Hey folks,
I recently contacted one of the heads of a blues society here in the mountains of Colorado, just kinda showing him what I do. My ultimate goal was to get free admission to the 2-day blues fest they host in June... hee hee hee.
But he took it much, much beyond that. He suggested the idea of hosting a workshop for some kids at their school, which I love. I think it's a great idea... but I have no idea how to go about it.
So if any of you have hosted a workshop before, any advice you can give would be incredibly appreciated.
I would love for each kid to be able to walk out of the class with a CBG. The guy is thinking the class size would be around 20. Coming up with supplies (necks, boxes, etc) should be no problem.
My questions include: what age groups are capable of making the basic, fretless CBG? Without power tools? How long is that going to take? What prep work will I need to do?
He suggested I send him a basic, shaped neck, and he could arrange for some folks to donate the wood and cut the notches in the box. The problem I see with that is each neck stick has to be cut for the specific box you're gonna use. And in my experience, finding 20-30 boxes of the exact same dimensions is very hard to do. Maybe I can get them to spring for Shane's 50 box special.... only I'm not sure what their budget is.
As you can see, I've got all sorts of questions about this endeavor running through my brain.... so if you have organized a workshop before, want to, have thought about one, etc etc.... any info and insight you can throw my way would be killer.
I see a great opportunity to not only get kids into the blues, but (maybe more importantly) get them into the CBG culture at an early age.
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Hey Nathan,
KID WORKSHOPS ARE A BLAST!!
I've never been involved in any full classroom setting workshops, but I have done a couple of festival "walk-up" build-a-cbg activities for kids that went great.
First of all, what I learned was that you have to assume they know NOTHING. Not how to hold a tool (or a guitar) what a screw is . . . NOTHING. That's one of the things that makes it so much fun. The kids start from zero, but pick up the concept instantly with very little instruction, really.
I had EVERYTHING pre-cut and ready to assemble. No cutting tools at all were needed, and the only power tool was a battery screw driver.
The biggest challenge (I thought) was in keeping the kids going and occupied and not just waiting for instruction. A good tactic for this is have them sand the neck. If all else fails, just keep 'em sanding that neck. ha-ha. If I was tied up helping two or three kids at the booth and another one walked up, I could just get him or her started on sanding - and keep him at it until I was ready to take him to the next step.
A basic three string assembly took about 20 - 25 minutes the way we were doing it. (pre cut box notches and pre-drilled tuner holes in the neck.) The basic assembly was really nothing more than running a couple of drywall screws through the box into the neck. I found that kids as young as eight could handle this pretty well with that cordless electric screwdriver and just a few cautionary instructions on protecting their fingers.
The biggest pain is in mounting the tuners. I finally ended up abandoning the idea of screws and just tacked them down using needle-nose pliers, a tack hammer, a punch and some brads with oversized heads. (In our setting usually Mom or Dad was there to help oversee this for the littlest guys.)
We had an option to include zip-tie frets (dulcimer tuning style.) I had a guide marked out on an old yardstick so they could line up and mark their necks easily. (let's face it - precision isn't all THAT important.)
For the REAL little kids that happened to come up, (as young as four or five) I had a quick one-string set up that they could make. It was a One inch dowel with a friction tuner, a box with 1" pre-drilled holes, about a 2" piece of hardwood moulding for a bridge and some heavy weed-whacker line. The kids picked out the box and the neck and slid the neck through the holes. I quickly zipped a drywall screw in, cranked up the string and then had them slide the bridge under. Easy as can be.
CAUTION: You will learn how shockingly short the attention span of todays video game generation kids really is. Make it a quick and easy - instant gratification experience and be sure to pick the right project for your audience. Example, while the diddley bow was perfect for the pint-sized guys, kid's older than about 7 were usually bored with the one string rig after a few plunks. It took the three stringers to really hold their attention.
I've got some drawings and assembly instructions, if you're interested.
All in all it was great exhausting fun, a wonderful way to connect with the kids , and one of the most rewarding experiences I can remember in a long, long time.
Good Luck,
K
I've not done one yet, but plan on doing so at our next blues festival. I was thinking of one string d-bows or canjo , something that can be completed quickly, and does not require a lot of materials or prep. Safety is a big issue for both you and the kids, from both an injury and liability standpoint. I'm thinking some kind of waiver signed by the parents would be a good idea. Also check with the organizers to see what their liability rules/insurance is about. The only way I can see that you would be able to do 3 or 4 stringers would be for you to have everything prepped as kits,and just have them assemble them. Even with that, I can see a lot of time spent on tuning, replacing broken strings etc. I've thought of offering maybe a couple of different instruments too, maybe have a choice of d-bow/guitar, drum, kazoo? so that after the workshop, they can "jam". Also would appeal to larger number of students, as everyone my not want to play guitar? (hard for me to imagine!) This would also have complications/time issues though. I would say keep the fun level high and the work/frustration level as low as possible.
