A 3-day teaching camp from Tuesday 1 to Thursday 3 August, 2023 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)
Morning : Instrumental Classes
Afternoons : Vocal Harmonies/Workshops - Coached Jams - Band Labs
The school is open from 3 pm on Monday July 31 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)
Morning : Instrumental Classes
Afternoons : Vocal Harmonies/Workshops - Coached Jams - Band Labs
The school is open from 3 pm on Monday July 31 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. Vertical Divider
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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 am - 12:30
Afternoon - 2:30 pm - 6:00 pm
- The instrumental classes will be of the student's choice and may change during the workshop.
- All the essentials of bluegrass music will be taught: rhythmic bases, memorization, automation, backup licks, grids and degrees, solos and improvisation, vocal harmonies, jamming, etc.
Afternoon - 2:30 pm - 6:00 pm
- 2:30 - 3:30 pm : workshops (vocal harmonies, improvisation, arrangement, etc.)
- 3:45 - 4:45 pm : Wernick Method jam teaching (jam groups of all levels led by the teachers.)
- 5:00 - 6:00 pm : band labs (rehearsals supervised by the teachers for the students who wish to perform on the main stage on thursday, to open the festival).
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 Tutors
From the band The Henhouse Prowlers
Chris Dollar • Guitar
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Chris Dollar comes out of the heart of Bill Monroe country (Central Indiana) and it shows immediately on stage through his fierce guitar picking and ridiculous vocal chops.
He cut his teeth with the excellent New Old Cavalry and Flatland Harmony Experiment and has turned immediately into an asset for the Prowlers. In his spare time, Chris works on both cars and guitars alike. Advanced guitar: the advanced guitar class would focus on left and right hand techniques in rhythm and picking, preventing tensing up in your playing, and exercises to broaden your playing vocabulary. |
Jake Howard • Mandoline
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Originally from the Akron, Ohio region, Jake picked up the mandolin at 15 and never put it down.
His early years consisted of performing with friends and family and the Prowlers actually had a brief discussion with him early on about trying out for the band. Serendipity intervened and Jake was accepted into the world famous Berklee College of Music where he honed his skills, landing on stage with the Prowlers in 2020 with an undeniable presence and unmatched musicality. Jake’s propensity for teaching and video editing skills have already helped the band level-up considerably. Advanced Mandolin: for the advanced mandolin classes, students will learn ways to approach the right and left hand, improvise over bluegrass changes (using melody, double stops and arpeggios), and listen to source recordings for inspiration. |
Ben Wright • Banjo
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Ben is a founding member of the Prowlers, having started his bluegrass journey in Chicago after seeing a banjo in the window of the Old Town School of Folk Music in mid-October of 1999.
That $200 impulse buy turned itself slowly into a career spanning thousands of notes, friends and miles. When not playing the banjo, Ben not-so-quietly obsesses over shipwrecks and Nintendo. Advanced Banjo: this class will go beyond rolls and chords, touching on finding the melody and incorporating both Scruggs and melodic licks tastefully into a break. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of the neck and be inspired to work on their instrument without tablature. |
Jon Golfine • Contrebasse
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Jon's drive and love shows through his commitment to the business at the bands' inception and his powerful voice and songwriting.
Before the Prowlers, Jon's bass playing was all over the spectrum of rock and world music. He's kind, measured and loves dogs more than pretty much anyone you've ever met. All levels double bass: A bass workshop for a wide range of skill levels, with the primary focus of “being the bass" - holding down the bottom & providing the groove for your band". We will cover basics such as right and left hand technique, as well as explore walking bass lines (and how to tastefully add them into your repertoire), and take a dive into mental approaches and physical exercises to enhance your playing and fill your role as the bass player. |
French Tutors
Jimmy Josse • Rhythm Guitar
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Jimmy has a diploma in Modern Electric Music. But he developed a passion Bluegrass some 10 years ago for its high energy that releases all the power and potential of acoustic guitar playing
Programme : This course is devoted to playing Bluegrass rhythm guitar in respect of its own etiquette and codes. We will work on different playing techniques and fundamentals with exercises that will enable you to accompany all the songs and fiddle tunes we love. We will then put these notions into practice through a carefully selected repertoire! |
Thierry Loyer • Dobro
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Thierry discovered the dobro in the 1970s with Gilbert Caranhac before meeting Mike Aldridge (Seldom Scene) in a life changing moment.
