Well, their application has been approved, and they will soon be accepting students who will receive a Bluegrass degree upon graduation. Students in the existing  BCOTM program should be able to transfer onto the degree track as well.

This will not be a music degree, but students will take many of the same courses that are required in a music program, all with a focus on bluegrass and traditional music.

McLain told us on Friday that he was very excited about this news, and he promised to get back to us soon with more information.

Congratulations to ETSU for this milestone – and to McLain, Jack Tottle and Richard Blaustein, who have worked tirelessly for years to achieve this status.

Entitled The freshman, the general tenor of the piece by Joan Anderman is the contrast between Sarah’s path and that of the average 18 year old artist with a recording contract.

Now, just when most rising stars would be leaping headlong into the beckoning arms of agents and promoters, Jarosz is putting her career on the back burner to study at the New England Conservatory. She admits that enrolling in the school of life was a tempting choice; plenty of musicians do it, and many believe that hitting the road is the only legitimate path for a player.

“I talked to a lot of musicians that I respect and got a lot of different opinions,’’ Jarosz says over coffee at a cafe near campus. “And I definitely did ponder the idea of just going straight into the music career. But there’s always more to learn, and I also didn’t want to miss out on the college experience. My roommate is a classical vocal performance major; she does a lot of opera singing, which is something I’ve never really been around before. I’ve been listening to a ton of Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. I’m in a world music and a Jewish music ensemble. I’m getting out of my comfort zone.’’

You can read the whole article online.

We heard last week from Robert Trapp, a student in the Recording Industry program at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. He has a project coming up that requires him to track, edit and mix a band for his Recording Techniques class, and he is offering to record an old time, country, traditional, or contemporary bluegrass bands that is available October 20, 23, 24 and 25.

“The sessions will take place on the MTSU campus in studios D and E. Each day will be broken up into 4 hour blocks, so for instance the first day will be a run through (get good mic placement and getting scratch tracks recorded) while the second day will be fine tuning the performances. Day 3 and 4 would most likely be for lead and harmony vocal tracks. This is a great way for me (the student/ aspiring engineer) to gain experience in a professional setting and also a way for a band to record for free and have something to market and promote.”

Sounds like a win-win to me. Contact Robert by email for more details.

Craig captures a good many scenes of the students in their classes and music labs, plus comments from program director Raymond McLain, adjunct faculty members Barry Bales and Adam Steffey, and country music star Kenny Chesney, who was a student in the program before he ever made a stab at Nashville.

He also speaks with Rhonda Vincent, whose two daughters attend ETSU, and whose fiddler, Hunter Berry, also went to the school. We also hear from current students who have traveled from all over the world to study traditional American music in East Tennessee.

You can find out more about this valuable resource for young bluegrass musicians online.

There are still a few more steps in the accreditation process before the Bachelors Degree can begin, but a Spring 2010 announcement is their current goal. The school has offered a minor in Bluegrass, Old Time & Country Music since 2006, with a total of 72 students declared since that time.

I spoke earlier today with Raymond McLain, Director of the BOTCM at ETSU, and he was understandably excited about this possibility.

“Last week we presented our proposal to the ETSU Academic Council – which includes the Deans of the various schools, the Provost, Vice Presidents, and members of the curriculum committee – and received their unanimous approval. We feel tremendous support for our program here at the University, from the President down to the students themselves.”

McLain tells us that the proposal for a 4 year bluegrass program must pass muster with the Tennessee Board of Regents at their next meeting, and then be presented to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission for their approval before the Bachelors degree can be offered.

If approved, it will be offered within the ETSU Center For Appalachian Studies & Services, and will be known as a Bachelor Of Arts in Bluegrass, Old Time & Country Music.

The course requirements would jump from the current 21 hours to 45 for the four year degree, which will include the core didactic, skills and ensemble music credits plus general education courses in the sciences, humanities and language. Students take 4 semesters of music theory as they might in a conservatory setting, but McLain says that the lessons are geared towards the musical styles the program covers.

“Traditional music schools study European music – and maybe some jazz and band music – and you study theory and harmony in a particular way that relates to that type of music. Our students learn theory and technique as it applies to bluegrass, old time and country music. We study some standard notation, but also the Nashville number system. They study songwriting, harmony singing and instrumental technique as they apply to these musical styles.

