Friday, June 13, 2025

California Bluegrass Association Summer Camp in Grass Valley

 


Courtney, Nabby and I went to the California Bluegrass Association Summer Camp 
this past week. It started on a Sunday and went through Wednesday. 


It was held on the fairgrounds in Grass Valley, CA





Nabby took a Bluegrass Band class and Courtney took a mandolin class.


I took a beginner bluegrass fiddle class - we met every morning and afternoon
for an hour and a half under the trees. The instructor was Brandon Godman, he plays fiddle 
professionally and is part of a bluegrass band. He also owns a couple of fiddle shops. 


He was a super chill teacher and he would choose fiddle solos and break them down
into small parts for us to learn and practice. 


We didn't have any sheet music - this is a fellow student's notes. Brandon would play about 2-3 measures of a solo and repeat them for us and we would play them by ear. We recorded
him playing the parts on our phones so we could listen to them for practicing later. 


This was the concert on the last night we were there - the instructors are all
super talented musicians and they put on a great show. 


We all met a lot of nice people and had fun learning a lot of new 
things about our instruments, about playing them and about performing onstage. 
It was a vey well-organized camp and the staff were super nice. 
It was a great experience!