I *love* attending these special gatherings, teaching workshops and performing for and with musicians from all over the world. It’s such a unique opportunity to come together for a few days, take time for ourselves and for each other, to grow as musicians, deepening our skills and our connections to the wider musical community.
Featured Instructor / Performer Resumé
- Menucha ‘Ukulele Band Camp – 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026
- Songwriter Soireé Retreat – 2023
- Cazadero Family Performing Arts Camp – 2023 – 2026
- Reno ‘Ukulele Festival – 2024
- Port Townsend Ukulele Festival – 2025
- Ashokan Ukulele Weekend – 2025
- Kamloops Ukulele Festival – 2025, 2026
Workshop Topics & Descriptions
I specialize in teaching beginners, learning and playing music by ear / without music, genres of music history and culture, songwriting, and the creative process. Below are descriptions of workshops I have previously taught:
For Beginners
- ‘Ukulele 101 – For the Absolute Beginner. Let’s orient you to your ‘ukulele and establish some best practices from the start! This workshop is a great back-to-basics overview or review with easy songs and foundational concepts in making music.
- Deer in the Headlights. Feeling overwhelmed? This workshop will help ground you with tips for a successful festival experience, including some basic instrumental skills, as well as some guidance for your festival mindset.
Playing By Ear / Musicianship Workshops
I lead these workshops playing ‘ukulele, but all instruments are welcome.
- Paperless Jams. [Can focus on a specific genre, e.g. Campfire, Blues, Spirituals, etc.] This mixed-level jam will feature familiar and/or easily learned songs to sing around the campfire, on the front porch, or anywhere else you gather together. Songs will be on the easy side technically speaking, but there will be no music, so those new to learning by ear will also get a lot out of it.
- Musician’s Toolbox: Ear Training. Learn to recognize melodic movement and chord progressions by ear, follow an unfamiliar song more confidently, and connect what you hear to what you play or sing.
- Musician’s Toolbox: Rhythm. Explore rhythm through your first instrument, your body! Deepen your sense of rhythm to help you feel better grounded in strumming patterns, time signatures, and the overall groove of a song.
- Musician’s Toolbox Series (3 workshops). Explore the building blocks of musicianship: ear training, rhythm, and music theory. Each session will focus on a different “tool”—a skill that strengthens your overall musicianship and makes playing more intuitive, expressive, and fun
Leading and Performing Music In Your Community
- How To Sing And Play At the Same Time. How many times have you mastered a strum pattern, lined it up with your chord progression, only for it to all fall apart when you start to sing?! This workshop will break down the layers of both playing and singing, and guide you through exercises for building them back up to successful singing and playing simultaneously.
- Memorizing Lyrics. Everyone has had that moment, in the jam circle or up on stage, of completely forgetting the lyrics to a song you have rehearsed numerous times. This workshop will introduce you two techniques to help you internalize lyrics in a meaningful way.
- Song Leading and Performing. We all love sharing music together, but for some folks, the pressure of playing music in public can be daunting. Learn and practice the basics of how to best prepare for leading a song at a jam and performing at an open mic. Participants are encouraged to bring a song to practice leading or performing for the group!
Theme / Genre Study
I tend to make my materials for these workshops for ‘ukuleles, but they are often adaptable to guitar and possibly other instruments, as well.
- Theme Jams. Learn to play popular and exemplary songs from a particular genre or theme, including background history on the songs and artists features. Topics have included: Motown, The Music and Activism of Harry Belafonte, the Spirituals of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Blueswomen, Women of Folk and/or Country, and Rumble: The Native Americans That Rocked the World (based on this documentary).
- Useful Music Theory – An Introduction. Why understand the theory if you don’t know how to use it? In this workshop, let’s look at the basics of the Nashville Number System and try using it in a real-life practice or jam situation. No previous knowledge of music theory necessary!
- Useful Music Theory – Beyond the I-IV-V. For those who know the basics of the Nashville Number System, let’s dive a little deeper and cast our nets wider. In this workshop, we’ll look at all the chords we can play in a given key, how they work together in different genres, and how you can apply this knowledge as you listen to and play music more intentionally.
- Blues Forms. Who doesn’t love the Blues?! This workshop provides an introduction to its origins in the Delta along with songs representative of the different styles that emerged: 12-Bar, Delta-style, Chicago-style, Tin Pan Alley Blues, and more.
- Back Cycling: What It Is & How To Use It. Whether you listen to blues, jazz, folk, or pop music, you’ve likely heard a back cycling chord progression. It’s been used as a turnaround between verses, a one-time bridge pattern, or as a full-fledged verse pattern. This workshop will teach you the basics of what it is, what it sounds like, and how to apply it to your own song arranging and/or songwriting for a little extra pizzazz!
Songwriting
Open to all instruments, including solo voice.
- [Multi-Day] Songwriting: Basics & Beyond. A 3-day mixed-level workshop for everyone from the songwriting-curious to the long-practiced songwriter. We’ll use the songs of other writers to learn different ways of writing lyrics and music, and arranging a song. Together, we’ll practice some of these approaches as a group, and you’ll also have a bit of workshop time for you to work on writing a song of your own, if you choose.
- [Multi-Day] Let’s Write a Song! A 3-day mixed-level workshop for everyone from the songwriting-curious to the long-practiced songwriter. We’ll work as a class – individually, in small groups, and as a whole – to learn about the basics of songwriting and apply it right away as we write a song together! Let’s get into that creative sandbox together and have some fun learning by doing, with lots of resources and ideas to take home for your own individual songwriting practice.
- Songwriting: Writing Lyrics. For the songwriting-curious, the long-practicing songwriter, and everyone in between! This workshop explores different approaches to generating potential lyrics, 1-2 song studies to learn from the lyrics of others, and workshop time for generating and working with your own lyrics.
- Songwriting: Writing Music. For the songwriting-curious, the long-practicing songwriter, and everyone in between! This workshop explores different approaches to generating potential melodies and chord progressions, some examples to learn from and/or mimic in your own composition, and workshop time for generating and working with chord progressions and melodies on your own.
- Songwriting: Arranging Your Song. For the songwriting-curious, the long-practicing songwriter, and everyone in between! This workshop explores different approaches to organizing your song into verses, a chorus, maybe a bridge, etc. We’ll go over the purpose of each kind of song section, look at some existing songs as examples and, as time allows, workshop time for you to work on your own song.
Questions?
I’d love to speak with you about teaching at your event. Please reach out to me here for more discussion!