The Transatlantic Bluegrass School, scheduled for May 7-11, 2008 in the Welsh town of Pembrokeshire, has announced the formation of a  scholarship program for young students, aged 16-25, based on financial need.

The scholarship awards will cover the full tuition costs, and are available for banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin or vocal. Applicants must submit essays describing their musical background, financial situation and their interests and aspirations in bluegrass music.

The management of the school describes the program as follows:

The purpose of these scholarships is to encourage the development and appreciation of bluegrass music and musicianship in the 16 to 25 year age group, and especially to facilitate participation in learning activities by those who without benefit of a scholarship would find it difficult to fund attendance personally.

Instructors at the ‘08 school will include Bobby Hicks on fiddle, Kenny Smith on guitar, Amanda Smith on vocals, Emory Lester on mandolin, Ross Nickerson on banjo, and Mike Bub on bass.

Applications must be received by March 21, 2008. Full details and necessary forms can be found online.

Spring 2008 will find a bevy of top American bluegrass musicians heading to Wales to serve as instructors at the Transatlantic Bluegrass School. The school will be held starting on May 7 in the scenic coastal village of Newport, Pembrokeshire and are designed for students who have passed the most beginning stages of learning to play their instruments.

The faculty includes Ross Nickerson on banjo, Mike Bub on bass, Bobby Hicks on fiddle, Kenny Smith on guitar, Emory Lester on mandolin and Amanda Smith on vocals.

Class sessions will be held both morning and afternoon from May 8-11. Only 20 students will be enrolled for each class, so anyone interested in participating is encouraged to register right away.

Ross Nickerson has released his newest banjo instructional DVD, Essential Banjo Licks, with more than 100 common banjo phrases every banjo player needs to know.

It is intended to offer useful information for players starting at a beginner’s level, with many licks that will be helpful for advanced students of the instrument as well.

Ross says that each lick is shown in a split screen format - played fast and slow - and a printable tab booklet is included on the disk.

The material is arranged in eight categories:

1. Beginnings, Endings and Turnarounds
2. Must Know Scruggs Style Licks for G, C and D
3. Melodic and Single String Style Banjo
4. Backup Banjo
5. Up the Neck Banjo
6. Slow Banjo Styles
7. More Blues Chromatic, Triplets, Hot Licks
8. Bending the Strings

Find out more on Ross’ web site, BanjoTeacher.com.

From time to time we have discussed various ventures that involved online video instruction for bluegrass music. The idea has a great deal of appeal to bluegrass instructors, and some are actively involved in providing such instruction. Three that come to mind immediately are Butch Baldassari, Ross Nickerson, and BluegrassCollege.com.

Ours is a small industry and I suggest that we look outside of bluegrass to see what other people are doing and possibly learn from them. There are other artists and companies who are also pursuing this avenue of instruction, and income. One such company that has come to my attention is WorkshopLive.com. They don’t have any bluegrass instruction on their site, it’s all rock, blues, jazz, etc. But what they do have is great quality video. At a reasonable price. Reasonable, but not cheap.

Theirs is a subscription service. You pay by the month and can then access as many lesson as you want from any of their offerings. The lessons include the video instruction, synchronized graphics of the instrument fretboard, and printable exercises. It”s an impressive program.

To be fair, they have spent a lot of money to get set up. I saw it reported just this week that a new investor has just provided them with $3.25 million dollars in funding to bolster their staff, expand the service, and expand their marketing efforts. Not many of us in bluegrass will have that kind of capitol to work with, but let”s not write off the idea of achieving a similar level of success in our own industry. There is much to be said for the idea of emulating success.