2nd Annual Lake Anne Ukulele Festival– Reston, VA
Just something that came into my inbox that looked like fun-- anyone in the Northern Virginia area should go check it out!
The 2nd Annual Lake Anne Ukulele Festival will take place on Saturday, July 9, 2011 from11:00AM-5:30PM at Lake Anne Plaza, 1609 Washington Plaza, Reston, VA 20190 (at North Shore Dr. & Village Rd.). The free music festival will feature performances by several internationally known and local ukulele musicians, music demonstrations, open to the public jam session, beer/wine garden, festival vendors, and other family friendly activities. The event will kick off during the ever popular Saturday Farmers & Arts/Craft Market. Headlining the festival on Saturday will be acoustic blues queen Del Ray. Del will also offer fingerstyle blues workshops for ukulele and guitar on Sunday (see below).
Del Rey plays concerts worldwide and also conducts concert/lectures on women musicians called Women in American Music. She has contributed to projects in honor of The Mississippi Sheiks, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Johnny Cash. Del Rey has recorded five solo albums, Blue Uke (2008), When The Levee Breaks (2006), X-Rey Guitar (2000), Hot Sauce (1995) and Boogie Mysterioso (1993). The festival will also include special guests and Grammy award winning artists Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer and other performers such as Hoa Mele Wakinekona (Hawaiian), Bruce Hutton (old-time, folk), Marcy’s Potted Plants, The Aloha Boys (Hawaiian), and local duo The Sweater Set.
Performance Schedule:
11:00AM Hoa Mele Wakinekona
11:30AM The Sweater Set
12:15PM Bruce Hutton
1:00PM Marcy’s Potted Plants
1:30PM Aloha Boys
2:15PM Fink & Marxer
3:30PM Del Rey
4:30PM Open Jam Session (public participation welcomed)
Admission is free. Festival takes place Rain or Shine. www.lakeanneplaza.com
Ukulele and Guitar Workshops with Del Rey “Seattle-based queen of fingerstyle blues”
Sunday July 10, 2011 -- Lake Anne Plaza (North Shore Drive and Village Road, Reston Virginia 20190)
Introduction To Fingerpicking the Ukulele, 1:00-2:15 pm
For you strummers, here's a song that will get you started using your right hand in a different way. Papa Charlie Jackson's "Mama Don't You Think I Know," a funny old tune in C with an easy-to-hear fingerpicking pattern, will get you started picking out ragtime and blues tunes on the uke. Students should be able to play C, C7, F, F7 and G7 without hesitation.
Blue Uke, 2:30-3:45 pm
Intermediate (be comfortable with first position chords and be able to keep time)
Blues, rags and old songs for the ukulele, with a focus on fingerpicking the melody. Tunes like the Mississippi River Waltz, Tappin’ That Thing (Memphis Jug Band) and Tired Chicken (Gus Cannon)...by ear, no TAB.
Moving Bass lines for Fingerstyle Guitar, 4:00-5:15 pm
Intermediate-Advanced
Want to play like a pianist? Walking and boogie-woogie bass lines for fingerstyle guitar. Learn the positions where you can find both chords and moving bass. Standard tuning. Recorders ok.
***
Workshops are $25 each.
For information, or to register, contact Ann Granger at 703-470-3038 or AnnThePotter@gmail.com.
Space is limited so sign up early. You will be given the exact location when you register.
My digital storytelling project pitch…
We were asked to "pitch" our final projects over in my Digital Storytelling class.
In movie-making, a pitch is usually an oral thing-- the short written version is a "treatment." And given that the project that I want to work on would involve in me taking video of myself and putting it up on the web, interacting with people via sites like YouTube-- something that I am not at all accustomed to or particularly comfortable about-- I figured that doing my "pitch" via video would be particularly helpful.
So yeah-- here's my pitch. Do you think it sounds like a worthwhile/interesting/achievable project? Are there pitfalls I haven't thought of that I should think about?