Music lessons at the Jones House
Area musician Trevor McKenzie leads a music lesson at the Jones House in downtown Boone.
Are you ready to embark on an adventure for the new year? Do
you have a guitar or mandolin collecting dust the closet? Has your child been begging you to let him
or her play the fiddle or banjo?
A new round of group music lessons at the Jones
House Community and Cultural Center starts Feb. 7.
Enrollment is now open for adults and kids
between 6 and 18 years old with fiddle, guitar, banjo, and mandolin lessons for beginning through
intermediate levels. Classes are taught by some of the area’s best musicians and teachers,
steeped in traditional old-time and bluegrass styles of the Southern mountain region.
Lessons are offered in five-week sessions, with weekly lessons on Thursday afternoons at
4:30, 5:30 or 6:30 p.m., depending on the instrument and playing level. The lessons are
45-minutes long and taught in small groups with students of similar playing ability.
“The slightly informal group setting makes for a really fun environment to learn to play
music,” said Mark Freed, the town of Boone’s cultural programs coordinator. “The lessons are an
excellent way to get started on a new instrument, brush up on one you used to play, or to simply
broaden your repertoire.”
The three five-week sessions include:
Session A: Feb. 7, 14,
21, 28 and March 7
Session B: March 14, 21, 28, April 4 and 11
Session C: April 18, 25, May 2,
9 and 16
“The lessons are also really affordable,” Freed said. “Thanks to grant funding
and private support, we are able to make sure that finances don’t get in the way of any child in the
community that wants to come learn to play a stringed instrument.”
For students 18 and
younger, lessons cost $35 for a five-lesson session or $75 for all three sessions. The cost for
adults is $50 for a five-lesson session or $120 for all three sessions.
The program is
sponsored by the town of Boone and Downtown Boone Development Association, with support from a N.C.
Arts Council TAPS grant.
To enroll or for more information, contact Mark Freed at
(828) 262-4576 or (mark.freed@townofboone.net)
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