Title: Learn to Make your own Gourd Banjo
Location: Ozark Folk Center State Park
Description: Want to take your pick’n and play’n to a new level? Make your own gourd banjo. Spend the week of March 14-20, 2010 in Mountain View, Arkansas at the Ozark Folk Center and learn to make your own gourd banjo. This Ozark Folk School class will be taught by well known banjo maker, Jeff Menzies, from Toronto, Canada. Jeff will teach you the techniques to make a banjo that sounds as beautiful at it looks. You can choose to make either a gourd or tack head style banjo in this seven-day class.
The class will start Sunday morning, March 14, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. This intensive class often works late into the evening and includes informal jam sessions to lighten up the hard work of making a quality musical instrument.
You’ll use both hand and power tools to shape the body and neck of your banjo. Previous woodworking experience is beneficial, but not required. You’ll be able to choose to make either a gourd or a tack head banjo. You’ll get to pick your gourd from a range of different shapes and choose your banjo neck from a variety of woods.
The final day, Saturday, March 20, 2010, Jeff will teach you how to make beautiful music on your new banjo. Jeff is quick to note that playability is a major design element and that he teaches students to make banjos that are made to be played. Jeff’s gourd banjos are not historical reproductions; his work is influenced by neck designs of mid-1800’s minstrel banjos, contemporary styles and makers, and also his own sculptural practice. Believing in the importance to have the work of other makers/players feeding his practice, Jeff has devoted significant effort to study and collect other gourd banjo makers’ work, and to the extent possible, meet and learn from them. The final ingredient is the impact of the materials. Each individual banjo is unique because the banjo itself is initiated by the materials used to create it and the wood that becomes the neck. To learn more about Jeff and his style of banjos, visit his web site at www.jeffmenzies.com.
The registration deadline for the Gourd Banjo Making class is Feb. 12. The class needs a minimum of 12 students to make so gather your friends and come make your own banjo.
The cost of this class is $525, plus a $175 materials fee for everything you’ll need to make your own unique banjo. A non-refundable registration fee of $105 is due when you sign up, the rest is due at the beginning of class..
The Ozark Folk School offers more than 30 different classed in crafts, mountain music and herbs. For more information on any of our Folk School Classes, or to register for the Gourd Banjo Making Class, call the Ozark Folk Center at 870-269-3851 or visit www.ozarkfolkcenter.com.
Contact Person: Jeanette Larson
E-Mail Address:jeanette.larson@arkansas.gov
Phone: 870-269-3851
Start Date: 2010-03-14
End Date: 2010-03-20
