The future of Bluegrass depends on the passionate sharing of our music, history, and culture. In fact, that’s a huge part of our mission at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We help make this happen in a number of ways, including lessons, workshops, and open jams.
Our Mission...
To preserve and grow our bluegrass music heritage and to serve our community.
To teach, train, and equip people to play music that not only will benefit their mental
and physical health but to serve others in charitable ways for a healthier community.
To document and create a template to share this with other communities.
For more information please contact Randy Lanham, Education Director, at [email protected].
What’s more authentic than learning AT the Hall of Fame? The Lesson program is designed to make bluegrass music more accessible to all who are interested in learning to play an instrument.
Thanks to grants from the Micheal E. Horn Family Foundation and the Lester E. Yeager Charitable Trust, lessons are offered at a heavily discounted rate to the students.
All classes take place at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum.
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS:
Beginners - This class is for newcomers, no skills required.
Beginner Plus- Beginner students that have completed one semesters and are ready to expand upon the skills learned.
Intermediate- Students must be able to read tablature and basic chord charts. This class will move at a faster pace for those wanting to improve their skill.
Bluegrass Band - This class is for musicians and singers and will teach you how to play with others as the group learns songs together. You will learn how to arrange the song, pick the best key for the song, play along with different instruments and singers, and perform together at a local nursing home. We hope this experience will create relationships, spur bands to form, and make more music in our area and beyond.
You must have basic playing knowledge of your instrument or singing. Instruments will be acoustic only or small percussion. The styles covered will be bluegrass and country. Professional musicians and teachers will lead the class.
For more information about classes, Click Here.
Chris Armstrong has over 40 years of playing experience and has been teaching the past 10 years. He has played in many bands and plays several styles of music, including bluegrass, country, gospel, blues, and rock n roll.
Chris gives private 30 minute lessons once per week at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum. The cost is $85 per month.
Instruments taught are guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass, and fiddle.
Email Randy Lanham, Bluegrass Music Academy Director, at [email protected] to get set up today.
*** Please note: students can join anytime with a pro-rated fee.
With decades of instruction and performance experience, Barry Lanham is recognized as a contemporary leader in clogging within Kentucky. Along with his brother Randy, Lanham is co-producer of the acclaimed Lanham Brothers Jamboree, a variety show performed twice annually at the Hall of Fame and distributed throughout an eight-state region by Kentucky Educational Television.
Lanham’s clogging classes offer dancing instruction structured for different levels of expertise from novice to advanced. Covering many facets of traditional Appalachian dancing, participants learn the basics of clogging. In addition, classes are customized to include full family participation from toddlers to senior citizens, and dancers of all skill levels are welcome during the six-week session. Class sizes are limited. Sign up today by filling out the form below. Sign-ups are available here online and onsite the night of the first class. Class information will be emailed, and payment will be due at the first class.
For more information about classes, Click Here.
Community has always been the driving force behind bluegrass and each new generation builds upon the legacy of the last. Since 2003, this museum’s Bluegrass in the Schools (BITS) program has introduced the fun and excitement of bluegrass to over 9,500 elementary students per year through various programs. In 24 area elementary schools, several middle schools, the H. L. Neblett Community Center and River Valley Behavioral Health, we provide up to eight days of hands-on instrument instruction per school. With every banjo, mandolin, guitar and fiddle put in a young person’s hands, a direct, tangible link is forged between the student and his/her cultural heritage.
In each of these schools and community centers, we provide school-wide bluegrass music assembly programs showcasing superb bands in performance or original musicals written and produced by this museum.
For more information please contact Randy Lanham, Education Director, at [email protected].
Bluegrass Music & Clogging: Kentucky's Official State Music and Dance - $6/student
This educational experience takes place at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum and includes three rotations for each student to experience the following:
1. The seeds of bluegrass music are sewn in this music station as students experience:
• The 5 main bluegrass instruments and the origins of bluegrass music
• How instruments function and their origins
• Instrument hands-on experience
2. Music takes on a physical form in the dance station as students:
• Learn traditional clogging and/or a square dance
• Explore how the dances of different cultures contribute to clogging
• Perform for each other and analyze how dances function as both a social and an entertainment element
3. Dig deeper into the history of Bluegrass music in this station as students explore museum exhibits to:
• Learn about the “Father of Bluegrass,” Bill Monroe, and how he and his band strummed into history
• Explore unique facets of the genre of bluegrass music through a fun informational scavenger hunt
• Discover the many cultural influences and musical styles that led to bluegrass music
For more information please contact Sally Dickens at [email protected].
A partnership of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum and Volunteer Owensboro, the Bluegrass Band Project gives local musicians a way to come together and serve the community.
The objective is to bring together local musicians, learn specific bluegrass songs in a group setting, learn the fundamentals of playing music as part of a band, and finally putting people together into smaller groups as a basis for creating a band. Once small groups are established in month three, each group will have a band coach to help the musicians gel and grow accustomed to the give and take of working with other musicians. In other words, working together as a real band.
As part of the program, each band will “graduate” to work on their own committing to one rehearsal each month along with one performance each month coordinated through either Volunteer Owensboro or the International Bluegrass Music Museum. This performance could be for another local non-profit event, charity fundraising event, skilled nursing facility, homeless shelter, or other similar organization. The idea is to serve and to share the joy of making music with others.
Next session to be announced soon.