I believe it is an effective program. When I first got here there were about 100 students enrolled – now we have between 400-500. For the past 3 years now, one of Ed Snodderly’s students has won the Merlefest songwriting competition.”

Looking towards the possibility of the expansion next year, ETSU has set up a Bluegrass Advisory Group to help raise funds for the needs of a four year degree program. McLain says that they hope to raise $1,000,000 to endow for a Guest Faculty Chair.

“This would be a rotating chair, to allow us to bring in established bluegrass artists to offer special courses and mentor our students – either for a semester or a full year.

They are also raising funds for Graduate Assistant positions, for a facility to repair and maintain instruments, and for sound reinforcement gear. Gifts at any level are most gratefully accepted.

“The ETSU Bluegrass Band was playing a VA nursing home not far from the school recently, and after the program a man approached me in his wheelchair. He asked his buddy to grab his wallet and see how much money he had in there. He said, ‘Give that man $80 to help these children who came out here to sing for us. What he’s doing with these children is fantastic.’

I told him that he didn’t need to do that, but he said that he really wanted to. It was one of the first gifts we received.”

ETSU is currently searching for several lecturers for the Bluegrass, Old Time & Country Music program, on both tenure and non-tenure tracks. They have three full-time tenure track positions in the program now along with 12 adjunct faculty members.

Some of the adjunct instructors may be familiar names to our readers. Tim Stafford, Barry Bales, Adam Steffey, Hunter Berry and Richard Blaustein are among the teachers on hand to work with the students enrolled at ETSU.

Things look good for this Bachelors degree to become a reality next year, but McLain cautioned that nothing is certain until final approval is obtained.

McLain especially wanted to remember Jack Tottle, who started this program in 1982, at a time when such a thing was not so readily accepted in a university setting. Tottle had said from the beginning that he envisioned it as a way to teach young students of traditional and modern string band music to “maintain the sense of discovery, creativity and inspiration in the music.”

I asked Raymond if he had a chance to discuss the possibility of a four year degree with Jack…

“Oh yes! I called him on the way home from the Academic Council Meeting.

Jack’s vision for this program has had a major impact on the way we approach things here. Instead of teaching to avoid mistakes, we teach that part of this music is connecting with an audience and playing from your heart, with emotion and passion.”

Tottle will move from semi-retirement to full retirement after this Spring 2009 semester. I suppose his work is now done.

Now, we’re pleased to bring you the news that the Haney has received a $7,250 grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, for the purpose of recording a CD to preserve the contributions Eric Ellis has made to bluegrass music.

The university’s new service is reporting:

In addition to Ellis’ banjo playing and baritone vocal harmony, participating musicians on the CD will include David Johnson (fiddle), David Haney (guitar), Nick Chandler (mandolin), Billy Gee (bass), Bobby Hicks (fiddle), and possibly Tony Rice (guitar).

This sounds like a project we’ll want to hear!

For several years they have held a String Fling each year for students of violin, viola and cello, primarily focused on developing improvisational skills in multiple stylistic disciplines.

The program will be held again this year (July 18-21,2009), but renamed as the Acoustic String Festival in recognition of Berklee’s recent inclusion of an Acoustic String principal for mandolin and banjo.

From the Berklee web site…

The program will build on the core curriculum of past String Fling programs, teaching improvisation to violin, viola, and cello players, but expanding that teaching to admit other instruments traditionally found in a bluegrass band such as acoustic mandolin and guitar. Players will have the opportunity to study with and be coached by world-renowned mandolinist John McGann, and be trained in musical elements necessary to perform at a high level in a wide range of roots music styles.