He started to make and work on a number of albums and artistic performances and gradually his own style with a mix of Bluegrass, Swing, Jass, Hawaiian music and Western Swing. His knowledge of all these styles meant he was much in demand to play at and give workshops at festivals, meets and at "Steel Day". If you have a resonator guitar or similar, are a beginner or a regular player, and want to learn, exchange, improvise, accompany or improve, this workshop is for you. Programme : Discover more about the instrument, Bluegrass technique and other styles as an accompanist or improvising. |
Thierry Lecocq • Fiddle
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Thierry Lecocq has been a regular of the circuits of Europe, USA and Asia since the 1970s and has had the fortune to play and learn from some of the greatest musicians.
He has taught at all of Frances major Bluegrass events: Ris Orangis, Angers, Sawmill workshop, AEGC, Craponn and at the University of Milwaukee, WI in the USA. Programme : Fiddle tunes, rythme, back up sur les chansons, improvisation sur un thème… |
Raphaël Maillet • Fiddle
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Born in the South of France in June 1982, Raphaël started to play fiddle while still in his mother's womb using a semi diminished scale.
There is so much to play outside the notes! Bluegrass fiddle is very instructive in this sense. Soloist, but also accompanist, the fiddle is no longer reduced to pure technique. Bluegrass music is different in that it enables people of different levels to play together on the same song at the same time, from basic to virtuso level, and this is in fact how you learn. The fiddle is not set apart, on the contrary. Programme : We will break from the standard rule that "I don't know the melody, I don't have the score, so I cannot play with you" and move to "I don't know the melody but I do understand some things and so I can play with you!" This playful idea that accepts every level becomes a teaching method and enables powerful musical interaction. |
Patrick Peillon • Guitare
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Patrick has over 30 years playing experience with a personal style that mixes Bluegrass with Jazz/Swing, Blues, Brazilian muic, etc.
He plays guitar in the band Roots & Drive and regularly teaches Bluegrass or Jazz guitar. As a great pedagog and strong on harmony playing, he can help students of any level get to the next level at playing and improvising on their instrument. Programme :
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Dorian Ricaux • Mandoline
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Dorian grew up in a family of musicians to the sound of Bluegrass. He taught himself to play at 15 and developed a love for the mandolin.
Open to acoustic music of all styles, he has played in different projects of Bluegrass, Jazz, French Chanson and Celtic music. His main influences are Tony Rice, Grant Gordy, David Grier, Chris Thile, Mike Marshall and Sam Bush. He started teaching guitar and mandolin at 17 and has been a regular instructor at the La Roche Camp and at Sore Fingers in the UK). Programme :
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Gilles Rézard • Banjo
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Gilles has over 40 years of passion and experience with Bluegrass on stage and as a teacher.
He founded the Bluegrass Nature camps and the Ecole Bluegrass (year round online teaching) the YouTube Chaîne Bluegrass. Since 2015, he has been regularly invited by Pete Wernick to teach with him in the USA. Programme : Prerequisite: play with the 2 or 3 fingers and thumb pick and know how to play basic scrolls We will explore the following subjects:
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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 short list of 20 of the 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 short list of 20 of the 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
- or you prefer to go faster, and in this case some courses could be very useful. See the FBMA website or the Ecole Bluegrass website.
The fee remains unchanged from 2022: 190 €.
The workshop is fully booked.
We look forward to seeing you next year!
The Wernick Method will be part of the camp modules: students will have access to the bluegrass jam materials carefully prepared by Pete Wernick, to learn in the best conditions.
The workshop is fully booked.
We look forward to seeing you next year!
The Wernick Method will be part of the camp modules: students will have access to the bluegrass jam materials carefully prepared by Pete Wernick, to learn in the best conditions.
Please feel free to contact us.
Please don't use the old camp website for your information requests anymore.
Everything is now here in the Festival website.
Thank you!
Everything is now here in the Festival website.
Thank you!