I made cbg's with my HS class. Lot's of prep, but very rewarding. You have to assume the kids know little about guitar or how a guitar works. You mentioned cutting each neck to fit in the box. How about putting the neck directly on top of the box. No cutting-no fuss-more time to have fun with the instruments. I have built 4 dulcimers so far with the neck on the box and am very suprised by how good they sound.
I am currently giving a course to the local youth in the errrr..... youth centre.
very enjoyable. We have six participants creating a variety of instruments.
Most are youth and young adults of varying degrees of handworking craftsmanship.
Some are already finished and gone, some are just getting started. not just guitars either.
I thought at the time of planning that I could do my ovn stuff easily during classes, but this is not the case.
You may find yourself constantly required by participants to help them through stages of production often due to the fact that they do not have the skills or understanding of the subject like yourself.
maybe I made it all a little difficult because I said straight from the start that it need not be a guitar, so we got a violin done for one girl, a mandolin, a guitar, and currently 2 guitars and a bass, as well as a bouzouki and a toolbox guitar. So it has certainly been a very rewarding experience so far for all concerned.
One of the main things I have learned is the ability to feel yourself into others minds and trains of thought on the subject. It is vital that participants get the impression that they are being both listened too and the level of their basic carpentry ( and other) skills is recognized. It is important that you are able to give that impression of them having fun in the act of creating someting, and not the lasting impression they get from fighting with a handsaw....
Wish you the best of luck, and that the participants have a good time too...
I reckon that the one string diddley bow is a good idea for introducing the blues, or any music for that matter, to beginners of any age. It shows them the scale in one line, and makes it all make sense very quickly as well as being a lot less complex to build and more affordable.
My 2nd grade daughter's class saw the CBG we made and the music teacher wants to make a guitar for the class next year. Everyone was very inspired by it. But I think we are going to make just one for the whole class. I did think about creating some out of cardboard boxes and tubes that would be easier to work with and more primitive but would also get the idea across.
Have you had a look a Hollowbelly's page. He did a similar thing with one of his local schools he is a great guy and I am sure he would give you some pointers.
If things go right I will be moving to the Denver area next June . I would be more than happy to get up to the mountains and give you some help and support ( work and family willing) if you have not started the project by that time.
Im of no help to you Im afraid having not done a workshop with kids before, but I would think the more prep work you can do the better. If the necks are already cut to length, and the tuner holes drilled etc youll save a lot of time (and accidents!).
Maybe have them cut the box, attach the neck, fit the hardware, mark the frets (from a template?) and maybe cut the soundholes (so that they are all a little individual)?
Or how about diddly bows? might be a bit more economical using less tuners, strings etc.
Im sure folk like Shane, Doc, CBJ etc will point you in the right direction though :o)
I'm thinking I'll have to do a fair bit of prep... especially if this is all gonna happen in the space of one or two days, without power tools. Maybe I'll check in with our Luddite Builders, see if they have any pointers....
Still got a lot of thinking/planning to do, but the idea is very exciting!
This is great Nathan! I haven't done this myself yet, but I'm anticipating being asked by the music teacher at my daughter's charter school. Last week I spent a day with my nephew teaching him how to build one. He is in college studying music engineering. His build was a great success. We kept it simple, thru neck,fretless, bolt bridge and nut. We did laminate the neck (1/4" x 2, 1/2" x 2) to skip sanding down the headstock and thru box part. He did it all in about 7 hours. If you have some of the parts preassembled as you said, the time can be cut down considerably. I would think 10 year olds are capable of assembling a CBG. You will definitely need help if you have 20 kids. Be sure to schedule some time to show the kids some simple blues progressions. Send the kids home with steel spacers (Lowes has them for cheap) to use as slides.
I remember someone did this with a large group of kids in the UK recently, I'm not sure, but I think it was Hollowbelly, you might check with him.
Best of luck, let me know how it goes. Feel free to bounce any ideas off me if you like.
Andy
Replies
KID WORKSHOPS ARE A BLAST!!
I've never been involved in any full classroom setting workshops, but I have done a couple of festival "walk-up" build-a-cbg activities for kids that went great.