The faculty will include:

• Eugene Friesen – cellist with the Paul Winter Consort and one of the world’s greatest improvising cellists.
• Matt Glaser – chair of Berklee’s String Department, author of four books on contemporary string styles, and well-known teacher and performer.
• Chris Howes – versatile violinist/composer who has performed and/or recorded with Randy Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Les Paul, Lenny White, and others.
• John McGann – mandolinist and member of the Wayfaring Strangers, Rust Farm, and Boston Edge. He has performed with Darol Anger, Yoshihiro Arita, John Blake, the Boston Pops, Celtic Fiddle Festival, Seamus Connolly, Paddy Cronin, S?ɬ©amus Egan, Bill Evans, Bruce Gertz, David Grisman, Martin Hayes, the Time Jumpers, Utah Symphony, and Stefan Wrembel.
• Rob Thomas – fantastic modern jazz violinist and bassist who has performed with the String Trio of New York and the Mahavishnu Project, among others.

The program is open to students high school age and above, and limited space in Berklee’s residence hall is available during this session. Tuition runs $760 for the four day event, with housing costs another $420 if needed.

More information and application details can be found on the Berklee web site.

We posted a report in May 2006 when Joe was still a student at the Berklee College Of Music, and performed with other Berklee bluegrassers at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. When he joined up as a member of The Gibson Brothers this past November, we covered that as well.

In the meantime, Walsh has released his debut solo CD, Saturday Night Waltz, which showcases his mandolin playing and his skills as a composer and arranger. Joe has been a prominent picker in the Boston area, and throughout New England since he moved there from Minnesota to study, and it is from this pool of musicians that he draws his accompanists.

Not all of the names will be immediately familiar, but these are very talented young musicians who stand leave a mark on bluegrass and progressive string music before they are finished with them.

Joe shared some thoughts with us recently about Saturday Night Waltz, the songs and tunes included, and the people who performed on it with him.

“When I set out to make the record, I of course wanted to try and find material that wasn’t all worn out and overly familiar.  Obviously original tunes take care of that, and I tried to tried to write as many tunes as possible prior to starting that project.  A lot of them just didn’t seem to fit the scope of the project when it came together: as a whole it’s not a strictly bluegrass’ record, but it didn’t seem right to be tossing in tunes that at weren’t at least peripherally related to bluegrass.

Filling in the gaps with some of the other tunes was one of the funnest things about the whole project. Boston (and New England in general) is home to an amazing collection of acoustic musicians and singers, and in choosing tunes and songs like The Good Part, I’ll Go On Downtown, and Fall and I’m Not Falling, I got to share what I liked most about some of my friends writing, playing and singing. These were the folks that I worked with on any number of gigs, and these tunes were the ones I’d always try to get on the set list.  It’s a pleasure getting to share them.

Just as with choosing the songs, I got to choose from amongst my favorite musicians in the Northeast to pick with me. It seems like Boston is a continually changing and continually amazing music scene, and this is a like a snapshot of who was singing and playing at the time I recorded it.  (I started tracking two years ago, but it took a while to get it released)  Some of the folks from the record have moved elsewhere, and a number of phenomenal musicians have since moved to Boston, but the collection of folks on this record was and is, for me, the cream of the crop.

Wes Corbett is playing the banjo, and quite capably.  He worked with the Biscuit Burners for a year, and splits his time between Joy Kills Sorrow and a band called the Bee Eaters, who just recorded an insturmental record that I think of as our generations’ Strength in Numbers.

The guitar playing is covered by Lincoln Meyers, Matt Arcara, and Flynn Cohen.  These three are amongst the finest guitarists you’ll hear in the Northeast.  They’ve all got different takes on acoustic guitar playing, but are each hugely creative and inspired players.  The guitar well is deep up here.

As is the fiddle well: Mike Barnett covers most of the fiddling on the record, with a couple of cameos by Tristan and Tashina Clarride.  These three are on the short list of my favorite living fiddlers, and it’s amazing to get to play and record with them.  Mike is a prodigious bluegrass monster, having logged tours with Tony Trischka and Jesse McReynolds while not yet twenty, and the Clarridges have both won national fiddle contests, including Weiser, and are both in the Bee Eaters with Wes.

Bass duties are split were split between Ashleigh Caudill and Karl Doty.  I expect we’ll hear a lot more from both of them.  I felt lucky to get to record a tune with cellist Natalie Haas, who plays with scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and who brings a deep rhythmic palette to any musical situation.

Though he’s only on two tracks, Roger Williams adds a lot with his exceptionally tasteful dobro playing.  He’s a force, and New England is better for his presence.”

