Beginner Fiddle
Questions answered! Secrets revealed! Feel more confident to participate in jams! Our intensive class is aimed at the beginner-novice fiddler and we will focus on strengthening and solidifying the fundamentals of your old-time and bluegrass fiddling. Expect tips and tricks for bowing, bow control and rhythm, and techniques for left and right hand to improve your tone. We’ll visit the essentials of the major keys used in old-time and bluegrass to help you locate notes and identify a tune melody or just play common chords in bluegrass jams. We’ll also delve into cross-tuning, which is a fun and accessible way to play your fiddle in the old-time style! This is a fun, hands on, tutorial-style class so we will also aim to work on challenges and skills that each participant wants to improve on.
Athena McKown
Athena McKown is an established fiddler based in Vancouver, BC. She loves traditional fiddling and the festival scene, and has been playing fiddle music in many forms for over 20 years. She hosts the popular old-time jams with Paul Silveria for the Pacific Bluegrass & Old Time Society, and has fronted numerous ceilidh, contra and square dance bands. She has also performed alongside the Canote Brothers and at festivals, including the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Cowichan Valley Bluegrass Festival, and Harrison Festival of the Arts, among others. She is currently in Hammer, Pick and Saw, a trio of fiddle, banjo and pedal steel, which honours the old time tradition while exploring a unique and more ethereal side of the music. When not playing music or at a festival, she is a teaching professor in the forest sciences at the University of British Columbia.