TJ Johnson's Contra Dance Workshops

• Mandolin
  • All levels
  • Various styles including fiddle tunes and swing styles
  • Playing Mando in a Contra Dance Band
  • Fiddle tunes on the Mando
  • Why the mandolin is so cool (for beginners)
  • How to play mando in old timey sessions

• Fiddle and Guitar
  • All levels
  • Various styles, including swing fiddle and swing guitar

• The Embodied Beat
  • Mostly for dancers
  • How to get more out of the music while you're dancing

• Dance Band "Cheap Tricks"
  • All instruments, all levels
  • How to play effectively in a contra dance band
  • How to play with the dancers and get the whole room jammin!

• Dance Band Class
  • Campers form a contra dance band that meets at least a couple of times during the week
  • The Band Class can then play a couple of contra dance sets, often with a camper caller for talent show.

• Improvising on Fiddle Tunes
  • All instruments, all levels
  • Have more fun
  • Impress Your friends
  • A little theory can really help
  • Know what you’re doing
  • Do you play pretty good but you don’t know what you’re doing?
  • Learn how to figure it out for your self
  • Throw away your chord book
  • Make chords yourself
  • Helps memorize!

• Music Theory for Folk Musicians
  • All instruments, all levels

• The Mathematical Mysteries of Music
  • For dancers and musicians
  • Why music and dancing are forms of "matheletics"
  • Demonstrates the links between math and music and dancing
  • TJ is also a mathematician and music theoretician