I also asked Joe to give his impression of his time studying at Berklee…

“Berklee was great for me. Though there weren’t a huge amount of bluegrassers at the school while I was there, just being surrounded by people who took the craft of music so seriously was hugely inspiring. At Berklee there’s always someone who can play circles around you, no matter how good you are, and that just made me want to work harder. Now there’s a quite a few really talented bluegrass players at the school. To me it just seems to be getting better and better. I really enjoyed the presence of so many other styles, too. I think it made me step back and examine what’s unique about bluegrass, and it also was a great way to find other things for inspiration.

The New England scene is great… really great! And it just keeps getting better. The level of playing is high, and there are a lot of players around. I really appreciate the degree of risk-taking and creativity amongst acoustic musicians up here, too. People are willing to try out new combinations and try to invent new genres (like banjo rap), and that energy is a wonderful thing to be around.”

You can hear audio samples from Saturday Night Waltz on CD Baby, or on Joe’s MySpace page.

Andy Carlson, the chair of the music department at Denison, began the bluegrass ensemble in 2000. Carlson is a classically trained violinist who inherited a love of fiddle music from his grandfather.

Carlson discusses the social aspects of bluegrass music compared to classical. The lack of music stands, and the interaction between musicians generates close friendships among the bluegrass students. One of the students attributes it to the extra, non-class, practice that is required to work the material up. She says they have cookouts and hang out with each other even after the final concerts are over, just because they enjoy playing music together.

The story is online both in text and mp3 formats. The mp3 is only a couple minutes long, but you get a chance to hear the ensemble performing various tunes in the background while the interviews are conducted.

Here’s another encouraging story about bluegrass on the college campus, this time at UCLA.

Thomas Stanton is a young banjo player, also looking at a June 2008 graduation. He has put together a group, the Bluegrass & Old-Time String Band Ensemble, as an official student band in the Ethnomusicology department where he is pursuing his degree. Stanton has been directing, arranging material, and teaching the group’s members throughout the year as an unofficial senior project, with the blessing of the department.

“The group was just started this school year, in September 2007. I basically reestablished an ensemble in the department because I really wanted to play bluegrass and effectively make use of my talents and knowledge in my senior year as an undergraduate in the Ethnomusicology department at UCLA.

I’ve been very lucky to find all of the musicians that are currently involved in the group: none of them have really played bluegrass before, and a few of them are particularly extraordinary musicians who naturally fit in the setting and are picking up the music and its feel very quickly. I still can’t believe that I was able to create this opportunity to play bluegrass at the University (I would have never thought it possible in my freshmen year), but it’s thanks to the support of my mentor in the department, Professor Anthony Seeger.”

With graduation looming, Thomas will perform in a free concert with the group on the UCLA campus on Thursday, May 29th at 7 PM in Schoenberg Hall.

More details about the group and the concert, including video clips, can be found on their web site.

Joel Sidney graduated yesterday from the University of California at Berkeley. Joel’s story is unique though. His grade-point average was almost perfect, his degree in American Studies, the subject of his honors thesis was bluegrass music in the Bay Area, and he’s done it all while dealing with autism.

The official title of his thesis paper is as follows.

Innovation and Tradition in Bay Area Bluegrass: Historical Review and Analysis of Distinctive Regional Features

Joel went the extra step and actually produced a 20 track CD to accompany the paper, including compositions by Laurie Lewis, David Grisman, Sandy Rothman and Rich Wilbur.

So how did this young man come to have such a fervent interest in bluegrass music? He tells his own story.

My fanatical interest in bluegrass began when I was 9 years old. In 1991, my obsession was initially sparked during a concert at the Freight & Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley. … We sat in the front row and I still recall that the band members appeared immense and seemed to be performing right in front of me for my own benefit.

It didn’t stop there. Joel had been bitten by the bluegrass bug. At age 13, he took his bar mitzvah money, and instead of spending it on video games or any of the normal things a 13 year old might be interested in, he went down to the Freight & Salvage Coffee House and purchased a lifetime membership so he wouldn’t miss a show.

