the 2025 camp is sold out
A 3-day teaching camp from Tuesday July 29 to Thursday July 31, 2025 with possibility of accommodation
The goal is to help you, whatever your level, improvise and take part in a Bluegrass jam with autonomy and confidence: "learn to play without being tied to tablatures!"
Workshop "band labs", formed during the workshop and coached by one of the tutors, kick off the festival on the main stage on Thursday.
The camp takes place at Lycée Sainte Famille, La Roche sur Foron (74800)
Limited to 120 participants with 100 available beds on site
Morning : Instrumental Classes & Vocal Harmonies
Afternoons : Wernick Method coached Jams - Band Labs
The school is open from 3 pm on Monday July 28 and there is a welcome drinks and dinner on Monday evening, hosted by the festival organisation.
The goal is to help you, whatever your level, improvise and take part in a Bluegrass jam with autonomy and confidence: "learn to play without being tied to tablatures!"
Workshop "band labs", formed during the workshop and coached by one of the tutors, kick off the festival on the main stage on Thursday.
The camp takes place at Lycée Sainte Famille, La Roche sur Foron (74800)
Limited to 120 participants with 100 available beds on site
Morning : Instrumental Classes & Vocal Harmonies
Afternoons : Wernick Method coached Jams - Band Labs
The school is open from 3 pm on Monday July 28 and there is a welcome drinks and dinner on Monday evening, hosted by the festival organisation.
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Is this camp for me?
This camp is for you, if ...
What will I learn?
The workshop is organized around 4 themes:
1- Instrumental classes : (3 full mornings) : bluegrass playing techniques on your favorite instrument, rhythmics, phrasing, licks, solos... 2- Workshops : bluegrass vocal harmonies, advanced instrumental techniques, thematic modules (composition, clear cues for improvisation...) 3- Wernick Method jam teaching: in small groups divided by level, each group being marked by one of the teachers. The best way to learn! 4- Band Labs: groups formed during the workshop and coached by a teacher with the aim of playing one or two pieces on the festival's main stage on Thursday night. More than 20 hours of instrumental or vocal lessons with the teachers of your choice, covering all the essential aspects of bluegrass music, not to mention informal meetings and exchanges! Where will I stay?
The workshop is fully residential. All classes and meals take place in Lycée Sainte Famille (High School) of ESCR, the La Roche Catholic School Association. Students sleep in the residential part of the school (2-5 to a room with shared bathrooms) or at the ENILV school next door (the National Agriculutral College for the Milk and Meat Industry). Both schools are partners of the festival. ESCR also runs Sainte Marie Junior High School, which hosts the festival itself. Students may also choose to sleep elsewhere and take only meals in the school dining room. For more information about where the school is or where to stay, see the maps of La Roche and where to stay. wifi is available on the ground floor of the main Sainte Famille building When should I arrive?
The school will be open from 3pm on Monday afternoon to register and move into your rooms. There will be a reception at 6.30 with food and drinks hosted by the festival organising committee and the teaching team. Can I stay for the festival?
Students at the camp may keep their room during the festival if they wish. The price will be the regular rate and you must inform the organisation of your intention to stay when you sign up for the camp. The organization has decided to grant trainees a special rate on the 4-day pass for entry to the festival. |
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The camp opens on Monday evening with a welcome drink and meal hosted by the festival organising committee with introductions by Festival Chair Christopher Howard-Williams and the Camp leader Gilles Rézard.
TIMETABLE
Morning
9:00: today's news
9:15 - 12:15 am: Instrumental classes
11:15 - 12:15 am (thursday only): Band Labs
Afternoon
2:00 - 4:00 pm: Wernick Method jam teaching (all levels jam groups coached by the teachers)
4:15 - 5:30 pm: Optional modules or Band Labs
9:00: today's news
9:15 - 12:15 am: Instrumental classes
11:15 - 12:15 am (thursday only): Band Labs
Afternoon
2:00 - 4:00 pm: Wernick Method jam teaching (all levels jam groups coached by the teachers)
4:15 - 5:30 pm: Optional modules or Band Labs
The Wernick Method
The Wernick Method is part of the camp since 2023.
The students will have access to the bluegrass jam materials carefully prepared by Pete Wernick, to learn in the best conditions.
The students will have access to the bluegrass jam materials carefully prepared by Pete Wernick, to learn in the best conditions.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS
This camp is not a discovery workshop: if you have never played an instrument before, you will need to get some practice beforehand. See the "Need To Know" tab.
