Can you provide a list of perhaps 20 - 30 of the top schools where
Bluegrass Music and/or Instrument playing (i.e., mandolins, banjos,
and the like) is offered in the US?  Can you rank them in some logical order?

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Request for Question Clarification by robertskelton-ga on 07 Jan 2004 19:07 PST

Hi again,

I gave it a go, but struck some problems:

1) I think ranking the schools (other than by location or
alphabetical) isn't possible. I would not expect to find numbers of
students, or more than the occasional comment on the quality of the
teaching, or any other way of sorting them

2) Going to each school of music website and investigating if they
taught those particular instruments would take many hours

3) I have a feeling (based on the IBMA link below) that less than 20
such schools exist

Here's what I have found. You might want to consider opening the
question to other researchers and upping the ante.

IBMA - Bluegrass Career & Educational Opportunities
http://www.ibma.org/about.bluegrass/career.education/index.asp

Links To University Music Programs
http://www.musicstaff.com/university/

Mandolin Cafe Instructor Classifieds
http://www.mandolincafe.com/cgi-bin/instructors/instructors.cgi?search_and_display_db_button=on"

Bluegrass Banjo Teachers - National Directory
http://www.banjoben.com/bluegrass_banjo_teachers.htm

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Clarification of Question by bodaboyce-ga on 09 Jan 2004 10:58 PST

I am quite happy with the information you were able to provide, though
I would of course like to have more . . .

I am quite willing to accept your clarification request as an answer,
and happy to pay you for your efforts on my behalf.

Does that work for you?

Hi there,

I found the following by searching the sites of schools mentioned at
IBMA. I tried several search techniques but was unable to come up with
any others that qualify (sometimes the reason why you can find
anything is that it isn't there).


Belmont University
http://www.belmont.edu/music_hot/profile.cfm?idno=112

Berklee College of Music
http://www.berklee.edu/courses/details.lasso?-Token.num=ENSB-329&-Token.field=department&-Token.value=Ensemble&-Token.sort=Name&-Token.skip=0&-Token.Op=eq

East Tennessee State University
http://cass.etsu.edu/bluegrass/index.htm

Kentucky Center for Traditional Music
http://www.kctm.info/

South Plains College
http://www.southplainscollege.edu/website/catalog/technical/commus.html

Walters State Community College
http://www.wscc.cc.tn.us/humanities/music/

Augusta Heritage Center
http://www.augustaheritage.com/workshopsdisplay.cfm?display=alphalist

-----------------------------------

The above were found thanks to the following link - it also has
details of camps and short courses:

IBMA - Bluegrass Career & Educational Opportunities
http://www.ibma.org/about.bluegrass/career.education/index.asp

There could well be some universities that let you take a general
music course, and specialize in bluegrass. This could be augmented by
private tuition.

Links To University Music Programs
http://www.musicstaff.com/university/

Mandolin Cafe Instructor Classifieds
http://www.mandolincafe.com/cgi-bin/instructors/instructors.cgi?search_and_display_db_button=on"

Bluegrass Banjo Teachers - National Directory
http://www.banjoben.com/bluegrass_banjo_teachers.htm



Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

With my gratitude for your effort . . .  I know it was not an easy question.

One of my degrees is in music. My school didn't offer classes in banjo
or mandolin, much less offer those instruments as a performance major.
I suggest that you contact some colleges in the south--maybe from
Kentucky down to Louisiana, maybe even in Texas for the banjo--and
contact each school's College of Music. Ask if they offer instruction
in the instruments you're interested in. If they don't, they might
know a nearby school that does.

You could also ask to speak with someone in the guitar department.
Guitar would almost certainly be offered as a performance
major--classical, for sure, and jazz at the bigger schools--and the
guitar instructors might know who offers classes or degrees in banjo,
mandolin, and similar instruments.

G'luck,
dtc

Hi dancethecon,

You may or may not know that Boston is a regular hotbed of bluegrass
music.  Well, that and lots of other places! You might like to check
out this additional link:

Boston Bluegrass Union - has links to the Bluegrass Academy for adults
and kids, camps, a directory of bluegrass instructors, and other
interesting bluegrass resources: http://bbu.org/

Good luck, and best wishes,
Byrd

There's a lot of great instruction (and jamming experience to be
gained) over the summer at the various bluegrass camps and
instrument-oriented camps.  Not quite the same as the schools you were
asking about, but excellent to supplement formal classes (or in the
summer before starting college).  For example, check
http://www.fiddle.com/ (in the links section) for a listing of many
summer camps, not just for fiddle.

Good luck from a Boston area mandolin player...