Parents present their graduates with all sorts of various gifts to celebrate the completion of their studies. Joel’s parents are considering rewarding this young man with a vacation trip to the Southeastern US so he can immerse himself in bluegrass music for a while.

If you have a minute, click here to read the complete story. If you should see Joel at a bluegrass festival, be sure to congratulate him and thank him for his scholarly presentation of bluegrass music.

This morning (5/5), Berklee has posted a brief account of the clinic on the news section of their web site. The story by Danielle Dreilinger (Berklee’s Office of Communications) is entitled Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes and can be read online.

Dreilinger includes a few additional photos from the clinic, plus a number of brief excerpts from the band’s interaction with the students.

Though the songs were sad, the band seemed relaxed, joking about playing so early in the morning. (The clinic started at 2:00 p.m.) Pikelny asked for the Cubs score; Thile snagged a bottle of water from an audience member.

The attitude spilled over. One fan called out, “How do you get your hair so pretty? Is that just bed head?”

As Thile started to explain, Pikelny interrupted: “You just assume that he’s asking you.”

“How do you get your hair so pretty?” Thile countered.

Pikelny folded his hands. “It’s a gift,” he said.

Was the same true of the band’s spectacularly nimble playing? Pikelny’s fingers barely seemed to move. Still, when an audience member asked about picking technique, the band members self-deprecatingly presented themselves as works in progress.

“I can’t get good tone and play fast, which is something I’m working on,” Eldridge said. “Pick angle is important and so is staying loose, but I can only do it at slow speeds for a bluegrass guy.”

Pikelny warned against letting one-upmanship damage technique. When musicians start trying to outdo each other, “you’re just going to be overplaying.”

Read the full article at berklee.edu.

He writes following up on our earlier post on Spring Break in Nashville.

I just returned home from Nashville on a trip that takes place each year during spring break. Berklee Professors Pat Pattison and Stephen Webber led 125 students for six days and over two dozen sessions and events that featured top names representing every aspect of the music business – performers, studio musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, record company executives, publishers, managers, song pluggers, you name it. By the end of the week those on the trip had received the benefit of decades of experience that will prepare many of them for a move to Nashville after graduation.

Bluegrass is just one part of the trip, however the presentation of an honorary doctorate to Ricky Skaggs Tuesday night was definitely a highlight of the week for everybody. In previous years Ricky has welcomed Berklee students to his recording studio, and now he joins a list of illustrious musicians who have received an honorary degree. The students attended the Tuesday night Grand Ole Opry where they heard, among other, The Whites and Del McCoury Band.

They were given a backstage tour during the show to watch players warming up in their dressing rooms, see television and radio production facillties, and watch part of the Opry from the wings of the stage. The last band of the evening was Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, who played four tunes before the ceremony. After a brief video in which President Roger Brown described the Acoustic String Principal at Berklee, the presentation was made by Lawrence J. Simpson, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, along with Trustee Jeff Davis, Pattison and Webber.

Following the ceremony Ricky, still wearing the robe, grabbed his mandolin and closed out the Opry show by playing Bluegrass Breakdown. After the Opry ended the students were treated to a two hour private session with Ricky and the band in the Opry television studio. There the band played and students got to come to the mic to ask questions of Ricky and the other players. Some of these students are involved in playing bluegrass at Berklee and some who were really hearing the music live for the first time. What was most striking was the pleasure the Ricky and the band took in spending time with everyone and how well they connected with the students. Plans are currently in the works to schedule a visit by the band to Berklee where they will give clinics, work with student players and bands and perform.

Other sessions and excursions of interest to bluegrass enthusiasts took place during the visit too. Everyone headed to the Station Inn on Sunday night for the jam. On Tuesday afternoon Grammy-nominated Berklee graduate Casey Dreissen, Grammy-nominated engineer Jason Lehning (Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Viktor Krauss, Dreissen) and bassist Viktor Krauss spent two hours sharing insights with students in a panel discussion held at Warner Brothers Records. Other sessions were less about bluegrass but still were very interesting, inspiring and educational.

