A Texas Style Tunes Weekend

Description

Katie Glassman

Mia Orosco-Kelso

Celeste Johnson

I’m so excited to bring you Texas fiddle, all weekend long. Our spring camp is here! Come join us for A Texas Style Tunes Weekend. It will take place Friday through Sunday, April 23rd – April 25th. Today, registration opens to Fiddle School members before it opens to the public on Friday.

I fell in love with Texas fiddling at 9 years old and followed it everywhere, from fiddle contests to late-night jams, catching every glimpse of the greats like Orville Burnes, Dick Barrett, and Herman Johnson. In fact, it was on the fiddle contest circuit where I first met both of our camp fiddle teachers: Celeste Johnson and Mia Orosco-Kelso. I watched Celeste grow up at the National Old-time Fiddlers Contest in Weiser, Idaho where she’d win her division year after year. And I met Mia there the year she took the Grand Champion title! Today they are two of my favorite fiddlers around and yes, they are FANTASTIC teachers too. We’re so lucky to have them.

In the fiddle program, Mia will be teaching breakdowns; Celeste will be teaching waltzes, and I’ll be teaching tunes of choice. And as we get a sense of our enrollment, we’ll divide the classes up into three levels. Everyone will receive learning materials (videos and sheet music) in advance, like with my previous camps.

As this camp is fiddle tune-oriented, you’ll receive feedback on your playing of the songs themselves (especially in the “coffeehouse”)— and you’ll learn more variations to these tunes.  You’ll learn very traditional Texas arrangements of those “big songs” you hear at jams and fiddle contests. Spending this concentrated time on the instrument — and doing deep work on tunes as you learn from and listen to top-notch fiddlers all weekend — you’ll leave camp feeling your progress. I promise. You’ll also have done some real work on a set of contest tunes, so you’ll know what to build on as you take these tunes to jams – or to your next fiddle contest.

Daily & Evening Activities:

• 3 core classes each day

• 1 elective per day

• Saturday Keynote Speaker: Texas Fiddling at its Best!

• Fiddle Contest Coffeehouse – play a round, receive feedback from each instructor.

• Texas Style Jam Session – play along as each instructor leads (jam packet included). Yes, guitar students jam too!

• Teacher Concert

• Mealtime social scrambles (optional)

I am thrilled to introduce our guitar instructor, Gavin Kelso. We played in The Western Flyers together for 6 years, and he’s one of my favorite musicians on the planet. He’ll be pioneering our first ever Texas-style guitar program.

Guitar students will receive materials to prepare in advance, including chord progressions and back-ups to specific songs in preparation for the closing Texas-style jam session.

5 Texas-Style Guitar Lessons

* Solid right-hand rhythm & strum patterns
* Classic walking bass lines
* Swing chord substitutions
* Top 10 Texas tunes to memorize
* How to back up a Texas-style fiddler

Registration opens in waves:
Wednesday, February 3rd – Fiddle School members
Friday, February 5th – open to the public

I hope you’ll join us for the fun!

A Texas Style Tunes Weekend (tentative schedule):

PRICING:

FULL DAY CAMPER – $600
Includes learning videos (sent out 30 days prior) and preparation materials for each class. Full time campers can do the fiddle track, guitar track, or fiddle/guitar split track.

PRICING:

HALF DAY ONLY CAMPER – $370 (includes 10 classes)
Includes Friday 2:00 on, Saturday 2:15 on, and Sunday 5:15 on.