with Allan Carr

Advanced Back Up Guitar/Alternative Chords and Bass Runs-For people who are able to play in a variety of keys in a jam at a medium speed, and who are looking to “up the ante” with their chord and bass run choices in old time music.  This class will go deep into how to play alternative chords “up the neck” as well as rhythm and melody driven bass runs to a fiddle tune. Required: Capo and Flat pick required (we suggest a larger hard pick).

with Su and Jules

UK based Su Mo & Jules Bushell and some of their regular session guests will be joining Terri in an interview and discussion about running a session that has reached an international scale during the Covid-19 pandemic. A strong community has been developed from the wonders of technology using special techniques and hosting skills to make it possible to have a successful online session on Zoom and live stream. The community have been able to share the same Old Time tunes from around the world and here you can hear how tunes are played having travelled once again in this modern day via aural traditions in sessions around the world.

with Alan Kaufman and Jerry Dallal

Jerry and I are going to present an hour of oldtime music to reflect the weekly jams that I have led in the Boston area for close to 20 years. There will be plenty of traditional  tunes and songs with harmonies. The instrumentation will be guitar, mandolin and fiddle.

It is our hope that by attending this jam you can learn about and experience the fun and joy of oldtime music in the Boston area.

We plan to have the words to the the songs in the chat so that you can join us and sing along.

with Paul Kirk

Join Paul Kirk for this fiddle workshop in which he will teach Hell and Scissors. This tune comes from Kentucky fiddler James W. Day, AKA Jilson Setters, and we will be tuned in cross G. He’ll show you the flavor bits to help you get a sweet “Old-Time sound.” Also, please be sure to check out Paul’s Patreon (patreon.com/paulkirk) and Old-Time TOTW series on YouTube.

Paul Kirk has been playing bowed string instruments for 41 years and has been teaching them for 33 years privately, in classroom settings, and in workshop formats. He has closely studied Old-Time fiddle bowing patterns and techniques and has devised practical methods for teaching them. One of his specialties is teaching Old-Time fiddle to “cross over” students, especially those coming from a background in Classical violin. For many, acquiring the style and sound of this seemingly simple music can be difficult. He will help you get your violin to sound like a fiddle. 

Paul gives remote and live private lessons and workshops. For more information please send an email to: FiddlerPaul71@gmail.com

with Alan Kaufman and Ann Downey

This is an introduction to yodeling; the how, who, when and where of it. Why? Because it’s a blast! We’ll teach the basics and get you started, sing and yodel a bunch and have a grand old time.

with Dave Neiman

Come learn how the hammered dulcimer fits into traditional music. It is set up for keys that are Old Time friendly. Dave will show the arrangement of scale patterns and how they relate to a circle of fifths. It is suited for tunes that are major, minor, and modal. Not only good for playing melodies, the dulcimer works for playing backup for fiddles and other instruments. You’ll be able to play along as Dave plays some tunes.

Dave Neiman, Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been performing and teaching both privately and at festivals since the early 1980’s. His passion for the hammered dulcimer has taken him to music festivals, concert stages, and street performing venues in many parts of the U.S. as well as Canada, Europe, and Japan, where he had the honor of a royal audience. A former National Hammered Dulcimer Champion at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, Dave started out playing traditional New England dance tunes on dulcimer but, influenced by his classical and jazz guitar studies, established a reputation for his arrangements of classical and popular pieces. After a bit of a hiatus from life on the road, he is finally restarting his participation at a variety of festivals.

with Ben Wetherbee

Source recordings! They’re often scratchy, funky, and frequently intimidating to learn from! But with a little work and some deep listening, they can be an incredible and indispensable learning tool. In this workshop we’ll talk about tips for learning and growing from these recordings and we’ll listen to a recording and go through the process of learning parts of it on the fiddle together. This workshop will be geared towards intermediate fiddlers with some tunes in their repertoire. Folks who are new to learning by ear are welcome!

We’ll be playing in Cross G (from the lowest string to the highest, that’s GDGD, with the A and E strings both tuned down a whole step to G and D). If you want to tune your fiddle to GDGD before the workshop, that would be easiest, though I’ll give folks a moment to tune in the workshop too!

Ben Wetherbee is a fiddler, singer, and multi-instrumentalist from Boston, currently based in Western Massachusetts. Growing up in a musical family with his mom, Ruth Rappaport, his earliest musical memories are of fiddlers playing all night long. Inspired by the fiddling he heard at parties, dances, bars, and festivals, Ben was soon “taken” by the fiddle, learning both from older sources and modern players. Now, he plays in a duo with Ruth, in a contra dance band, and as a solo act, mixing original songs, tunes, and experimental music.