WORKSHOPS
BILL WELLINGTON - Old-time Band Workshop
Saturday, December 7, 2019 - 3:30-5PM
Registration: $30
This workshop will focus on the role of the banjo, fiddle, and guitar in an old-time string band. Old-time fiddle, clawhammer banjo, and back-up guitar players at an intermediate or above level will learn how to maximize their skills to build a driving, solid band sound. We will discuss playing for dances, playing in sessions, playing for concerts, and busking. Fiddle: How to use shuffle bowing and other rhythmic techniques to emphasize the upbeat within your playing. Banjo: How to play all (or most) of the notes in a fiddle tune while maintaining the rhythm necessary for the “groove” of the tune. Guitar: How to play bass runs while maintaining your role as the primary rhythm instrument in the band. In the workshop we will all work on the same tunes. We will work on tunes in the keys of D, G, and A. The goal of this workshop is to improve your skills as a musician and as player in a band, session or any gathering where other instruments are involved.
To register click HERE.
BEN TOWNSEND - Fiddle Workshop
Saturday, January 18, 2020 - 12-2PM
Registration: $30
This fiddle workshop will focus on making more out of common tunes by better understanding rhythmic and chordal patterns beneath the melody. We will work on basic bowing and phrasing ideas that will add to the dynamic of a tune and will take things from a skeleton to an actualized, improvised melody. We will start by learning a simple melody with several variations and bowing possibilities and then we’ll try to take these out of context and apply them to other, more common tunes to spice them up.
This class will be geared towards beginner/intermediate players, but there will be something for everyone, so don’t be discouraged if you’re an advanced player and want to come pick up a few new techniques.
ABOUT BEN:
Born and raised in Romney, West Virginia, multi instrumentalist, Ben Townsend has studied Appalachian traditional music extensively. With banjo mentors such as Riley Baugus and Ron Mullennex, and Fiddle mentors the likes of Dave Bing, Joe Herrmann and Earl White, Townsend has studied a variety of old-time traditions ranging from the archaic, haunting fiddle of his home to the Round Peak music of North Carolina and Virginia to the Bluegrass of East Kentucky and Ohio.Add text
To register CLICK HERE.
BEN TOWNSEND - BANJO workshop
Saturday, January 18, 2020 - 2-4PM
Registration: $30
This banjo workshop will focus on ideas that will make more of your melodic clawhammer playing. We will work on a tune or two first as banjo ideas and then we’ll look at how they correspond with the fiddle melody they support. We will cover ideas about different places and ways to find notes both in the rhythm and on the neck and we’ll work on more “banjoey” ways to get the melody to land on the instrument. This would be a great workshop for a beginner/intermediate player, especially someone with experience playing another instrument who is struggling to find melodies creatively on the banjo.
This class will be geared towards beginner/intermediate players, but there will be something for everyone, so don’t be discouraged if you’re an advanced player and want to come pick up a few new techniques
ABOUT BEN:
Born and raised in Romney, West Virginia, multi instrumentalist, Ben Townsend has studied Appalachian traditional music extensively. With banjo mentors such as Riley Baugus and Ron Mullennex, and Fiddle mentors the likes of Dave Bing, Joe Herrmann and Earl White, Townsend has studied a variety of old-time traditions ranging from the archaic, haunting fiddle of his home to the Round Peak music of North Carolina and Virginia to the Bluegrass of East Kentucky and Ohio.
To register, CLICK HERE.