Mondays, 7:00-8:15 pm, beginning July 10
$130.00 advance / $140.00 after July 3
Register online
An ongoing class where we learn new tunes. And, as we learn them, we explore different styles and approaches to bowing, improvisation, variations, and more. We'll look at an Appalachian Old-Time tune or two and explore the way we vary it with bowings and melodic interpretations. And we'll look at Celtic tunes and explore some of the ornamentations and variations found within that repertoire. Along the way, we'll work to expand our knowledge of chords, scales, and music theory as it applies to playing the tunes.
Note, mandolins and melody playing guitarists are welcome, though the focus is on how fiddlers map their unfettered and unfretted fingerboards.
Erik Hoffman spends his time calling Old-Time Country Dancing and
playing music (fiddle, guitar, voice, mandolin, bodhran, and other odds
and ends). Erik became interested in traditional music and dance when he
returned to his home town of Santa Barbara in 1980. Friends dragged him
to the contra dances, and he became addicted. In 1985 he called his
first dance.
In 1987, Erik took up the fiddle. Three weeks later,
on a dare, he competed in the Santa Barbara Old Time Fiddle Contest and
won third place in beginning fiddle in a field of three. The following
year he place first in intermediate fiddle. In 1990, Erik came in third
in advanced traditional singing.
Traveling all over the state,
Erik has become well known from Arcata to San Diego, and from Carson
City, Nevada, to the Bay Area. He has also toured the United States
extensively, on both coasts, and in between. He has been staff at a
number of festivals, including the Bay Area Country Dance Society's
American Week, Family Week, and Spring Weekend (Monte Toyon); CD*NY's
Hudson Guild; Sacramento's Echo Summit; California Traditional Music
Society's Solstice and New Year's festivals; San Luis Obispo radio
KCBX's Live Oak Music Festival; New Mexico Folk Music & Dance's
Memorial Day Weekend; and Seattle's Slugs at Sunrise Music and Dance
Camp.
Erik loves the spirit and joy that is passed along with traditional music and dance, and loves to share his enthusiasm.
Visit Erik's website