Private & Group Lessons and Instructional Slow-Jam Sessions

Private & Group Lessons and Instructional Bluegrass Slow-Jam Sessions
by Martha Hills and Don DePoy

Instructional Slow-Jam Workshops (45-minutes to full-day w/ evening concert)
Martha and Don, using informal workshops to explore and explain their own folk processes as music makers, their musical instruments and cover topics including music theory, chord progressions, musical arrangements, and the impact of socio/cultural influences on American music. To help illustrate major points, their light-hearted discussions and songs can be played in an open jam session with individual or group instruction available.

Bluegrass Music Makers Instructional Slow-Jam Workshop (2-hours)
Don DePoy and Martha Hills are offering workshops which focus on musicians moving beyond the mechanics of their instrument and changing from one chord to another to becoming music makers. Using Don’s Music Maker’s Guide (see below), the topics and discussions are directed towards beginning/intermediate musicians who desire to move away from tablature/chord charts and begin to make music by ear and develop their own playing style. Topics covered include: the use of common chord progressions (I, IV, V, etc.), transposing from one key to another, use of the capo, a short overview of scales, chord construction, beginning back-up and fundamentals for making music with others.

Private & Group Lessons (1/2 to 1-hour)
Don offers private and group lessons on banjo, mountain dulimer, autoharp, mandolin, Dobro, guitar, and bass fiddle.
Rates: monthly
Location: Various - Call 540-209-3540

Music Making Slow Jam (2 to 4 hours)
Slow-jamming is a great way to get everyone playing. These are jams for novices who are often intimidated by the breakneck speed of many (but not all) bluegrass jams. Slow jams allow budding musicians to get their feet wet in a non-threatening, mutually supportive environment. The goal here is to keep the songs at a slow enough pace that every player can play along. Musicians are encouraged to lead songs as the turns move around the circle. However, it is not uncommon to decline and let the next person pick a song for everyone to play. During the jam some comments are offered about tuning, choosing a key for particular songs, jam etiquette, instrumental leads and back-up, singing lead and harmony. Don’s Music Maker’s Guide has over 100 bluegrass, old-time country and folk songs with chord progressions.

Music Maker Guide with CD featuring over 100 bluegrass songs & chord progressions
This book is specifically written to help connect the musical dots. All too often musicians seem to learn individual songs without an understanding as to how all songs are interrelated. Focusing specifically on the bluegrass genre, Don stirs a bit of theory and chords to reveal that most of the songs we play have only 7 common chord progressions. Come to know the progressions and songs take on a different quality. Playing back-up is not a memorization of note-for-note for every song but is essentially a chord formula that works with multiple songs and different keys. The Music Maker’s Guide comes with a CD illustrating the written material and discusses the use of a capo, transposing from one key to another, basic guitar runs, time signatures and tuning. Over 100 songs are provided with chord progressions. ($24.95) More about Don's Music Maker's Guide <here>

Workshops and Jams are fee-based with educational grants and fund-raising options available.
To find out more about the Workshops or Jam Sessions contact Martha or Don at 540-209-3540 or
email: us@meandmartha.com

don with autoharp as martha sings

Me & Martha
266 Inglewood Court
McGaheysville, VA 22840

207-323-4800 or 540-209-3540