Once you have about a dozen tunes under your fingers, and a fairly comfortable right hand bum-ditty, the next step is to build repertoire in different keys. This class embraces a range of experience, while covering drills and a new tune each class. Emphasis is on developing your ear and playing in rhythm.

Evie Ladin

Banjo player, singer, songwriter, percussive-dancer, choreographer and square-dance caller, Evie grew up steeped in traditional folk music/dance, and brings a contemporary vision to her compositions and choreography. Evie’s performances, recordings and teaching reconnect Appalachian music/dance with other African-Diaspora traditions, and have been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Lincoln Center, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to Celtic Connections. She has taken home ribbons in folk song from Mt Airy, NC Fiddler’s Convention, and Neo-Trad Band from the Appalachian Stringband Festival, Clifftop, WV. Based in Oakland, CA, Evie tours with Keith Terry and the Evie Ladin Band, and has produced 6 CDs and two instructional DVDs. In the percussive dance world, she is Executive Director of the International Body Music Festival, directs the moving choir MoToR/dance and is an ace freestyle flatfooter. In the trad world, Evie teaches banjo and harmony singing at the Freight & Salvage, online at Peghead Nation and numerous camps. In the songwriter world, she just writes great songs. A highly entertaining performer, Evie enjoys facilitating arts learning in diverse communities.

Photo by Snap Jackson.