Our September 2026 Workshop features master fiddler Anthea Lawrence of the Olympia, Washington-based band Fiddlehead. You can hear her exquisite playing (and download their albums) on the Fiddlehead Bandcamp site.

Anthea has been a frequent teacher at the Fiddle Tunes music camp in Port Townsend, Washington, and has also taught 2-week-long classes at the Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp. Her teaching experience enables her to cover a wide variety of skill levels and techniques. Since our workshops are limited to 6-8 students, she can provide lots of one-on-one attention and also tailor the curriculum to meet the needs and interests of the group.

Each of the six days of the workshop consists of a 2-hour morning class focused on fiddle instruction and an evening session led by Anthea and her husband/bandmate Lawson on guitar.

The day will begin with musician-focused stretching that helps keep everyone limber and prevent injuries, particularly important given that with the evening sessions included you’ll be playing 4-5 hours a day. After stretching we’ll review what we did the day before, and then embark on something new and exciting! You will learn several tunes, pick up friendly and useful music theory tips, get masterclass sessions on technique, approaches to ornamentation, and bowing for Irish music. Warm and welcoming evening sessions offer the opportunity for you to try out what you learned in class at a comfortable pace in a supportive environment.

Below is a sample class schedule that can be tailored to suit the skill level and needs of the students who sign up. For more experienced players, Anthea can layer in some fun music theory (also useful for accompanists), get more advanced in terms of how to play harmonies and backup for tunes, delve deeper into bowing and fingering techniques, and teach more challenging tunes.

Day 1: Tips and tricks for how to learn tunes more quickly by ear.

Anthea has given this workshop at Fiddle Tunes several times and people found it very helpful. She’ll be teaching a tune (maybe two) along the way to help illustrate the principles. We’ll also go a little bit into music theory – but in a friendly and helpful way.

Day 2: Bowing.

This will be a mix of a technique masterclass on how to coax more tone out of your instrument (we’ll work on an air), plus approaches to bowing patterns for jigs and reels, and how to get those into your arm. If there are a number of non-fiddlers, Lawson could do a breakout session for strumming patterns on guitar and bouzouki.

Day 3: Ornamentation.

The most common types of ornamentation for Celtic music (cuts, rolls, trebles) and how to incorporate them into your playing. With tune examples of course.

Day 4: Jigs.

We’ll approach a couple jigs, incorporating the prior bowing and ornamentation techniques to really get those concepts in place. Plus, how to bring your own sense of expression into your playing.

Day 5: Reels.

Like the class the day before, but with reels!

Day 6: Wrap-up.

A quick care-and-feeding of your fiddle (when to put new strings on, rehair the bow, what kind of rosin is best, how to check if your bridge is straight, is your instrument set up correctly, dealing with humidity changes, what about geared tuning pegs, etc). Then any last questions and a final play-through of the tunes we’ve learned.