Music Classes and Performance Ensembles

Students will learn beginning harmonica techniques such as getting single notes, popular melodies, blues, bent notes, and improvising; ability to read music is unnecessary, but please bring a basic 10 hole, diatonic harmonica in the key of C

This course will cover general banjo basics, chords and strumming, and the basics of the Bluegrass three-finger picking style. Upon finishing the course, the student will be able to play basic accompaniment for songs and be able to choose a direction for further study.

For this class, you should be comfortable with basic music reading and chord knowledge. The class will review material as needed from Applied Guitar 1 and you will continue to learn to read music as well as tablature. More advanced strumming patterns will be introduced, and beginning blues/rock examples will be explored.

More chords, more songs, more strumming patterns, more ukulele fun! If you would like to continue on from Ukulele 1 or have some working knowledge of the ukulele and would like to learn more, then this is your class. In addition, learn the rhythmic finger roll, add tremolo to your strumming, and learn how to invent your own chords. Students are required to provide their own ukuleles.

Learn how to read music and interpret chord diagrams for the guitar as well as basic strumming rhythms/patterns. We will play basic tunes together as a class. Bring your own guitar (preferably acoustic) to each class.

This course is for students with no or minimal piano background. Students will learn basic note reading, technique, rhythm, and music theory. Pieces will include familiar melodies of classical, folk and pop songs.

Have you ever had a song idea but didn’t know how to write it? Have you wanted to compose an instrumental piece and didn’t know where to start? Are you struggling to finish songs because you don’t know what they need? This course is the primer you need to help get your feet off the ground and get those pieces finished. Among other topics, the course will cover how to write a compelling melody, create chord progressions and accompaniment patterns, effectively set text to a melody, and develop compelling musical phrases and forms. Related topics covered in the class will include notation customs, style and genre customs, idiomatic instrumental writing, and an introduction to music recording technology.