Spring 2025 Classes
Registration is now open!
SCOTTISH FIDDLE with Joanne Garton
Saturdays 10:00 - 11:15 am, 5 weeks starting March 1
$100 - $125
For teen and adult fiddlers who love to learn the fiddle and are interested in learning fiddle technique through the lens of Scottish music. We’ll cover reels, strathspeys, marches, and slow airs while concentrating on bowing, intonation, and “groove” both individually and together. Expect a bit of history thrown in and a chance to ask lots of questions. Contact Joanne for more information via www.joannegarton.com.
YOUTH TRAD BAND with Joanne Garton
6 weeks 11:15am - 12:30pm, Saturdays, March 8, 15, 22, 29 + Sundays, April 6, 13, 2025.
$120
Get your tunes ready for the dance hall! For intermediate and advanced traditional musicians ages 11 and up interested in learning and creating tune sets, harmonies, and arrangements. A wonderful way to meet other musical people and form a band. Options to share a tune at the March 21st Mud Season Spectacular and play with Joanne at the Family Dance at the Montpelier Grange Hall on April 13, 3-4:30 pm. All acoustic instruments welcome (including brass!) with a focus on New England contra, Celtic, and Old Time tunes. Contact Joanne with questions at www.joannegarton.com.
Fiddler and dancer Joanne Garton mixes her pervasive passion for Scottish culture with the drive and rhythms of the New England dance floor. She performs, teaches, and records traditional music and dance from Scotland and Cape Breton with big influences from Ireland, England, Quebec, Appalachia and New England. A resident of Montpelier, Vermont, for the last 12 years, Joanne teaches kids and adults, performs on stage, plays in sessions, and of course, steps out on the dance floor at contra, Scottish, and English dances. Visit www.joannegarton.com for videos, sound bites, gig listings, and more.
OLD TIME BAND with Jenny Monfore, Chris Hollis and Ted Ingham
Tuesdays 7:00 – 8:15 pm, 6 weeks starting March 11, $150
No class April 1 -- join the instructors at an Old Time jam at Hugo's Restaurant!
In this six week class for fiddlers, guitarists and banjo-players we will work on some fun tunes as we focus on playing with others in the old time way! We’ll start with a familiar tune or two to get us together and move on to some crooked or otherwise funky options that you might encounter in a session or form a medley that might work for a dance. We will learn about the etiquette and culture of Old Time sessions, and explore ways that string bands can play for dances, sit-down shows, and recording. We’ll share some of our favorite string bands and tunes from across the past one-hundred or so years to boot but the focus will be on playing together, having fun, and joining into the Old Time scene wherever you live. This class is for folks who are at least intermediate players on their instruments: able to play some tunes up to speed, familiar with learning tunes on the fly rather than from tab or sheet music, and familiar with the main banjo and fiddle tunings for OT playing. We’re happy for students to make recordings to learn from so feel free to bring a recording device. We will start on March 11th and then take a break on April 1st so that folks can join us at the Montpelier bi-monthly jam at Hugo’s.
Jenny Monfore (left) has been playing old time music since her early 20s. She’s traveled around the country playing at regional old time festivals, from Clifftop to the Alaska Folk Fest and many in between. She lives near Montpelier and has a flower farm called Old Time Flowers. Visit her website to learn more: https://www.oldtimeflowers.com/
Chris Hollis (center) is a Montpelier based old time and Cajun musician. He plays guitar with Last Chance, The Spring Chickens, Pointe Noir Cajun band, and Kick 'em Jenny.
Ted Ingham(right) took up the banjo in the mid-1990s after playing the guitar for 20 years. He has learned from master banjo players such as Tom Mackenzie, Pete Sutherland, and Dan Margolies. Ted has taught clawhammer classes at the Summit School since 2008. He has also served on the Summit School Board since its inception, and until recently was its chair. In addition to teaching, Ted plays banjo with Kick ‘Em Jenny, a volcanic old-time stringband from Central Vermont:https://www.facebook.com/kickemjennyvt/
FINDING YOUR GROOVE: OLD TIME FIDDLE BOWING with Dana Robinson
Wednesdays, 6:30 - 7:45pm, 5 classes on March 12, March 26, April 9, April 23, April 30, $125
In this class, Dana will walk fiddlers step by step through bowing patterns and relate how they create the groove of oldtime fiddle music. The class will focus primarily on developing rhythm and tone in one’s playing. We’ll begin with the most basic and familiar melodies and explore different rhythmic approaches along with right hand bowing techniques common in Southern oldtime fiddling.
