Our focus this session will be on learning satisfying versions of standard tunes, and then improvising variations on them. A lot of musicians groan when an old chestnut like "Soldier's Joy" is called at a jam, but having delightful versions of common melodies will turn a potential groan into glee. Plus, the standard repertoire is a veritable playground for variations and improvisations, so we will experiment with how to craft your own personalized version of a tune in real time.

In this class, we consider specific goals enumerated by the students. Upon achieving these goals, students can expect to lead tunes confidently at jam sessions and play at square dances up to speed. You don't have to be a recurring student to join the fun, and we love having fiddlers beam in from all around the world. Future topics of this class will include cross tuning, the repertoire of Doc Roberts, and the Round Peak style.

Each class meeting will be recorded on Zoom and available to stream on demand even after the session has ended.