It is intended for :
People who have their own instrument and have already started, even recently, in the bluegrass style or with at least some notions such as
- Quick tuning
- Accompanying in rhythm, at slow or medium tempo (60-70)
- Being able to change chords comfortably between G, C, D and A.
For experienced musicians who wish to take advantage of these three days and the festival to make significant progress, to take new references, to learn new notions, new pieces, to find new ways to improvise, arrange, sing...
In case of any doubt, please feel free to contact us.
It is intended for :
People who have their own instrument and have already started, even recently, in the bluegrass style or with at least some notions such as
- Quick tuning
- Accompanying in rhythm, at slow or medium tempo (60-70)
- Being able to change chords comfortably between G, C, D and A.
For experienced musicians who wish to take advantage of these three days and the festival to make significant progress, to take new references, to learn new notions, new pieces, to find new ways to improvise, arrange, sing...
In case of any doubt, please feel free to contact us.
American teachers
From the Rapidgrass Band - Colorado
Mark Morris • Guitar/Vocals
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Intermediate & advanced
Mark Morris began playing guitar when he was 10 years old, and shortly after he began playing the mandolin. His musical tastes eventually gravitated from folk and country to bluegrass and jazz by the time he was a teenager. He graduated from the University of Colorado in the fall of 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in music, and he has been a full-time touring musician/teacher since. His music has taken him all across the US, Europe, and Asia, teaching camps and workshops. Mark is also a big mountain athlete for the Colorado-based ski company Icelantic, and Rab Equipment. |
Alex Johnstone • Mandoline/Vocals
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Intermediate & advanced
Alex Johnstone has spent the last many years touring around bars, bluegrass festivals, and kids music camps all over America and Canada as a member of the Colorado based bluegrass band Spring Creek. He started his musical life as teenager playing electric rock and blues guitar and took up the mandolin and fiddle in his early twenties. Alex started playing out professionally while ski bumming in Crested Butte Colorado and also where he met the other members of Spring Creek. He followed the band out to South Plains Collage in Levelland Texas where he studied music with renown pickers Alan Mundy and Joe Carr. Alex Now makes his home in Lyons Colorado and enjoys making music, skiing, and fly fishing |
Pete Wernick • Banjo/Vocals
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Intermediate & advanced
Pete Wernick has taught more banjo beginners and new bluegrass jammers than anyone! A pioneer in bluegrass music instruction, his banjo camps, jam camps, instruction videos, books, DrBanjo.com website, and worldwide touring with Hot Rize have inspired players for decades, and led to the creation of the Wernick Method in 2010. Pete’s deep understanding of Scruggs style, and his own banjo innovations are part of his teaching expertise. |
Andy Reiner • Fiddle/Vocals
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All levels
Andy Reiner, an award-winning fiddler, singer, actor and composer, began playing at age five with the Reiner Family Band. He has since developed his own style featuring creative, rhythmic melodies and thoughtful fusing of world styles. Earning a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston, launched Andy into a flurry of touring and teaching around the globe. This included Heavy Metal with Devil in the Kitchen, Folk/Hip-Hop with FiddleFoxx, Swedish/Appalachian with Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers, Electronic/Celtic with Firecloud, and Bluegrass with The Earth Stringband, which toured Southeast Asia on the 2011 American Music Abroad tour for the US Department of State. Andy tours both as a solo artist and with groups Half Pelican featured in the soundtrack to the Netflix series Godless and The Queen's Gambit, as well as performing with Darol Anger and the Furies. He is also the producer and host of the "River of Suck" podcast, interviewing musicians, scientists and more. Andy Reiner is an official Yamaha Performing Artist and a Codabow Ambassador. |
Charles Parker Mertens • Bass/Vocals
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All levels
Telluride native, Charles (Charlie) Parker Mertens is a multi-genre bassist, cellist, and producer. He is currently the bass player for the award-winning international touring band Rapidgrass and The Bluegrass Journeymen. Charlie has performed with Thievery Corporation, Les Nubians, and Cyril Neville and can be seen playing with Swing Fiddle Champion Katie Glassman, as well as Tony Furtado, Fox St. Allstars, Analog Son, and many, many more. He loves to try and be authentic and aware of cultural nuance in any style that he is playing |
French teachers
Gilles Rézard • Banjo
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All Levels
Prerequisites: Have your own instrument, three fingerpicks, and some basic knowledge of rolls. We will cover:
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Patrick Peillon • Guitar
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All levels
Prerequisites: Be comfortable with using a flatpick and playing Bluegrass rhythm guitar. This workshop will provide you with all the fundamentals needed to learn how to improvise and build your own solos. We will work on arpeggios, cross-picking, and scales, and explore how to apply them to create Bluegrass improvisations that stay true to the melodies. Expect plenty of practical applications and exercises to understand and improvise on fiddle tunes. |
Dorian Ricaux • Mandoline
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All Levels
Program:
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Raphael Maillet • Fiddle
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All Levels
We’ll shift the mindset from: "I don’t know the melody, I don’t have sheet music, so I can’t play with you" to: "I don’t know the melody, but I understand some key elements, so I can play with you." This fun, adaptable, and highly educational approach will encourage musical exchanges at all levels. |
Thierry Loyer • Dobro
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All Levels
Explore the instrument, Bluegrass techniques, and other styles, both as an accompanist and improviser. If you have a resonator guitar or a similar instrument, whether you’re a beginner or experienced, and want to learn, share, improvise, accompany, or refine your skills, this workshop is for you. |
Marie Clemence • "False" Beginners
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Class for "False" Beginners in Mandolin and Guitar
Discover and practice the various accompaniment styles typical of bluegrass music. Understand the role of each instrument within a group (groups will be formed on-site). Depending on participants' requests, we can cover any questions related to technique in general, how to manage self-learning and practice, an introduction to improvisation, how to pick out a melody by ear… (non-exhaustive list). Optional opportunity to play on stage, with no obligation. Prerequisites: Bring your own instrument, pick, capo (for guitarists), and tuner. Be able to form chords with your left hand and use a pick. |
WHERE THE MUSIC CAME FROM
1925 - 1945 : the slow maturing
Bill Monroe, mandolinist of genius, is inspired by the most popular styles of the time with the idea to invent a new style.
The popular styles from which he was strongly inspired are :
- The gospel (and the religious music): it comes from a family of notables very practising
- The fiddle tunes : instrumentals imported by the Irish fiddlers, direct influence of his uncle : "Uncle Pen
- The blues : his best friend, Arnold Schulz, was an appreciated bluesman with whom he animated many balls,
- Ballads : songs with stories of British tradition, peddled in particular by the Carter Family,
- Western swing: huge commercial success, "American-style" shows, with superstars like Bob Wills. In 1938 was born from these various influences a group named by Bill Monroe: "The Blue Grass Boys".
1945: success at last!
After many evolutions, the success occurs finally thanks to the arrival in the group of a young guitarist with the perfect voice for the style: Lester Flatt, followed by a banjoist still unknown: Earl Scruggs.
This was the missing ingredient and the spark that set the world on fire!
After a historic performance on Nashville's main stage in 1946 at the Grand Ole Opry (now the Ryman), a veritable musical revolution took place.
During a few years, money flows and the bluegrass style starts to influence groups that will become legendary:
Jim & Jesse (1945), Stanley Brothers (1946), Flatt & Scruggs (1948), Jimmy Martin (1949), Reno & Smiley (1950) and Osborne Brothers (1953).
Bill Monroe, mandolinist of genius, is inspired by the most popular styles of the time with the idea to invent a new style.
The popular styles from which he was strongly inspired are :
- The gospel (and the religious music): it comes from a family of notables very practising
- The fiddle tunes : instrumentals imported by the Irish fiddlers, direct influence of his uncle : "Uncle Pen
- The blues : his best friend, Arnold Schulz, was an appreciated bluesman with whom he animated many balls,
- Ballads : songs with stories of British tradition, peddled in particular by the Carter Family,
- Western swing: huge commercial success, "American-style" shows, with superstars like Bob Wills. In 1938 was born from these various influences a group named by Bill Monroe: "The Blue Grass Boys".
1945: success at last!
After many evolutions, the success occurs finally thanks to the arrival in the group of a young guitarist with the perfect voice for the style: Lester Flatt, followed by a banjoist still unknown: Earl Scruggs.
This was the missing ingredient and the spark that set the world on fire!
After a historic performance on Nashville's main stage in 1946 at the Grand Ole Opry (now the Ryman), a veritable musical revolution took place.
During a few years, money flows and the bluegrass style starts to influence groups that will become legendary:
Jim & Jesse (1945), Stanley Brothers (1946), Flatt & Scruggs (1948), Jimmy Martin (1949), Reno & Smiley (1950) and Osborne Brothers (1953).
