Beth is a Banjo player and teacher currently based in the Philadelphia Area. She studied and taught Banjo and Bluegrass Music at South Plains College, and continues to host jams and teach private lessons on banjo, guitar and ukulele. She is also Kitty Starr, Kitty Starr and the Whereabouts, a band born at Camp Bluegrass! She performs throughout the US and has recorded with Alan Munde, Anne Luna, Chris Sanders, Dede Wyland and her east coast band, Tookany Creek featuring Ray Duffy, John Catterall and Larry Cohen. As a writer and vocalist, she has just finished a collaboration with Alan Munde on a volume of American Popular Songs arranged for the 5 string banjo.
Beth’s skills and topics covered in her banjo and jammingclass.
1. Hits from the American Popular songbook: learn Blue Skies and Bye Bye Blue
2. The big 3 movable chord shapes and how to use them
3. Magic D tricks to use in backup and soloing without retuning
4. Two Chord Songs: Waltz Across Texas and Take me back to Tulsa
5. Learn to accompany, sing and play a break for the 3 most popular sing
along songs: Country Roads, You are my Sunshine and Hey Good Lookin’.
6. Learn a melody break for Country Roads, You Are My Sunshine, Hey Good Looking
7. Banjo accompaniment for folk singing: Last Thing on my Mind, This Land is Your Land
8. Learn to play in open C The old spinning wheel
9. Warm up and scale exercises for everyone.
10 . Learn the alternating thumb roll and how to use it for accompaniment
Bill Evans is an internationally recognized five-string banjo life force. As a performer, teacher, writer and composer, he brings a deep knowledge, intense virtuosity and contagious passion to all things banjo, with thousands of music fans and banjo students from all over the world in a music career that now spans over thirty-five years. Bill’s banjo artistry is best experienced in live performance and on his recordings Fine Times at Fletcher’s House with Fletcher Bright (2013), In Good Company (2012), let’s do something with Megan Lynch (2009), Bill Evans Plays Banjo (2001), and Native and Fine (1995). Bill successfully bridges traditional and contemporary sounds and playing techniques, creating a new music that is firmly within the bluegrass tradition but draws upon a broad knowledge of classical, jazz and world music, drawing upon his experiences as a graduate student in Music at the University of California, Berkeley and as the associate director of the International Bluegrass Music Museum. In the last two years, Bill has toured throughout the Untied States, Canada, England, and Germany and toured Russia for the U.S. State Department. Recent appearances include A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor and performances with the San Francisco Symphony. From festival to folk society stages, to universities and performing arts centers, The Banjo in America has earned standing with a dazzling display of banjo artistry of unparalleled historical depth geared towards entertaining general audiences. At any one time in his home near Richmond, California, Bill teaches between forty and sixty students, in addition to maintaining a steady international touring schedule. In addition, Bill teaches the most popular bluegrass ensemble classes in the San Francisco Bay Area at the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse and he is on the faculty of the California Jazz Conservatory.
Alan Munde – World class banjo stylist featured in the banjo bible, SPC instructor and excellent teacher. Many years teaching experience give Alan special insight into the problems faced by players of all levels. His time tested techniques really work! www.AlanMundeGazette.com
Gerald Jones, a native Texan, has been involved with the performance, production, and teaching of music for more years than he will admit . He’s played live or recorded with Jerry Douglas, Mark O’Connor, Vince Gill, Sam Bush, Tanya Tucker, Grand Master Fiddle Champion Jim “Texas Shorty” Chancellor, Hank Thompson, Red Steagall, and many others of many genres. Gerald edited Mel Bay’s web magazine Banjo Sessions and frequently contributed to Joe Carr’s web magazine Mandolin Sessions. Gerald is on the board of the Allegro Guitar Society, which presents classical guitar performances in Dallas, Fort Worth and Las Vegas. He also writes and performs many Allegro Guitar Society outreach programs each year. He invented the Acoustic Plus electronic banjo pickup used by Earl Scruggs, Bela Fleck, Alan Munde, Bill Keith, and others. A multi-instrumentalist on banjo, mandolin, guitar, violin and dobro, Gerald has won banjos at the Winfield Banjo Championship. Gerald co-founded the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation and founded Acoustic Music Camp, an instructional institute for acoustic musicians. Plus he teaches at many other camps across the country each year. For more about Gerald, see TheGeraldJones.com.
Steve Martin describes Ned luberecki’s playing as “an absolutely joyous, riveting, beautifully syncopated example of the beauty of the banjo. “Ned is one of today’s leading players and teachers: a master of the five-string banjo who is adept in both modern and traditional styles. In 2018 he was voted Banjo Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). He has taught hundreds of players at most every major banjo and bluegrass music camp in the world and his Complete Banjo Method, in three volumes from Alfred Music, and video banjo courses from TrueFire.com are garnering rave reviews. Ned tours internationally witht he award-winning Becky Buller Band and in Nedski & Mojo, his duo with Sam Bush band guitarist Stephen Mougin. Ned counts as his influences not only the usual banjo heroes with names like Earl, J.D. and Tony, but also Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Oscar Peterson and Dave Brubeck. These diverse influences emerge in his unique, sometimes whimsical approach that draws from rock, jazz and television themes(!) as well as bluegrass. Ned’s latest release is the critically acclaimed CD Take Five. Learn more about Ned at http://nedski.com.