Isaac Olson is a teacher, aspiring farmer, and banjo player who lives in Tacoma, Washington. With almost a decade of experience in the field of adult education, he has extensive experience in creating fun, welcoming learning environments for adults. Although he’s a lifelong musician and music lover, Isaac didn’t grow up playing banjo or surrounded by old-time. He came to old-time music and banjo a decade ago in his early twenties, finding in it a point where many of his interests converged. He knows first-hand how tricky it can be to learn a new instrument, or any complex skill, as an adult, and his class will draw upon his personal and professional knowledge of adult learning best practices, as well as his own desire to share his excitement about the greatest instrument of all time: the five string banjo.
Old-Time Banjo, intermediate
This workshop aims to teach some of the skills, tips, and tricks that I wish I had learned much earlier in my banjo playing career, including the secrets of the right hand, secrets of the left hand, what the metronome is really for, and how to escape the bum-ditty blahs through syncopation.
It’s no fun to walk away from a workshop feeling like you have a bunch of exercises to practice in solitude while everyone else at the camp is playing new tunes together. That said, it’s also no fun to sit through a workshop where you laboriously go note-by-note through a tune you don’t really care for. This class aims to strike a balance by teaching techniques through a few tunes you’ll be able to play with your Wallowa Fiddle Tunes compatriots, as well as focusing on building the sorts of techniques, skills, and mental models that will make it easier for you to learn the tunes you want to play and play them the way you want to play them. Expect to learn tunes by ear and technique by tab I like to learn tunes by ear and technique by tab. I also believe that old-time is social music and that learning is inherently a social process, so expect to get to know your neighbor as we stumble towards clawhammer glory together.
Students who will get the most out of this class are those who have a basic understanding of clawhammer banjo mechanics and technique and can comfortably play a handful of fiddle tunes, but who wish for greater control, accuracy, confidence, oomph, pop, zip, pizzazz, or bounce in their playing. Because much of this class will focus on refining the mechanics of the clawhammer style, it will be suitable for both new players who are (literally) struggling to get a grip on the instrument and intermediate players with a beginner’s mind who are trying to get more comfortable with this strangest and most wonderful of playing styles.