Western Swing is a subgenre of swing that was predominantly played for dances in Texas, Oklahoma, and California. Unlike traditional swing instrumentation, Western Swing uses more string instruments such as guitar, steel, and fiddle. This fun, upbeat, and danceable music is a great gateway for fiddlers with no swing or jazz background to understand and get hooked on jazz. Ear players and note readers are both welcome.

Joe Venuti said, “You have to know chords,” so in both classes (Western Swing Fiddle and Swing Fiddle) we’ll cover playing over chords. We’ll investigate the elusive swing eighth note phenomenon and Joe’s off-beat swing slurring and learn how to decorate basic melodies with syncopation, blue notes, neighboring tones, and more. We’ll apply these techniques to great old standards and have a lot of fun doing so.

Paul Anastasio has played with Merle Haggard, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers and Loretta Lynn. He currently performs with the western swing band Stop the Clock.