WHAT TO LISTEN TO
The main bands, in chronological order:
1945 - 1960 (traditional bands) : Bluegrass Boys, Jim & Jesse, Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, Reno & Smiley, Osborne Brothers, Doc Watson, Country Gentlemen, Del Mc Coury, Kentucky Colonels, The Dillards.
1960 - 1980 (the innovatives): Seldom Scene, Bluegrass Cardinals, JD Crowe and new South, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Bluegrass Album Band, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Bluegrass Alliance, Country Cooking, Newgrass Revival, Counry Gazette, Muleskinner, David Grisman Quintet, Hot Rize, Tony Rice Unit, Skyline.
1980 - today (modern bluegrass): Alison Krauss and Union Station, Nickel Creek, Alison Brown Quartet, Crooked Still, Punch Brothers, Billy Strings...
The jam favorites:
The bluegrass repertoire fortunately contains many 3-chord songs, with the same grid and sometimes the same melody between verse and chorus.
This is the place to start, especially if they are jam favorites with nice melodies!
Here is a list of some of the 20 most popular 3-chord songs:
1945 - 1960 (traditional bands) : Bluegrass Boys, Jim & Jesse, Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, Reno & Smiley, Osborne Brothers, Doc Watson, Country Gentlemen, Del Mc Coury, Kentucky Colonels, The Dillards.
1960 - 1980 (the innovatives): Seldom Scene, Bluegrass Cardinals, JD Crowe and new South, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Bluegrass Album Band, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Bluegrass Alliance, Country Cooking, Newgrass Revival, Counry Gazette, Muleskinner, David Grisman Quintet, Hot Rize, Tony Rice Unit, Skyline.
1980 - today (modern bluegrass): Alison Krauss and Union Station, Nickel Creek, Alison Brown Quartet, Crooked Still, Punch Brothers, Billy Strings...
The jam favorites:
The bluegrass repertoire fortunately contains many 3-chord songs, with the same grid and sometimes the same melody between verse and chorus.
This is the place to start, especially if they are jam favorites with nice melodies!
Here is a list of some of the 20 most popular 3-chord songs:
- Banks of the Ohio
- Blue Ridge Cabin Home
- Bury Me Beneath The Willow
- Handsome Molly (2 accords)
- I am a Pilgrim
- I'll Fly Away
- I'm Coming Back But I Don't Know When
- Little Darling Pal of Mine
- Long Gone
- Long Journey Home
- Man of Constant Sorrow
- My Home Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (2 accords)
- New River Train
- Nine Pound hammer
- On and On
- Roll in my Sweet Baby's Arms
- Take This Hammer
- Will The Circle Be Unbroken
- You Are My Sunshine
- Your Love is Like a Flower
WHAT TO LEARN TO PLAY
Bluegrass music is essentially learned by ear from our favorite bands and musicians, and then with the pleasure of playing with friends.
For that, this music has the particularity to be accessible instrumentally or vocally without any previous musical notion, even if at the same time and on the same pieces our favorite musicians reach summits of virtuosity!
No need for theory, just listen, memorize a melody, and jump in, trying to follow the chords.
Three chords will be enought to start: G, C and D.
So start by practicing changing chords comfortably, at a slow tempo (or even very slow...), and just in rhythm: poum-tchac or with long notes on the fiddle.
You still feel a little bit lost and want to know where to start?
There are some possibilities to start:
For that, this music has the particularity to be accessible instrumentally or vocally without any previous musical notion, even if at the same time and on the same pieces our favorite musicians reach summits of virtuosity!
No need for theory, just listen, memorize a melody, and jump in, trying to follow the chords.
Three chords will be enought to start: G, C and D.
So start by practicing changing chords comfortably, at a slow tempo (or even very slow...), and just in rhythm: poum-tchac or with long notes on the fiddle.
You still feel a little bit lost and want to know where to start?
There are some possibilities to start:
- Either you prefer to start on your own like on YouTube: La Chaine Bluegrass
- You want to learn faster, please feel free to visit the Ecole Bluegrass website.
- You want to know about bluegrass in France: see the FBMA website
The 2025 camp fee is 200 euros.
Registrations for 2025
You can also register on the permanent waiting list
You will be contacted for further information.
Registrations for 2025
You can also register on the permanent waiting list
You will be contacted for further information.