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.

A wise friend of mine once observed that "people spend a lot of energy looking for what something isn’t, rather than what something is." Punch is an adventurous listener’s paradise and an acoustic music lover’s dream. Led by composer/mandolinist/lead vocalist Chris Thile with Chris Eldridge (guitar/vocal), Noam Pikelny (banjo/vocal), Gabe Wichter (fiddle/vocal) and Greg Garrison (bass/vocal), the Punch Brothers deliver an astonishing range of styles and moods with relaxed virtuosity across three songs, an instrumental, and an innovative 40 minute four movement suite.

The touchstones of established styles on this recording span many genres: a classical range of tone colors and dynamics, from quiet filigree to ominous thunder; a jazz sense of adventure, harmonic daring and "sound of surprise;" the blue grass drive and commitment to the groove; the pop songwriter’s flare for melody, and the progressive rock musician’s restless penchant for shifting textures and colors. While echoes of the above styles combine with and extend the groundbreaking New Acoustic work of the Trischka-Grisman-Flecktones-Newgrass vectors, it is fair to say that the band is breaking new ground and creating its own unique idiom. It is not merely "chamber music" played with bluegrass instrumentation, but music conceived to take advantage of the traditional bluegrass band instrumentation as presented to the world by Bill Monroe in 1945, albeit in ways Mr. Monroe may never have imagined.

Compositionally, there are definite parallels with classical music in the "through composed" long form style of composition (particularly in the four movement suite The Blind Leaving The Blind) rather than the more typical verse/chorus song form’s repeated sections. The creative use of counterpoint and counter melodies as well as contrasts and combinations of instrumental colors between musical lines are more the stuff of the classical orchestrator, rather than the bluegrass arranger. Independent rhythmic interplay creates clockwork-like textures at various times that mesh like a bluegrass band, dixieland group, and chamber orchestra (and sometimes all three at once!). Of course, along with the carefully composed mosaics of counter lines, we find improvisational passages that depend on the unique personalities of each band member to be realized, much in the way that jazz legend Duke Ellington relied on his stable of players to create the music’s character.

The band sought, and achieved, a live-in-the-studio sound and vibe, with a very three dimensional stereo mix. The production quality of this recording is wonderful. The word "transparent" comes to mind, as a very light hand was used in the application of reverb – indeed, if any was added, since the music was recorded in a 4600 square foot room. In fact, the sonic picture was created by using three overhead mics, much the way a traditional string quartet would be recorded.

Punch Bowl leads off the album, the initial melody creating a definite old-time vibe which quickly takes a darker turn as dissonant chords accompany a tried and true bluegrass theme ‚Äì let’s call it an updated Dim Lights Thick Smoke and Loud Loud Music ‚Äì delivered with dangerous edges intact. In fact, the entire album is a modern True Life Blues, particularly the recording’s centerpiece The Blind Leaving the Blind which follows.

Lyrically, the piece follows the recent breakup of Chris’ marriage in a style he calls "anecdotal, conversational, and episodic." In less imaginative hands, this kind of material has the potential to fall into the zone of treacly confessional singer-songwriter audience-as-analyst zone. Somehow, this soul-bearing avoids wallowing in self-pity, and emerges at the end, singed but not burnt. I love how this music changes gears so many times, yet there is always the feeling of flow from section to section, and no Frankenstein-style parts-assembly feeling. The composition feels as organic as the sound quality.

Sometimes follows, a beautiful instrumental that vacillates between bluegrass terrain and more open textures.

Nothing Then reprises the relationship-gone-bad theme with an insistent pulse that dissolves into a cloud and the final track, It’ll Happen is a lovely, soothingly tonal waltz that ends the album on a decidedly optimistic note.

As with all music of substance, more will be revealed upon repeated listening. I believe that those who can hear it for what it is will be rewarded with a thrilling journey through not only a variety of musical styles, but also emotions – a combination of despair, humor, bitterness and finally, hopefulness.

To tutor the mandolinists and help lead ensembles Berklee hired noted mandolinist and instructor John McGann as an associate professor in the Strings department. John put together a concert at the college on February 5 to showcase the mandolin, bringing together faculty, staff and students. All Berklee concerts are recorded on video and 8 clips from the show are available on YouTube.

Annika L?ºckenbergfeld is a professional classical mandolinist who came to Berklee to study improvisation. I wrote a duo piece called Minatures which we play together.

On the long Blue Grass medley we play at the end, I feature Berklee students Eric Robertson and Jacob Jolliff. Eric is from North Carolina, and is ridiculously great for having only played for 4 years. He has a great combination of rootsy, bluesy expressiveness and an adventurous streak. Jake is from Oregon and sounds like he started playing in utero-just a natural talent who works his behind off at sounding effortless. He weaves beautiful, flowing lines.

The medley also features fiddler Nate Leath, a Berklee graduate who now plays with Old Scool Freight Train. Flynn Cohen plays great bluegrass (as well as other styles) of guitar, and my fellow professor Dave Hollender is on bass.

The complete medley is Midnight Sun (one of my tunes), Mississippi Waltz (Monroe), Huggin’ The Rail (original), Roanoke/Wheel Hoss/Big Mon – the last three being Bill Monroe tunes. I arranged all the harmony parts, etc.

The concert also featured traditional Irish music (and some originals in that style) with fiddler Oisin McAuley from the group Danu and Jim Kelly on guitar, as well as a Brazilian Choro piece (played as a trio with Annika and Casey Scheurell on percussion), two jazz originals (with Billy Novick, clarinet; Jim Kelly, guitar; Dave Hollender and Casey Scheurell) and a medley of old time fiddle tunes (Elsic’s Farewell/Boys The Buzzards are Flying/Blackberry Blossom in 4 and 7) as a duo with Casey Scheurell on percussion.

McGann also indicates that the Acoustic String Principal is doing well after only two years.

“We now have 16 mandolin principals at Berklee, as well as many fiddlers and guitarists who double on mandolin. We have also added several banjo principals in the past semesters, so the Acoustic String Program continues to grow at Berklee with great talent from around the world.”

You can see all of the concert videos on YouTube.

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.

McGann has an impressive resume, with a long list of performing, recording, arranging and transcribing credits. He has also recently been named an Associate Professor in the Strings Department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

As described on John’s web site:

Includes: getting comfortable: tone guards, straps, etc.; choosing the right pick; anchoring; open string exercises; downstrokes vs. alternate picking; crosspicking and tremolo: importance of the loose wrist: left hand fingering; the “duck web” and parallel thumb; synchronizing both hands & unlocking the fingerboard; speed, more plus bonus footage.

Sound Fundamentals does not come with a printed booklet, but the DVD has a printable PDF file with both tablature and standard notation transcriptions for much of the material shown on screen. You simply need to pop the DVD into your computer and find the PDF file before selecting the print command.

More details and online ordering can be found on John’s web site. The DVD is distributed to retailers through Mel Bay Publications.

His newest contribution is John McGann’s Rhythm Mandolin, an instructional DVD designed to introduce mandolinists to a number of ways to accompany others, from the familiar bluegrass chop to Celtic and swing styles. The more aggressive right hand approach used in progressive bluegrass is covered, as are old time and Texas “sock rhythm” styles.

John uses the familiar fiddle tune Forked Deer to present these many examples and stylistic variations.

The DVD does not include a printed booklet, but has a PDF book on the DVD itself. Simply insert the DVD into your computer and you can view and/or print the booklet which features transcriptions (tab and standard) and chord charts for the examples on the video.

Orders can be placed on John’s web site, where you can also find his Rhythm Tune Up DVD (guitar and mandolin), and his several Mel Bay books.