Wednesday afternoon 125 students filled The Tracking Room to watch Vince Gill record a new song. He was backed by Nashville’s first call session players including Eddie Bayers (drums), John Hobbs (keyboard), David Hungate (bass), J.T. Corenflos and Steve Wilson (guitars). Hobbs produced the session and Billy Sherrill engineered. The students filled the studio, listening through headphones while seated right beside the players in the isolation booths, and others in the control room. Vince played through the new tune a couple times for the players, who jotted down a chart in Nashville notation, talked briefly about the arrangement and put down the tracks. Most of the players on this session, plus Paul Franklin (guitar), and Brent Mason (guitar) also did a panel discussion earlier in the week.

Other presenters included Mark Montgomery of Echo Music, marketing whiz and music producer Scott Rouse, country artist Hal Ketchum and Dinse Sith of DS Management (Alison Krauss).

You can see photos from the Skaggs presentation online, as well as a recap of the sessions with Mark Montgomery on Mark’s blog.

The school has an Appalachian Studies program that includes the studio of regional music, including bluegrass and old-time music. In addition to the money, Montgomery also plans to donate his collection of 1,500 records and CDs to the school for use as reference material.

I just want to keep this music alive, and if I can do it through academics, so much the better.

The financial donation will be used to fund two annual scholarships for students studying the culture of the Appalachian region.

Statesman.com has the full story.

In the fall of 2006 the university began offering a concentration in Appalachian Music: Roots and Influences from the College of Arts and Sciences for the Center for Appalachian Studies for those students seeking an M.A. degree in Appalachian Studies. They also made many of the same classes available in the form of an undergraduate minor.

The curriculum includes a three credit hour class entitled Bluegrass Traditions. They describe the class as follows.

The genesis of bluegrass music from its beginnings to its major redefinition in the mid-1970s.

Who better to teach such a class than Dave Haney. Haney is the vice provost for undergraduate education and a professor of English at the university. More importantly though, he is a former guitarist and lead singer with Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys.

Haney says he uses such things as bluegrass recordings, videos, discussion, readings, and live demonstrations to help his students “understand the musical and cultural influences of early bluegrass music and the styles of specific performers.”

When presenting a live demonstration, he often calls on area musicians for help. One of the musicians he’s tapped as a resource is Eric Ellis. Ellis is known as a Scruggs-style banjo player.

He is ideally suited for this. He’s the real thing. He is an incredible banjo player who can demonstrate any bluegrass banjo style there is, and he also has an encyclopedic knowledge of bluegrass history.

Ellis has become such an indispensable part of the class, that the school has recently brought him on board as it’s first artist-in-residence in the Appalachian Studies program. The residency is supported by the Doc Watson Endowment in Appalachian Music.

What a great way for bluegrass music to reach a new generation.

Dave told us about a group from Berklee that traveled to Helsinki, Finland last week to give students at the Pop & Jazz Conservatory a taste of bluegrass music. The Conservatory, which is a participant in the Berklee International Network (BIN) of schools, invited the group as part of their Close Encounters concert series. They had specifically requested a bluegrass band from Berklee this year, and Hollender said that the school was was more than willing to accommodate their request.

The band mixed faculty and students from Berklee, including faculty members Hollender (banjo) and John McGann (guitar, mandolin and vocals), joined by two students, Nate Leath (fiddle and vocals) and Eric Robertson (mandolin, guitar and vocals), plus Finnish bass student Eero Tikkanen.

As we mentioned, Dave teaches banjo and bass at Berklee, while John teaches mandolin and guitar. The two also lead various student ensembles that play everything from bluegrass to Celtic, mainstream jazz and Gypsy jazz.

Hollender shared a few words about the students who were involved.

“Nate Leath comes from North Carolina is about to graduate from Berklee. One of the most adventurous and versatile fiddlers anywhere, Nate is a member of Old School Freight Train, has toured with Dave Grisman, and is a repeat winner at Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention.

Eric Robertson comes from Greensboro, NC and is a first semester mandolin student at Berklee. He has solid roots in bluegrass, great chops and it’s hard to believe that he’s only been playing for four years. Watch out for this guy!”

