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Camp will open Friday at 12:00 PM for registration, jamming, and instruction. Registration will occur in the Adult Center starting at 12:30. We’ll have hands-on workshops, round robin demonstrations and guided jam sessions for three days, a Friday night “meet the faculty concert,” a formal concert Saturday night, and lots and lots of time for jamming and getting to know each other. Our resident instrument specialist will be there from 12 PM on Friday and all day Saturday. Lecture-demonstrations about banjo history and setup will be offered. Instrument vendors and makers, plus recordings, accessories and books will be on sale in our market area. Attendees are encouraged to bring banjos and other instruments for sale or trade.

The Beginners’ Track provides instruction for absolute beginners (those who haven’t played before), and those who can play a little bit, but still can’t play with other people or pick out tunes on their own. Click below for more information.

Advancing Beginners and Intermediates will find classes geared to their levels and needs. Advancing beginners may still only play a few phrases and chords, but they have some basic banjo experience. In general intermediates know some tunes but aren’t able to play up to speed yet. They are still working on rhythm. They may already read tab or notation, but can use help playing by ear and learning to arrange a tune or song on their own.

Classes at the Advancing Beginners/Intermediate level will include Learning To Play What You Hear, Playing Slow Tunes, Choosing Your Next Banjo, Introduction to Modern Bluegrass Style, Old Time Banjo, Translating Fiddle Tunes To The Banjo, What To Do When Another Instrument Has The Lead, Accompanying Singing, and many more. At Banjo Camp the emphasis is on using tab minimally – just to get you started playing.

For the Advanced Players, there will be added classes in Arranging Tunes or Songs For The Banjo, Introduction To What It Takes To Be An Effective Sideman, Playing For A Living, Playing And Composing For Commercials, and more.

The weekend will include at least 120 class hours plus guided jams at all speeds and levels. After each evening program there will be plenty of time for free jams, again at various levels. Most of the classes are hands on, practical learning situations. A few are demonstrations or mini-concerts, but even in these classes the intention is for you to take something away that you may want to learn or speak with the instructors about later. You are encouraged to bring a recording device of some kind.

Several other workshops that have been popular will be repeated. They include Maintaining and Optimizing Your Banjo, Playing With Others, Singing With The Banjo, Stagecraft, and Recording Techniques. There will be instruction at all levels.

The first review to appear ‹TheDigitalFolkLife.org‹ has tagged the tome as
³brilliant,² while on the other side of the globe, at Borders.com-Australia,
Discovering Folk Music is noted as its #1 folk music title. An interview is
already in the can for future airing with XM¹s Mary Sue Twohy, host of The
Village and who also ³strongly recommended² Ledgin¹s third book, stating so
on its back cover.

From the Colonial era to sixties protest music to avant-garde 21st century
performers, Ledgin presents the genre as surprisingly diverse, every bit
epitomizing our national melting pot, embracing America¹s multi-cultural
traditions. Demonstrating the relevance of folk music in our everyday lives,
the book provides special emphasis on the folk revival era, when Bob Dylan,
Joan Baez, Odetta, and Peter, Paul and Mary sang out and influenced
subsequent generations. Interviews with such legends as Janis Ian, Tom
Paxton, Jean Ritchie, and Nora Guthrie, Woody¹s daughter, add color.

Endorsed by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame president Terry Stewart, Discovering
Folk Music is a groundbreaking look at 21st-century folk music in our
rapidly changing digital world, family-friendly while ripe for rediscovery
by the Woodstock generation.

Commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in 2008, Ledgin was recognized in 2007 for
her career achievements when she received the Charlie Lamb Award for
Excellence in Country Music Journalism, bestowed by the International
Country Music Conference in cooperation with Belmont University in
Nashville. She was Director of the New Jersey Folk Festival at Rutgers from
1994-2003, is a founding member of Folk Alliance International and is a past
Board member of the International Bluegrass Music Association. Ledgin is
also the author of Homegrown Music: Discovering Bluegrass and From Every
Stage: Images of America¹s Roots Music, the latter of which generated a
three-year traveling photo exhibition that included stops at Lincoln Center
and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, among others.

Greater New York area music fans will recall Ledgin¹s pre-Internet
undertaking, The Traditional MusicLine, which was a comprehensive events
bible for all things acoustic throughout the Northeast for eighteen years.
Her voice was among the original hosts of WFUV 90.7 FM¹s CityFolk format
from 1989-1990. On the horizon is her own specialty broadcast endeavor to
bring Ledgin back on air digitally.