Handmade Music School Workshops offer unique learning experiences in music or dance with master teachers at the Floyd Country Store. The workshops are timely, engaging, and dynamic sessions targeted to serve participants with varied interests and goals. Register today for a shorter 1-2 hour workshop, an all-day learning experience, or a multi-day camp!
Please read our Workshop Refund and Cancellation Policies prior to check out.
If you need assistance in paying for a workshop, check out our Share the Music Scholarships.
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November 2019
The Handmade Music School presents a duet singing workshop on Saturday November 16, 2019 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm, with Ashlee Watkins and Andrew Small of the New Macedon Rangers. Using regional traditional song repertoire as a vehicle for demonstration, this workshop will delve into how we choose parts (assigning lead and harmony) and find the right key as well as the stylistic choices involved in deciding on the right harmony line.
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The Handmade Music School presents a flat picking guitar workshop on the style and repertoire of Doc Watson on Saturday, November 23, 2019 from 3:30 - 5:00pm, with guitar prodigy and two-time Galax blue ribbon-winner Presley Barker.
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The Handmade Music School is excited to present two great workshops with fingerpicking and slide guitar virtuoso Scott Ainslie on Saturday, November 30th, 2019. Both workshops will take place at Hotel Floyd. Prices are $30 per workshop, or $50 for both workshops. Workshop attendees will also receive $5 off a ticket to Scott's evening concert at Hotel Floyd.
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The Handmade Music School presents limberjack decorating and dancing with Linda Ray on Saturday, November 30, 2019 from 1:00-3:00pm. Do you have family in town Thanksgiving weekend? Bring them to the Handmade Music School for this special, all ages, event! Young children are welcome with an adult, or age 10 and over without an accompanying adult. The cost is $45 including limberjack, or $30 to bring your own limberjack.
Find out moreDecember 2019
The Handmade Music School presents an intermediate/advanced Round Peak workshop on Saturday, December 21, 2019 from 3:30 - 5:00 pm. The workshop includes your choice of fiddle with Kirk Sutphin, banjo with Kevin Fore, or guitar with Chester McMillian. Cost is $30 for one workshop.
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The Handmade Music School presents a flatfoot dance workshop on Saturday, December 21, 2019 from 5:30-6:30pm with local dancer/fiddler Gina Dilg. Gina will break down some basic steps that you can practice at the 7:30pm dance with the Round Peak Boys! All ages welcome. Cost is $15.
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The Handmade Music School presents a beginners ukulele workshop with Ash Devine on Saturday, December 28, 2019 from 3:00-5:00pm. Cost is $30 for workshop only or $65 including a new ukulele. This is a family-friendly, kid-friendly workshop priced with a ukulele. It is a perfect gift and activity for the Holiday vacation week! Those interested can purchase the Ukulele and wrap it up for a loved one, and receive a gift certificate for the Workshop, or receive a gift certificate for both the instrument and the workshop to be picked up on December 28th.
Find out moreJanuary 2020
The Handmade Music School presents an old time guitar workshop with Jackson Cunningham on Saturday, January 4, 2020 from 1:30-3:00pm. Guitar is the backbone of a string band and Jackson Cunningham is a master rhythm player. Learn fills, bass runs, and the basics and stylistic techniques of backing up a band and playing behind singing. Stick around after the workshop to hear Jackson's band Nobody's Business perform on the Floyd Radio Show.
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The Handmade Music School presents an old time fiddle and banjo repertoire workshop with Lucas Pasley and Chris Johnson on Saturday, January 18, 2020 from 3:30 to 5:00pm. Cost is $30.
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The Handmade Music School presents a flatfoot and two-step dance workshop on Saturday, January 18, 2019 from 5:30-6:30pm with local dancer and musician Maggie Oakes-Chitwood. Maggie will break down the basics of flatfooting and also demonstrate simple two-stepping patterns in preparation for the 7:30pm dance with Gap Civil! All ages welcome.
