Strings Now Workshop

The CMC Atlanta Strings Now Summer Workshop with Jenn Cornell will be held at our CMC Decatur location from Friday, July 26 through Sunday July 28, 2024.  Violinists, violists, cellists, and upright bassists, grades 7 and up, intermediate to advanced levels, are welcome to attend.  

The Strings Now Summer Workshop immerses student players in both solo and ensemble music making with peers and a faculty comprised of professional performers and educators.  What makes the Strings Now Workshop unique locally is our emphasis of current styles of string performance.  

We honor and draw from great historical traditions of string playing, but Strings Now introduces and emphasizes new aspects of string performance, aspects such as improvisation, amplification, use of effects pedals, looping and layering, and progressive techniques like power bowing.  Many students are interested in playing strings in the context of current styles of music or using modern technology to expand the expressive palate of their instrument, but many of those students do not have the opportunity to get started, let alone an opportunity to explore playfully.  The workshop provides a gateway for doing so.  For those students who have a background in new music performance practice, the camp provides the opportunity to work intensely with professional performers on our workshop faculty in what we'd consider the student's ongoing effort to cultivate their own authentic musical voice.     

Tuition Includes

• Private Instruction with professional performers and educators
• Ensemble/group (small, medium, and large) performance and coaching
• Solo repertoire coaching and accompaniment 
• The music, equipment and performance materials needed for a fun learning environment

Workshop Performance

• Sunday, July 28 2:00 pm @ CMC Decatur

Sample Schedule

• 8-9AM Drop Off/Arrival
• 9-9:45AM - Intro/Performance (Lead Instructor -Jenn Cornell will present a looping performance including an overview of her sound equipment, 6-String Electric Cello and multiple effects pedals and discuss her perspectives on how to find a unique voice of musical freedom within the structure of music and the use of technology.)
• 10-11- Extended Techniques Workshop (harmonics, color change/distortion, hammer on and pull offs, unconventional plucking, slides, power chords, and percussive techniques)
• 11:15AM Music Theory Basics/Ear Training (Overview of Scales, Key Signatures, Circle of Fifths, Chords and Intervals. Goal: to bring more awareness to how we listen to and perform music. Class will include listening exercises, descriptive writing exercises and creative drawing.)
• 12-1PM Lunch
• 1PM- Improv Basics (Pentatonic scale, 12-Bar Blues/Chord Progressions, Finding your voice)
• 2PM- Personal practice time of Extended Techniques and Improv with 12 part blues backing track (Student will need their own personal device for playing track from Youtube)
• 3PM- Pickup

Registration 

Please complete the online form here.  We will set up your account, invoice you and add the student to our roster.

After registering, to help with ensemble formation, placement, and planning, students will be prompted to send in an audio OR video recording of themselves performing 2 short contrasting (1 slow/lyrical, 1 technical) excerpts each about 1 minute in length. Ideally, the student will submit these excerpts via Youtube link; alternatively, we will create a portal for direct video submission. 

For more information about the Strings Now Workshop , please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .