Learn new tunes as a vehicle for upping your game as a melody player, backup player, and improviser. You'll explore different avenues for expressing yourself as an instrumentalist and work on your skill set as a musical collaborator. This workshop series is designed for intermediate to advanced players who want to work on their jamming and improvising skills. It will be taught primarily on fiddle but can be helpful for players of any instrument.

Lauren Rioux is perhaps most well-known for her online string education site JamwithLauren.com, which provides students with an innovative curriculum, gorgeous learning materials, and her inimitable teaching style. Brittany Haas is widely regarded as one of the most influential fiddlers of her generation. She has recorded and performed with Steve Martin, David Rawlings, Punch Brothers, and Béla Fleck, among many others; was a member of the house band for Live From Here; and was the Americana Music Association’s 2020 Instrumentalist of the Year. Lauren and Brittany became close friends in 2005 at the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp, and both cut their stringband teeth playing second fiddle in Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings. They have toured together as a duo, produced solo albums for each other, and continue to collaborate on various teaching projects.

Lauren and Brittany have this to say about their workshop: “We'll start with a tune, and add in some possible embellishments (double stops, ornaments, accents, slurs!). Then we'll show you the chords (or what chords we like to play with it), explore some of our favorite rhythm back-up patterns and techniques, talk about soloing concepts, and do some exercises to expand your approach to taking a solo.