CONTACT: Donna or Jane

Great Groove Bands at Old Songs  & Philadelphia Folk Festivals every year

Contradancing at weekends, camps & festivals

Old Songs Fiddle & Strings Camp 2007

Jane teaches a fiddle group

Donna, Jane and Max in Phoenix Mar 08

Donna on faculty at Mark O'Connor's San Diego Strings Conference - 2006

Max Cohen teaching fingerstyle guitar at 2007 Old Songs Festival

Donna with Rushad Eggleston and Darol Anger at Summer Strings 2006

site © 2008 Donna Hébert, www.fiddlingdemystified.com POB 2632, Amherst MA 01004

Groovemama in the schools . . .

String Workshops & School Programs - Sample program for up to 100 participants

Repertoire: Curriculum tune packets contain sheet music for violin, viola or bass clefs with a lesson and play-along CD. Students or schools order curriculum packets at least 6 weeks in advance and teachers and students listen to the music as tunes are learned first by ear. We have 50 tunes available for violin, viola, cello and bass and can work on two tunes per hour of workshop time to be able to play for an evening jam session onstage. Most school workshops are 3 hours long. Residencies are for a 3 hour class for 2-3 days, with a public concert the last evening.

Swallowtail Jig (Irish 6/8 Jig, E Dorian) violin, viola, cello, chord chart - plain and fancy settings - Sample page violin only, mp3s

Sail Away Ladies (Appalachian Old-Time song and tune, G major) violin, viola, cello, chord chart, lyrics - plain and fancy settings

November Wind (Original waltz, Jane Rothfield) 2 parts each for violin, viola, cello, chord chart

East Tennessee Blues (Appalachian Old-Time tune, C major, Arthur Smith) violin, viola, cello, chord chart - plain and fancy settings

Massachusetts public schools (K-12) can apply for Creative Schools funding from the Mass. Cultural Council. These grants allow string departments to team with Donna Hébert and Groovemama in long-term residencies lasting up to four years. A Creative Teaching Partner in Fiddling certified by the Mass. Cultural Council and adjunct fiddle instructor at Amherst College, Donna is uniquely skilled in advising and coaching stringed music departments throughout the state to help them add fiddling to their classroom and performance curriculum.

When we arrive for the workshop or residency, we rehearse and arrange the music with the group for an evening jam onstage with us, teaching participants how to read and follow chord charts and how to look for harmonies and rhythms within the tune. Sheet music is provided for a panic peek, but we encourage them to look at and listen to each other and us. Rhythm cues come from the recordings and from playing with us. We don't conduct; they JAM with us and we help them find the groove! String players are given the opportunity to play both lead and backup lines and to improvise. We back them up as much as they want us to.

Jam session & performance: A conductor keeps an orchestra's rhythm in order, but who does it in a jam session? We cover the basics of sharing leads and harmonies, learning and using non-verbal cues and signals, finding and staying with a group rhythm or groove as well as common-sense do's and don'ts.

The one hour evening concert program brings the orchestra into the jam session with Groovemama onstage. Electrifying and exciting for both the faculty and students, these "Fiddling Demystified for Strings" residencies and performances are making it easy for string teachers to bring fiddling into their curriculum.

"Donna and her Groovemama colleagues changed the way my students and I think about fiddling. They actually helped us to feel confident enough to turn our music over, close our eyes and play independently. The techniques can be a real help to your ears for harmony and melody, your sense of rhythm and your bowing technique. There is nothing in classical music that approaches these skills in this way. I even started playing Mozart the following day in a different style - much lighter and more at ease! Through careful preparation, Donna has designed a program that teaches students theory and fiddling styles. She instructed us in detail on what to prepare, and she was very easy to work with. The students and their director will have materials to play and work with for the rest of their playing lives. They now have the tools to pursue fiddling further and we have all gained an appreciation of the art." Jane Ezbicki - 2006 Mass. ASTA chapter president, Fine Arts Director & Orchestra Conductor, Wayland MA Schools.