Mondays, 6:30-8:00 pm, beginning August 30
$120.00 advance / $130.00 after August 23
Register online

Participants will learn about tuning, bowing and fingering conventions used to play the fiddle. We'll learn simple fiddle tunes and identify note names, note values, rests, rhythms, phrases and dynamics. At the conclusion of the sessions, supporting material will be provided as musical notation. (Minimum class size 3 students, maximum 8 students)

*Level I students should have a willingness to vocalize and/or sing, their own violin/fiddle (or a rental) in good working order, spare GDA and E strings, a bow (with a supply of rosin), a violin case, and a pitch pipe w/GDA and E pitches (or an A440 tuning fork).

Julian Smedley lives in Berkeley, CA where he works as a violinist, music arranger, and jazz violin instructor. His formal training in violin, voice and piano started as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, England and lasted 11 years until 1973 when he graduated in music from the University of East Anglia. Since moving to the Bay Area in 1985 he's played a variety of music styles in bands ranging from the Hot Club of San Francisco, Kaila Flexer's Third Ear, the Connie Doolan Quartet, The Baguette Quartet, Vive le Jazz, and the renaissance vocal group In Boca Al Lupo. He's also performed with Jim Kweskin, Dan Hicks, Paul Horn, Chico Freeman and David Grisman. Recent projects include the formation of string improvising groups, Instep Quartet and Jj@m, and teaching at the 2009 Fiddlekids Camp and California Coast Music Camp.