First of all, what I learned was that you have to assume they know NOTHING. Not how to hold a tool (or a guitar) what a screw is . . . NOTHING. That's one of the things that makes it so much fun. The kids start from zero, but pick up the concept instantly with very little instruction, really.
I had EVERYTHING pre-cut and ready to assemble. No cutting tools at all were needed, and the only power tool was a battery screw driver.
The biggest challenge (I thought) was in keeping the kids going and occupied and not just waiting for instruction. A good tactic for this is have them sand the neck. If all else fails, just keep 'em sanding that neck. ha-ha. If I was tied up helping two or three kids at the booth and another one walked up, I could just get him or her started on sanding - and keep him at it until I was ready to take him to the next step.
A basic three string assembly took about 20 - 25 minutes the way we were doing it. (pre cut box notches and pre-drilled tuner holes in the neck.) The basic assembly was really nothing more than running a couple of drywall screws through the box into the neck. I found that kids as young as eight could handle this pretty well with that cordless electric screwdriver and just a few cautionary instructions on protecting their fingers.
The biggest pain is in mounting the tuners. I finally ended up abandoning the idea of screws and just tacked them down using needle-nose pliers, a tack hammer, a punch and some brads with oversized heads. (In our setting usually Mom or Dad was there to help oversee this for the littlest guys.)
We had an option to include zip-tie frets (dulcimer tuning style.) I had a guide marked out on an old yardstick so they could line up and mark their necks easily. (let's face it - precision isn't all THAT important.)
For the REAL little kids that happened to come up, (as young as four or five) I had a quick one-string set up that they could make. It was a One inch dowel with a friction tuner, a box with 1" pre-drilled holes, about a 2" piece of hardwood moulding for a bridge and some heavy weed-whacker line. The kids picked out the box and the neck and slid the neck through the holes. I quickly zipped a drywall screw in, cranked up the string and then had them slide the bridge under. Easy as can be.
CAUTION: You will learn how shockingly short the attention span of todays video game generation kids really is. Make it a quick and easy - instant gratification experience and be sure to pick the right project for your audience. Example, while the diddley bow was perfect for the pint-sized guys, kid's older than about 7 were usually bored with the one string rig after a few plunks. It took the three stringers to really hold their attention.
I've got some drawings and assembly instructions, if you're interested.
All in all it was great exhausting fun, a wonderful way to connect with the kids , and one of the most rewarding experiences I can remember in a long, long time.
Good Luck,
K
very enjoyable. We have six participants creating a variety of instruments.
Most are youth and young adults of varying degrees of handworking craftsmanship.
Some are already finished and gone, some are just getting started. not just guitars either.
I thought at the time of planning that I could do my ovn stuff easily during classes, but this is not the case.
You may find yourself constantly required by participants to help them through stages of production often due to the fact that they do not have the skills or understanding of the subject like yourself.
maybe I made it all a little difficult because I said straight from the start that it need not be a guitar, so we got a violin done for one girl, a mandolin, a guitar, and currently 2 guitars and a bass, as well as a bouzouki and a toolbox guitar. So it has certainly been a very rewarding experience so far for all concerned.
One of the main things I have learned is the ability to feel yourself into others minds and trains of thought on the subject. It is vital that participants get the impression that they are being both listened too and the level of their basic carpentry ( and other) skills is recognized. It is important that you are able to give that impression of them having fun in the act of creating someting, and not the lasting impression they get from fighting with a handsaw....
Wish you the best of luck, and that the participants have a good time too...
Have you had a look a Hollowbelly's page. He did a similar thing with one of his local schools he is a great guy and I am sure he would give you some pointers.
If things go right I will be moving to the Denver area next June . I would be more than happy to get up to the mountains and give you some help and support ( work and family willing) if you have not started the project by that time.
Im of no help to you Im afraid having not done a workshop with kids before, but I would think the more prep work you can do the better. If the necks are already cut to length, and the tuner holes drilled etc youll save a lot of time (and accidents!).
Maybe have them cut the box, attach the neck, fit the hardware, mark the frets (from a template?) and maybe cut the soundholes (so that they are all a little individual)?
Or how about diddly bows? might be a bit more economical using less tuners, strings etc.
Im sure folk like Shane, Doc, CBJ etc will point you in the right direction though :o)
Keep us posted!
Still got a lot of thinking/planning to do, but the idea is very exciting!
I remember someone did this with a large group of kids in the UK recently, I'm not sure, but I think it was Hollowbelly, you might check with him.
Best of luck, let me know how it goes. Feel free to bounce any ideas off me if you like.
Andy
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