Barnfest 2022 Mini Workshops

Description

Dumbek

Learn to play basic Middle Eastern and Balkan rhythms on the dumbek drum

Instructor: Joe Blumenthal

Time: 1 PM

Location: Far Cabin

Experience Level: Beginner

Max Attendees: 6

Instructor Bio

Joe is a member of “Orkestar Banitsa”, a Balkan music folk dance band, and has been playing Balkan rhythms of bass and dumbek for many years.  He has given beginner’s dumbek  workshops at the Senior Center and Downtown Sounds in Northampton, plus Mainewoods dance camp in addition to Barnfest

Workshop Description

Playing drums is a lot of fun, and along with the human voice is the oldest and most basic form of making music.  Even if you’ve never touched a drum before, you’ll be creating fun and interesting rhythms after just 45 minutes.  Drums will be provided.  The dumbek is an hourglass shaped hand drum which is played by every culture that surrounds the Mediterranean Sea. You’ll learn how to make the basic sounds of the drum–the Dum, the Tek, and the Ka–and to use them to create basic Middle-Eastern rhythms such as the Maksum and Malfuf.

Ukulele

Learn to play the ukulele in one session

Instructor: Joe Blumenthal

Time: 2 PM

Location: Far Cabin

Experience Level: All levels of experience welcome

Max Attendees: 8

Instructor Bio

Joe is the founder of Northampton’s AEIOUkes ukulele club, and has led the group in many performances in the Valley, including a spot in Northampton’s annual First Night celebration.  He has given workshops on playing ukulele at Northampton’s Senior Center and at Greenfield Community College in addition to Barnfest

Workshop Description

Have you always wished you could play a musical instrument?  Here’s your chance to learn to play the ukulele in one session.  The uke is small, only has four easy-to-press-down nylon strings, and is very accessible to beginning musicians.  Joe will get you singing and strumming songs in just 45 minutes! Ukuleles will be provided.

Beginner Fiddle

Fiddle Basics for beginners who want to learn to play

Instructor: Van Kaynor

Time: 1 PM

Location: Bear Den Cabin

Experience Level: All levels of experience welcome

Max Attendees: 6

Instructor Bio

Van’s fluid and lyrical fiddle playing has taken him many places, appearing on A Prairie Home Companion, playing for dance camps and festivals from Alaska to Texas to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Van plays currently with The Moving Violations, and has played with many other bands, including Big Bandemonium, and the Fourgone Conclusions. Several of his compositions can be heard on The Moving Violations’ recordings. Van has a studio in Amherst, Mass., where he teaches Suzuki violin and fiddle. His eclectic taste includes Swedish, English, Eastern European and classical music. If you can’t find him on stage, you may soon find Van kicking up his heels again on the dance floor as we come out of the Pandemic.

Workshop Description

This is an introduction to left and right hand technique to get you started playing. If it’s your very first time, I’ll encourage just plucking to start, or bowing only open strings that will sound great backing up a tune I play.  Violins will be provided if you don’t have one

Fiddle Tricks

Fiddle tricks for the violin: have fun developing your technique

Instructor: Van Kaynor

Time: 3 PM

Location: Bear Den Cabin

Experience Level: All levels of experience welcome

Max Attendees: 10

Instructor Bio

Van’s fluid and lyrical fiddle playing has taken him many places, appearing on A Prairie Home Companion, playing for dance camps and festivals from Alaska to Texas to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Van plays currently with The Moving Violations, and has played with many other bands, including Big Bandemonium, and the Fourgone Conclusions. Several of his compositions can be heard on The Moving Violations’ recordings. Van has a studio in Amherst, Mass., where he teaches Suzuki violin and fiddle. His eclectic taste includes Swedish, English, Eastern European and classical music. If you can’t find him on stage, you may soon find Van kicking up his heels again on the dance floor as we come out of the Pandemic.

Workshop Description

This workshop will run through a dozen or more brief tricks to help develop technique with some silliness just for fun. You will learn, for example, how to watch your strings “wake up” when a note is played exactly in tune, how to imitate a mosquito and a siren, and how to play a “vibrato trill” which Becky Ashenden taught me for Eastern European ornamentation. All levels are welcome, and if a trick seems too difficult, you may at least observe how to do it.

Singing is for Everybody

Everyone can sing–even you!  Get started at this fun workshop with two great folksingers.

Instructor: Michael & Carrie Kline

Time: 1 PM

Location: Barn

Experience Level: All levels of experience welcome

Max Attendees: 10

Instructor Bio

Michael and Carrie Kline are professional folklorists and folk singers who have been performing the music of West Virginia and its coal mines for many years.

Workshop Description

Join song leaders Michael and Carrie Kline in a pressure-free session of group songs and easy refrains. No solos, just encouragement to open your mouth and your heart to the joy of singing. Here’s the time and place to override the comments of your first grade teacher, older brother or housemate and give it a go in a light-hearted fashion. The enjoyment of the songs themselves and the chance to be together in a beautiful setting will invite us all to follow the Klines’ example and make a joyful noise.

Linocut Print Making

Learn about the linocut print making process and make your own print to take home.

Instructor: Andrea Caluori

Time: 2 PM

Location: Vender space

Experience Level: All levels of experience welcome

Max Attendees: 10

Instructor Bio

Andrea Caluori is an artist based in western Massachusetts where she raises dairy goats and grows flowers with the help of a miniature horse. Her academic training includes a BA in Art History from Mt. Holyoke College with two years of study in the studio art department at Long Island University (Brooklyn). She received an MA from UConn Storrs in Italian Literary & Cultural Studies. Andrea’s most recent work draws inspiration from rural life and the connections between cultivating soil, working with animals and artistic inquiry. Her art seeks to capture the almost photographic and quiet moments that define her relationship with animals, land and identity. Her solo show, Mapping Terroir: Memory & Myth is currently on display at the Arthur F. Kinney Center for Renaissance Studies in Amherst, MA.

Workshop Description

Andrea will demonstrate her relief carving work with different examples of her linocut blocks and prints. Watch her carve a new design on-site during this 45 minute demo workshop and learn about this versatile and accessible art form. Andrea will talk about the tools she uses, her artistic process from drawing to carving, the materials she prefers to use when hand-printing, and have on display some of her work.

Dorset Button

Make your own decorative Dorset button

Instructor: Carolyn Wetzel

Time: 1 PM

Location: Vender space

Experience Level: All levels of experience welcome

Max Attendees: 10

Instructor Bio

Carolyn Wetzel is a fiber arts enthusiast and biology professor who lives in Western MA. She is the President of the New England Lace Group (nelg.us) and recently finished the Master Weaver program at the Hill Institute (Florence, MA).

Workshop Description

In the 18th-19th centuries, thousands of people in Dorset, England, were employed hand-making buttons from thread and simple rings of metal or bone. Today, many artisans are rediscovering the Dorset Button technique for embellishments and jewelry. In this workshop you will learn to make a traditional Dorset Cartwheel button. You will use a plastic ring, color perle cotton thread, and a tapestry needle (all supplied by the instructor). For ages 8-adult.