The Handmade Music School would like your help “Sharing the Music”
The Handmade Music School in Floyd, Virginia is asking for your help to make sure learning about traditional music and dancing of southwest Virginia are accessible to anyone interested in learning. The Handmade Music School finds its home at the world famous Floyd Country Store and uses the rich history of the music to connect master musicians and dancers with interested learners. Similar to the Pay It Forward program that the Floyd Country Store provides for people who cannot afford a meal. The Handmade Music School is creating “Share The Music”, a program that provides access to traditional music lessons, classes, workshops and camps through a scholarship program.
During these unprecedented times, we have launched Handmade at Home, a virtual Crowdcast workshop series, and our amazing teachers are still offering private lessons and resources online. Our goal at The Handmade Music School is to make all of our programming available and accessible to all area youth, Junior Appalachian Musicians students and the greater community.
Your donations make a REAL difference to our students! If you are able, we ask you to consider a contribution that will help us meet our goal of making all of our programming accessible and available to all. Contributions of any amount are welcome – every little bit helps students in need!
The Handmade Music School is an initiative of Floyd Creative Studios, a non-profit organization dedicated to the creative process in Floyd County, Virginia. Your contribution will go directly to our Share The Music scholarship fund. As a 501(c)(3) not for profit arts organization, your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.
Thank you for your support and for joining us in sharing the music and passing on these important musical traditions.
More about The Handmade Music School at The Floyd Country Store
The Handmade Music School is dedicated to teaching old time, bluegrass, and traditional music and dance from Floyd County, Virginia and throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains. The philosophy of The Handmade Music School is to “hand down” the songs and dances from the teacher to the student, phrase by phrase and step by step, the way it’s been taught in the Blue Ridge Mountains for centuries.
Since the 1980’s, the Floyd Country Store has been known as a community gathering place built on the celebration of traditional Southern Appalachian music and dance. The Floyd Country Store is renowned as a place to experience authentic Appalachian music and is home to a group of musicians, flatfoot dancers, and cloggers who carry on the local tradition of social music making. Whether picking on the front porch, singing in a neighbor’s kitchen, or dancing at the Floyd Country Store, traditional music continues to bring people together in Floyd. For almost four decades, the Floyd Country Store has been a place where the musical traditions of Appalachia have been enjoyed by audiences coming to the Friday Night Jamboree or shared at a jam session on Sunday afternoon. Now the Floyd Country Store provides the opportunity to learn directly from these musicians and dancers so we can rest assured that we will all be enjoying these traditions for a long time!
“The Handmade Music School is proud to be connecting master musicians with students of all ages,” says Director Dylan Locke. “We are excited to start our scholarship program called “Share The Music” that can now help this incredible music reach a much bigger audience. And during these difficult times of COVID-19, we are feeling the need to make sure we can provide learning opportunities for folks who can’t access it due to geographic or financial reasons. And friends of The Handmade Music School and Floyd Country Store can help by making a contribution to help make sure others can benefit.”