Dave said that the set Tuesday night had the emphasis on straight ahead bluegrass with a few excursions into more adventurous sounds, which he says is indicative of what goes on at Berklee. Everybody in the band shares solid roots and a deep love for traditional bluegrass music, and combines that with a pretty remarkable range of musical interests and skills. Those varied interests open up a huge range of possibilities for the band, and also helped bridge any gap that could have existed with the Finnish music students and faculty when the Boston musicians were asked to teach.

On Thursday Hollender and McGann teamed up to offer a workshop for the Conservatory students. Dave gave a lesson on the origins and evolution of the banjo and various picking styles. John covered a wide range of topics that represent the range of his playing and teaching – various rhythm guitar techniques for bluegrass and Celtic music, ways to use a metronome, some Celtic music and finally, the guitar style of Django Reinhardt. Dave said that their workshop started with the two playing a Stanley Brothers tune and ended with John on mandolin and Dave switching over to bass to play an acoustic string duo on a jazz standard.

On Friday the Berklee students got a chance to do some teaching at a workshop of their own. The Finnish students attending included one banjo player, about three mandolin players, a few fiddlers and a handful of guitarists. Leath and Robertson started out playing an old-time tune Nate wrote on the spot. That was followed by an explanation of the role of each instrument in a bluegrass band before John and Dave joined the student teachers onstage while Nate taught the Finnish students to sing some bluegrass harmonies and play a fiddle tune.

I get a great deal of satisfaction seeing the penetration bluegrass and acoustic string music is making in the world of academic music. That bodes quite well for the next generation of musicians who will carry the banner forward into an uncertain future.

You can read all the posts in this series here.

Today, we visit with Joe Carr, Assistant Professor of Music at South Plains College in Levelland, TX. Before landing at the college, Joe worked professionally as a bluegrass musician, playing mandolin in the band, Roanoke, and then guitar for many years with Country Gazette.

The program in which he is involved at South Plains is Commercial Music, which offers a two year Associate of Art degree, and a one year certificate course. Four areas of concentration are available for students: Commercial Music, Sound Technology, Music Business and Live Sound.

While enrolled in their Commercial Music program, a student must study a primary and secondary instrument, and all bluegrass instruments are included, with experienced, professional instructors on staff. Bluegrass ensembles are available, and all commercial music students will study in a variety areas that will prepare them to pursue a career in music, with country, pop and bluegrass being the primary concentrations.

I asked Joe if most of their students continued into a four year degree program.

Commercial Music students can transfer to 4 year programs. We work with these students closely to insure maximum transferability of coursework. Some students choose to complete academic degrees here and take music classes in addition to those classes. Of course, some just enter the market after completing our degree.

Joe said that most graduates who went into the business worked as sidemen musicians and singers, in the music business, or live and recorded sound. When I prompted him for some South Plains success stories, he had quite an impressive list ready.

The most well known would be country singer Lee Ann Womack and Natalie Maines of Dixie Chicks fame. Brance Gillihan [of The Bluegrass Blog!] is a recording engineer, studio owner and videographer. He took both music and sound tech courses, as did David Carney who is the stage manager with country singer Keith Urban. Dan Bletz with the Biscuit Burners is a former student as is Kym Warner of the Greencards. The Colorado based Spring Creek Band attended here. There are many others in the country and pop music fields as musicians and technicians.

Students come to the Commercial Music program at South Plains from all over the United States and Canada, with recent students enrolling from Switzerland and Sweden.

A typical student in the program would take private lessons on a major and minor musical instrument, perform in ensembles and study music theory, songwriting, sound technology, pop or bluegrass music history, and delve into the nexus of music and computers.

Joe came to the college along with banjo legend Alan Munde, who just recently retired from his faculty position. Beth Mead has assumed the banjo chair, starting with this summer semester.

Beth has many years of experience in education and I’m very excited about her joining the program.

After 22 years of teaching here I can safely say SPC is the best its ever been. Scholarship help is available and even our out of state students say we are the best bargain in higher education anywhere! Of course we will miss Alan Munde’s master teaching, but he will be back here every summer for Camp Bluegrass.

Joe askes that interested students contact him on campus at 806-894-9611 ext 2493, or by email.

You can read all the posts in this series here.

