Upcoming Workshops & Events

This upright bass workshop will emphasize providing a solid rhythm for jams and band settings. Participants will get to practice good left and right hand techniques while familiarizing themselves with the finger board. Sure there’s gonna be lots of 1-5 but we’ll work on incorporating and understanding bass runs too!

This collaborative workshop will focus on duo playing and how musicians adapt to each other's playing depending on who we're playing with, instrumentation, and other variable factors. We'll demonstrate examples of folks who don't play much together compared with folks who do play regularly together to show the importance of listening, fluidity, and flexibility when playing music in unfamiliar settings.

Learn songs and stories from the rich folk music tradition of Southwest Virginia with local master musicians Mac Traynham and Andy Buckman. Reeb Willms and Caleb Klauder will also share their perspective on these songs and the influence that the music of this region has had in the development of their own repertoire. Please bring a recording device so that you can take these songs home with you!

This class will focus on tunes from the Fauquier County, Virginia fiddler, John Ashby. His playing is ever-inspiring to me and I always go back to his three amazing LPs from the 1970's on County Records when I need a good fix of real old time fiddling. I'll start by teaching tunes that have a repetitive bowing pattern throughout both the A and B parts and we'll move on to other tunes that just vary slightly in their patterns. After a few tunes are learned this way and certain bowing patterns are recognized, it should be easier to hear these rhythms in other tunes and should be helpful for learning new tunes.

Banjo-playing participants will be invited one at a time to join Adam on fiddle and Beth on guitar, playing a tune of their choice at their preferred tempo. Friendly feedback will be provided before and after each collaboration on how to make the blending of instruments as successful as possible. This is a great workshop for folks who have developed a bit of comfort on the banjo in a vacuum but are not quite sure how to play with the other instruments and/or do not feel ready to jump into an open jam.