Beginning Fiddle For Youth, age 7-12 (Miya Saito-Beckman) Get ready to play fiddle! This class covers trying out a new instrument through games, body movement, technique activities, and fiddle tunes. No previous experience needed to join the fun!
Level 1 – Advanced Beginning Fiddle—Youth (Amy Burrow and Allison Lindley) Know several tunes, crave learning new ones, and want to improve your fiddling skills.? Allison and Amy will teach tunes that prepare students for playing in jams, including how to set tempo and start and end a tune, as well as show ways to prepare for performing with others.
Level 1 – Advanced Beginning Fiddle – Adult (Kim Drapek) If you have learned some basic tunes and want to continue becoming a better player, this class is for you. You will learn different aspects of playing – using the bow more effectively, playing in tune, and keeping steady rhythm. We will stick to more common tunes and work on playing them really well so you can feel good about playing with others. Note reading is not necessary, but music or tablature will be available.
Level 2 – Intermediate Fiddle (Jenny Humphrey and Shari Ame) Beautiful posture leads to beautiful tone, and this class will help you play with better clarity and physical ease. Tunes will be taught by ear, with sheet music available to practice outside of class. Audio and video recording devices are encouraged! In this class you will learn tunes which hail from the wide world of fiddle traditions, including Old Time, Irish, Scottish, Québécois, and possibly even Klezmer!
Level 3 – Advanced Intermediate Fiddle (Sherry McKenzie) This class is best for upper level intermediate to earlywho are comfortable playing in the keys of A, D and G, using 4th finger, high 3rd finger, low 2nd finger, and comfortable playing two note down and two note up slurs. All tunes will be played in first position, taught by ear, but standard notation with chord charts for all tunes is available. In addition to learning tunes together we will discuss ways to feel more comfortable playing, ideas to improve your playing AND to have more fun doing it!
Level 4 – Advanced Fiddle (Jeanine Orme) The Advanced Fiddle Class is best for upper level intermediate and advanced players who are comfortable playing in many keys. Students will learn more technical tunes that include some double stops and 3rd position. Tunes may include hoedowns, waltzes and rags. Jeanine will consider student requests for tunes in other styles. In addition to learning tunes we will work on music theory concepts and technique. We will play by ear during class, but sheet music and listening files will be shared with students by e-mail or Google Drive.
Intermediate Mandolin (Chico Schwall) We’ll have a look at the mandolin with an eye to playing more easily. For left hand efficiency, we’ll do some scales & pentatonics and chording in any key. For the right hand we’ll look at relaxed playing and “pick science.” The focus will be on helping you play more fluidly and expressively whether it’s tunes, accompanying or improvisation, and we’ll do all three.
Flat-Picking Guitar (Josh Humphrey) We will focus on right hand technique to learn the fundamentals of flat-picking guitar. We will focus on a handful of traditional tunes, working slowly to move past any problems with technique. We will also address left hand fingering, from scales and runs, to chords and key centers. The aim is to cover a variety of technical aspects, and enjoy learning new tunes along the way.
Fundamental Rhythm Guitar (Jerry Parks) This is not a beginning guitar class but if you can make most of the major chords, this class will help you improve your playing. We will work on how to improve timing, how to play simple bass runs, how to play clean chords and how to read a chord chart. We’ll learn some seventh and minor chords, and spend lots of time playing standard old time fiddle tunes and accompanying a few vocals.