Welcome to the Stringed Instrument Workshop page! On this page you will find all of the information that you need to get started with the Stringed Instrument Workshop.

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What is the Stringed Instrument Workshop:

The stringed instrument workshop was founded in 2008 as an effort to teach people who wanted to be involved in the worship programs at their churches. Willy Minnix saw a need that many churches were without musicians, and desperately needed musicians to participate in the music programs, but music lessons are often expensive, and require a great deal of time and energy to excel at the classical music education program.

As a working musician, Willy recognized that many bands act as support players for the front man (lead singer/musician), and often these support musicians are not required to be the most advanced players. Sometimes, just knowing a few chords would be enough to get people started, once they start playing, they can continue to learn and develop as they also perform.

One other thing Willy knew was that in the early days of recorded music, many musicians from the Southern United States also worked in saw mills, and other jobs where some would lose fingers or have accidents that would injure their hands. Instead of giving up on playing music, these musicians often would tune their instruments to open tunings and then play their instrument with a slide. Today, slide guitar is still popular in blues, folk music, bluegrass and country, played on dobro, lap steel guitars, steel guitars and acoustic and electric guitars. What many people do not know is most stringed instruments can be tuned to open tunings and they all require the same skills to play any of the stringed instruments in open tunings.

Finally, the last piece of the puzzle came together when Willy realized that all of the skills that make learning a stringed instrument difficult are eliminated when one starts learning open tunings. The muscle memory problem, the pain associated with learning complex chord forms and the difficult memorization are not present when learning open tunings. 

These three things combined with the joy of learning in a group led to the development of the stringed instrument workshop.

What You Will Learn in the SIW:

We have found that people who start learning open tunings learn a lot of the basics that are needed to play an instrument (hand eye coordination, rhythm, melody, simple chords, how to read a chord chart, basic theory, etc.), and when they learn these basics it infuses a love for the instrument that helps the student continue on to learn the harder portions of learning music (finger callus development, muscle memory, sight reading). When they get a love for the instrument, they realize that the harder aspects are worth working to develop. 

Many times, people find they love the SIW so much that they sign up again and again to continue learning with their friends.

Each class is 10 weeks long and covers: basic music theory, chord theory, tuning, rhythm, how to play together with other people, finger picking patterns, how to write a melody, how to put music to lyrics and much more.

 

Each SIW builds on the last, and students will grow in their abilities.

Week 10

Aside from the fun games, songs and the realization that anyone can play music, each SIW course builds up the final Week, Week 10. Week 10 is not only the culmination of all the hard work that the students put into the course, but it is also their chance to show off their progress. Week 10 is a fun filled concert where each "band" gets to perform some of the music they learned, or show off the songs they wrote. It is a chance for each student to invite their parents, friends or neighbors to hear them perform live. Often, depending on the participation, there is a raffle for prizes. In previous years prizes have included: t-shirts, tuners, strings, a harmonica and even a mandolin and a ukulele have appeared before in the prize basket.  

Who Benefits from SIW

SIW is great for adult students who have a busy schedule, people who want to do fun things with groups of friends, home schooling groups, church groups, and anyone who is not sure which instrument to try. We have had many people take the SIW first with guitar, then switch to banjo for the next 10 weeks, and come back a third time with a ukulele or a mandolin. SIW is perfect for the person who is not sure which instrument is right for them.

What Instruments Are Taught in SIW?

Any stringed instrument can be taught at SIW. This includes guitar, banjo, mandolin and ukulele, but also covers fiddles/violins, violas, bass guitar, bouzouki, and even dulcimer! If it has strings, SIW will be a good course to learn how to play it!

What Materials Do You Need for SIW?

When you come to the first class, you will need to have watched one of the videos on how to tune your instrument that are listed below. 

You will also need the following:

          Graph paper

          Folder to keep materials in

          Colored pencils or markers

          The weekly printout that will be found on the website (a link will be sent to you after you register)

          Pencils

          Chromatic Tuner (Watch the video, a regular guitar tuner will not work)

          And your instrument (at this time we do not have extra instruments, we are planning on setting up a rental plan in the future)

SIW vs. Private Lessons

Many people wonder what the difference is between the SIW and Private Lessons. Private lesson take a more traditional approach. Each student does get personalized one on one time with the instructor, they receive immediate feedback on their progress, and they develop a more systematic classical approach to learning music. However, they do not get to enjoy taking lessons with their friends, learning music that is a bit more fun, or the instant gratification of playing real songs immediately.

Also cost is a major difference. SIW provides 10 weeks of hour long lessons for the price of only two private hour long lessons! Where else can you find an hour long music lesson for only $10!?!

How Many Students are in each class?

There is a minimum of 10 students in each class, and a maximum of 20 students in each class. If you do not have 10 students in your group, feel free to register, and your group can be combined with another group to fill up the roster! SIW is perfect for home school coops and private schools who need a solution for their students music education needs.

Why Do People Sign Up More Than Once?

Each SIW is slightly different, focusing on a lot of the topics that the particular students need to learn. There are a total of ten topics that are covered. Each subsequent class focuses on more in depth topics such as: standard tunings, theory, melody, rhythm, song writing, G tuning, C tuning, E tuning and DADGAG tuning, advance picking and rhythm techniques and tapping. 

How do I Sign Up?

So now that you know everything you need to know about the Stringed Instrument Workshop, I'm sure you are chomping at the bit to get started. All you need to do is fill out the registration information at the link provided below. The full course is $100.00 with a $10 registration fee. You may pay online to reserve your spot, and most forms of payment are available, including paypal. Due to the nature of the SIW being a group intensive lesson, there are generally no makeup lessons or refunds.  We would prefer that you pay for the entire course at one time. If you want to get signed up for the next SIW. Please note: if you do not have a group of 10 students or more, you will be notified when the next SIW starts that your student can be included in. SIW's are started on a staggered basis, so you should have a class open up within a month of your registration. 

Sign up today!