First up is Roger H. Brown, President of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Brown brings an appreciation for a wide variety of musical styles – including bluegrass and traditional folk music – to his job running one of the most prestigious music schools in the world. He also recently approved the inclusion of both five string banjo and mandolin as principal instruments for study at Berklee.

Like many schools that mix a serious study of music with related disciplines (education, music technology, music business, performance, composition), Berklee requires that every student declare a principal instrument on which they must study for a minimum of two years, regardless of their major.

I asked Roger if the traditional string principal (banjo/mandolin) appealed to him immediately when it was presented.

Absolutely. We already had the foundations of a great string department with Matt Glaser as Chair, himself a highly regarded fiddler and connected to the Mark O’Connor, Bela Fleck axis of hot string players. Cellist Eugene Friesen on the faculty made his mark with the Paul Winter Consort. John McGann is a national flatpicking champion and excellent mandolin player. Dave Hollender had a robust bluegrass ensemble in operation. In addition, we had alumni like Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings writing and performing very successfully, Casey Driessen was touring with Bela Fleck, and Andy Hall and Chris Pandolfi had come together on dobro and banjo with the Infamous Stringdusters. Cellist Rushad Eggleston [Crooked Still] was, to the best of my knowledge, the first at Berklee to be nominated for a Grammy while still a student. The groundwork was absolutely all laid. I just needed to sprinkle some holy water on the initiative. So, what we implemented was an acoustic string principle, adding banjo and mandolin to the existing programs for guitar and violin.

Roger did not study music in college, but entered the business as a self-taught drummer playing blues and funk music. He said that he dropped out of high school band in favor of football.

I wondered how a funk drummer came to be interested in bluegrass.

I love the banjo. My ears always perk up whenever I hear one. I never learned to play, but if I were to live my life over, maybe….

When I visited him in his office earlier this year, Roger spoke of how he became passionate about bluegrass and old time music, and he showed me one of his prized possessions on display.

My great grandfather was a minister and fiddler who lived in the North Carolina mountains near Valle Crucis. I have his fiddle with homemade replacement parts sitting in my office. In high school, we would drive to the Georgia mountains near my hometown and go to dances where bluegrass and traditional Appalachian music was the music of choice.

Roger answered a few more questions about the traditional string principal at Berklee.

How do you see this principal fitting in to the Berklee mission?

Berklee is about virtuosic musicians creating music at the cutting edge. This group is absolutely doing so. In fact, the similarities between the innovative bluegrass movement and jazz are striking.

What advice can you offer young bluegrass players who would like to consider applying to Berklee?

Get your chops together. Practice hard, learn as much as you can, keep your ears and mind open, and then come share what you have learned with the rest of us. We are a very exciting place to be a young musician.

How important are music reading skills to gaining admission?

Reading skills are not essential to be admitted to Berklee. But we expect every graduate to have developed strong reading skills. Many of our strongest players are people who come from Gospel music, rock music, folk, blues or bluegrass traditions where reading is less emphasized. What we need to see clearly in the audition (now required for all applicants) is dedication, strong musical aptitude, and creativity. We have a mantra that we want to be sure our admissions process would admit people like Ornette Coleman, John Lennon, Laurie Anderson, or Earl Scruggs — people who may not look like a traditional conservatory bound student.

How does an instrument like the banjo fit into ensembles?

Beautifully!

Do banjo and mandolin students have to achieve the same sort of technical and theoretical proficiencies as other instruments in order to stay in the program?

Yes, part of the process we used to develop the acoustic string principle was to develop these proficiencies.

To sum up, is it fair to say that a bluegrass mandolinist who wants to study songwriting and music business could hope to come to Berklee?

In my biased opinion, there would be no better place on earth for that young musician to go to school. We have a very strong songwriting faculty, some amazing acoustic string musicians, and an environment that is a rain forest of musical ideas and diversity.

You can read more about Roger Brown in the school’s in house magazine, Berklee Today.

For more information about Berklee admissions, visit the school’s web site.

We plan to post similar interviews with administrators and/or faculty at East Tennessee State University and South Plains College. If you know of another school that we should include, or are involved with a program that would be of interest to students wishing to pursue higher education in music with a focus on traditional/bluegrass string instruments, please contact us.