Students will also learn how to participate in a session when hearing a tune for the first time, and how to play rhythmically using double stops. This class is intended for intermediate to advanced players.
Dana founded the weekly oldtime jam session in Cabot in 2017. A professional musician for over thirty years, Dana has toured extensively and recorded numerous albums featuring his songwriting and fiddling, and currently serves as the Executive Director of Cabot Arts.
GUITAR WORKSHOP with D. Davis
Thursdays, 6:15 - 7:30 pm, March 13, March 20, April 3 and April 10, $100
We will discuss and agree on musical approaches to the guitar by selecting a series of songs that we can explore rhythm, chord voicings, melody, harmony, and improvisation. We will also take songs from their original/traditional foundation and explore how we can make them our own. We will also learn ways we can expand our technique and our perpective of how music works. I assume we will start with folk, country, bluegrass, and jugband/old-timey music. But anything goes once we establish some repertoire. For intermediate to advanced players.
A true renaissance musician, D. Davis has been playing guitar for the better part of four decades. He divides his performance time among the jazzy and dynamic, the driving and the dulcet. Find him performing with Red Hot Juba, Cookie’s Hot Club, The Larkspurs and Les Dead Ringers, among other bands.
LEARNING TO LOVE THE FIDDLE with Macey Mayfield
Tuesdays 6:00 - 7:15 pm, 6 weeks starting March 25, $150
This class is recommended for Beginner to Intermediate (not complete beginner) fiddle players who have already learned how to hold and tune their fiddle, including those who played previously and may have taken many years off, or those who played classical violin and would like to explore folk music styles. We'll learn a new tune each week, from swingy waltzes to shuffle-y breakdowns, with emphasis on rhythm, intonation, bowing, and musicality. We'll learn about and listen to various fiddle music genres, as we observe and internalize the musical expression of different musicians. We'll discuss the ins-and-outs of playing in a jam or ensemble, and we'll even talk about composing new tunes. The main focus will be on finding joy in playing our instrument and building a sustainable practice routine.
Playing the fiddle is one of the greatest joys of my life and I'd love to share that with others. I grew up in Texas playing Western Swing style, but now I enjoy Old Time and Irish styles most of all. I perform in an acoustic duo called Frosty Frog with my husband, Erik, and I also play in a Burlington-based folk rock band called Emerald Ground Water.
COMMUNITY JAM led by Susan Reid, Gretta Stone and Jacob Stone (and others)
First Thursday of each month (no summer months), 6:15 - 8:00 pm, drop-in, $5 donation/session
Montpelier Senior Activities Center, 58 Barre St., Montpelier
The Community Jam is an opportunity for acoustic musicians at all skill levels to come together, learn new tunes, learn jamming skills, practice learning tunes by ear, connect with others in the rich music community in Montpelier, and have a fun evening. At each jam there will be a short instructional segment at the beginning, to welcome and encourage new attendees.
We welcome fiddles, mandolins, acoustic guitars, banjos, accordions, concertinas, dulcimers, harmonicas, pennywhistles, recorders, ukuleles, and bass. (No amplification except for bass guitars.)
We will be playing a wide variety of tunes: Celtic, old-time, contra dance and square dance tunes, bluegrass, and whatever else participants bring to the jam.
We welcome players at every skill level; if you know a few chords on your instrument you will be able to participate and grow your musicianship. Playing with others is an essential path to becoming an accomplished musician, and even the most passive participation in a jam can be a wonderful growth experience.
This is a drop-in event; no registration needed. To get on the mailing list or for more information, contact Bob Barrett at barrettsvt@gmail.com. We request a donation of $5 per session to support both the Summit School and the Senior Activities Center.
GENERAL CLASS INFO
Registration and Payment:
Register by clicking the button below the class of your choosing. You can pay securely online, or pay by check to avoid online service fees. Checks for the amount listed can be sent to: Summit School, 46 Barre St. #5, Montpelier, VT 05602. Please note the relevant class in the description line on the check.
Location:
Unless otherwise indicated, weekly classes are held at the Center for Arts and Learning at 46 Barre St. in Montpelier. The Community Jam is held in the downstairs Community Room.
Refund and Payment Policies:
After the first week of programming, no refunds will be provided. Student cancellation a week or less before the program begins results in a refund of half of the tuition. No refunds or make-up classes offered for student absences due to illness or family emergency.
Questions?
Contact class coordinator Tracy Loysen at info@summit-school.org.
