The afternoon of the concert Chris Caswell will lead two workshops - Harps without Borders, and Pizza-box Bodhrán - The workshops are for all levels, you don’t need to know how to read music, in fact little musical background is required. Typically attendees play other instruments/sing and take the workshops for fun. These are popular workshops at the
San Francisco Free Folk Festival.
Chris has been making harps for over 30 years. He makes both a traditional and an innovative Hybrid Harp Series.
Visit Caswell Harps and you might just learn something. Check out Living Music in Your Life.
Based on our classes with Chris at band camp we strongly recommend that you attend the workshops he’ll be holding the afternoon of the concert. Free your mind of musical expectations and open it to other avenues of sound. It doesn’t matter what you think the class is “about”, you need to be there experiencing in order to learn and grow as a musician.
I vividly remember someone sitting in on a session of the Guerilla Music Theory class who had an advanced degree in music composition from UC Santa Cruz. Needless to say he studied a lot of western music theory during his university training. I believe we were talking about just intonation and building natural chords when this fellow sat up straight, his expression lit up and he said, “So that’s what it means. I’ll been using these terms my whole life and never understood before, now it makes sense.”
The 90 minute workshop is an inclusive, demystifying approach to playing the harp. Explore a rich, natural technique through tunes from a surprising range of sources. Great for all levels.
Pictured is the prototype of the new Caswell Harps Fairy Harp. It comes in different princess colors as well as natural. It is the same effective range as a Soprano recorder, and is the same stringing and spacing as the top end of the big harps. The Fairy Harps have a shoulder "leaf" to stabilize, an Alto big brother, and a baby pentatonic. The Fairy Harp allows a new, inexpensive way to get started on the harp. A few Fairy Harps will be available to borrow/buy during the workshop.
The 90 minute workshop is an inclusive, demystifying approach to playing the Bodhrán (Irish frame drum). Get strong basics on the Irish frame drum from a master player/teacher in a fun and easy environment. Great for all levels of drummer. Melody players are encouraged to participate to deepen their understanding of rhythm.
Bring a bodhrán if you have one, otherwise an empty clean pizza box works just fine.
After the workshops please join Chris, Sharon, Jaya and your classmates for dinner. We’ll have pizza from a very good Auburn pizzeria, Old Town Pizza. Sharon is going to make a real salad. For dessert there will be home-made hot fudge sauce over ice cream.
Potluck dishes are always welcome but by no means expected.
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Harps Without Borders workshop $25 -
Pizza-box Bodhrán workshop $25
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Dinner $10
The whole day is $75, two workshops, dinner and concert.
All proceeds from Auburn House Concerts go to the artist.