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The Handmade Music School presents a bluegrass guitar workshop with Jesse Smathers on Saturday, February 8, 2020 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. Jesse will be teaching a bluegrass guitar workshop that focuses on the fundamentals of bluegrass rhythm in a traditional and modern context. He will also spend time breaking down his approach to lead playing.
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The Handmade Music School presents a bluegrass mandolin fundamentals workshop with Jeff Parker on Saturday February 15, 2020 from 3:30-5:00pm. Cost is $30.
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The Handmade Music School presents an intermediate old time fiddle workshop with Rachel Eddy on Saturday, February 22, 2020 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. This fiddle workshop will focus primarily on how to help your fiddling sound old-timey and more driving. It will be geared toward learning how to use bow pulses, bowing phrases, and note combinations to give fiddle tunes a shape.
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The Handmade Music School presents an intermediate old time clawhammer banjo workshop with Rachel Eddy on Saturday, February 22, 2020 from 3:30 to 5:00 pm. This clawhammer banjo workshop will focus a lot on how to use your thumb to make the banjo swing in different percussive ways. We will study common phrases on the banjo and learn how to vary them in different ways.
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The Handmade Music School presents an Old Time Fiddle Fundamentals Workshop with Andrew Small on Saturday, February 29, from 1:30-3:00pm. This workshop will be beneficial to beginning and intermediate fiddlers as well as anyone who wishes to gain a foundational understanding of the functional, technical, and stylistic considerations inherent to old time fiddling.
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The Handmade Music School presents an introductory Clawhammer Banjo Workshop with Andy Buckman on Saturday, February 29, 2020 from 3:30-5:00pm. This workshop is appropriate for beginning and intermediate banjo players who wish to explore the distinctive “mountain” clawhammer banjo style of SW Virginia and NW North Carolina.
Find out moreMarch 2020
The Handmade Music School presents an Old Time Fiddle and Banjo Workshop with Paul Brown and Terri McMurray on Saturday March 7, 2020 from 1:30-3:00pm. Explore the interaction between old-time fiddle and banjo through demonstrations and your own participation. All levels welcome, and other instruments are welcome too! Paul and Terri have played fiddle & banjo together for decades, as a duo and in bands including the Toast String Stretchers and Smokey Valley Boys. Get some great tips, and generate your own new insights.
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Join Handmade Music School instructor David Cannaday for a beginner ukulele workshop on Saturday, March 21, 2020 from 3:30-5:30pm. This will be a family friendly, kid friendly workshop priced with a Ukulele. It is a great way to get started with an instrument! Or, makes an excellent gift! Cost is $65 for workshop + new Ukulele, $30 for workshop only.
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The Handmade Music School presents an Old Time Fiddle Fundamentals Workshop with Andrew Small on Saturday, April 25, 2020 from 6:00-7:00pm. The workshop will be presented online via Crowdcast. This workshop will be beneficial to beginning and intermediate old time fiddlers as well as anyone who wishes to gain a foundational understanding of the functional, technical, and stylistic considerations inherent to old time fiddling in a dance music setting. We will break down a tune from the standard repertoire of Southwest Virginia and use the tune as a case study to identify basic rhythmic figures and corresponding bowing patterns. Participants can expect to gain a basic understanding of rhythmic old time bowing and learn a tune or two from the common regional repertoire.
Find out moreMay 2020
The Handmade Music School presents a Bluegrass Mandolin Workshop with Jesse Smathers on Saturday, May 2, 2020 from 1:00-2:00pm. The workshop will be presented online via Crowdcast. This beginner/intermediate workshop will break down components of driving Bluegrass mandolin. Focusing on developing listening skills, we will cover the basics of the rhythm chop, chord structures and substitutions, and lead playing including embellishment on breaks based around the melody. The skills covered in this workshop will prove relevant in any traditional or modern Bluegrass context.
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