EFT Tapping
Instructor: Karen St. Clair
Have you ever felt an overwhelming feeling of fear when you’re about to walk out on stage? Come to this class and learn how you can shift that fear to excitement as you share your gifts with the audience. EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Tapping is a research-based stress relieving technique that is simple to learn and profoundly beneficial for musicians. You’ll take away a very powerful tool that you can use in your everyday life.
Public Performance
Leaders: Mairi Rankin, Joy Adams, Matt Shipman
Format: Panel Discussion
Are you frightened to perform in public? Do you get tense from being on stage? Do you jumble your words when talking into a microphone? Issues like these will be demystified by our experienced staff.
Becoming a professional musician
Leaders: Joni Harms; Mac Morin, Rob Flax, Fred White
Format: Panel Discussion
What are the nuts and bolts of making a living with music? Learn how some successful players have been doing it for years. Get some questions answered on getting started like “How much do we charge” or “ How do we market the gig”. Learn some tips for negotiating a performance or event.