String Band Symposium for mandos and more

I know that this was picked up by the NewsFetcher, but I thought I would post it a bit more personally. I hope to see some of the Cafe set next Wednesday night, it should be a lot of fun!

Hey folks,
Here's an exciting new program that will be starting at the Concord Community Music School this fall (registration info at the end of this blurb). The String Band Symposium is an interactive Zoom presentation that links repertoire from several folk and roots music traditions, exercises and ideas to develop technique, and a survey of a number of forms and sounds that make up several string band traditions, with a special focus on how they have evolved and thrived in New England.
This participatory class will run every other week on Wednesday evenings, from 5:30-6:30, starting on September 30. It is 8 sessions for the cost of $120. It is open to all string players, but geared primarily towards guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele. Each lesson focuses on a single topic (such as the pentatonic scale, or jig rhythms), and provides exercises and tunes/accompaniments to which the concept can be applied. Some music theory will be presented, and it will be geared towards making theory useful in a traditional music context. The Zoom chat format allows for interactive questions and discussion, and lessons will be recorded and archived for use by registered students. Pdfs will also be provided.
I have been putting a fair amount of thought and planning into this series, and I am pretty excited about it. I think it is a good option for people who would like some of the community spirit and interactivity of ensembles and music weekends. I am offering this at the school instead of my regular ensembles, which I have found much more difficult to run on Zoom without being able to play together in actual real-time.
My idea is that people would have their instruments out and active during the sessions. I will be playing both the tune and the exercises slowly for several times, so that would be a good time to play along and try to get them under your fingers. Several of these details we will be ironing out over the first couple of sessions. Everyone will be muted during the sessions, so people can play along or noodle without disturbing the flow of the sessions and the ability of participants to hear clearly. The Chat feature of Zoom will be a good format for people exchanging questions and comments during the sessions, and I am thinking it would be good to have a full sound and video discussion option at the end of the session, probably after we stop the video at 6:30.
So I really hope that a lot of you will give it a try. It will be a lot of fun, too! Here's the online registration info. Hope to see you on September 30!
https://ccmusicschool.org/.../363-string-band-symposium
Tentative Schedule
Week 1 (Sept 30): minor pentatonic scale, simple chords, traditional dance tune from Brittany, France
Week 2 (Oct 14): major pentatonic scale, 1, 4, 5 chords and number theory, simple Old-time tune
Week 3 (Oct 28): 12 bar blues form blues song
Week 4 (Nov 11): 3/4 time French waltz
Week 5 (Dec 2): 6/8 time Irish jig
Week 6 (Dec 16): finding the scale (and the chords) in the tune
Week 7 (Jan 6): ornamenting a melody/putting melody in the bass line, Carter Family folk songs
Week 8 (Jan 20): variations in rhythmic accenting: Irish music and Old-time

Hey David:

I think the URL link you posted above doesn't work. Try this one:

String Band Symposium

I think the forum software clips long URLs.

What levels of musicianship are these classes directed at?

Jim, I think you’d like this one! Come join the fun!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mandobar

Jim, I think you’d like this one! Come join the fun!

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Sounds like a good one. Maybe I will.

Thanks for fixing that link, Jim. I am aiming the class at an intermediate level, but hopeful there will be the opportunity to stick in a few things for a more experienced players as well. It's not really for beginners who are really beginners, you should be able to pick a bit. And yes, I think it will be fun!