Courses

Sore Fingers Week 2023

10th - 14th Apr 2023

Since its inception in 1996, Sore Fingers Week has grown into one of the best acoustic music camps on the international scene gaining an enviable reputation on both sides of the Atlantic.
Sore Fingers Week is a five-day course covering the range of acoustic instruments usually found in Bluegrass or Old Time string band music and beyond. The courses are suitable for anyone interested in the following instruments whatever style of music they play. Our aim is to teach fundamental techniques that will help you become more rounded musicians and the themes referred to above simply provide us with a foundation for teaching these skills. We offer courses for Bluegrass Banjo, Bass, Dobro, Bluegrass Fiddle, Flat Pick Guitar, Mandolin, Old-Time Banjo, Old Time Fiddle, Ukulele and Singing. We have additional courses to cover subjects such as Song-Writing and some leanings towards practical music theory, “improvisation” or “arranging” designed to unlock some mysteries of music theory, help you understand why what you play works and lead toward opening more opportunities to become creative with your music. Please note that you don’t need to read music or know theory to attend our courses.
Sore Fingers Summer Schools are always reviewing and adding courses as trends develop recognising the need for change.
With a long list of classes, we attract a wide ranging crowd of like mined people, whether regulars who visit every year or newcomers who are trying the course out for the first time. Either way, you will make lifelong friends and learn a lot about being a musician whether amateur or professional.
There’s just nothing like Sore Fingers Week!
For Easter 2023 we are bringing together a stellar team of tutors from the US and the UK to run these classes, teach you and pass on those secrets that make our tutors such great players themselves.
Check out this year’s Tutor team by logging onto the tutor page and reading their bios.

Classes and tutors

Class	Tutor	No. places
INTRODUCTION
AUTOHARP	Mike Fenton	20
AUTOHARP BEGINNERS	Heather Farrell-Roberts	20
BANJO	Gina Furtado	20
BANJO	Gabe Hirshfeld	20
BASS	Missy Raines	20
DOBRO	Noel Dashwood	20
FIDDLE	Annie Staninec	20
GUITAR	Ross Martin	20
GUITAR	Peter McLaughlin	20
MANDOLIN	David Benedict	20
MANDOLIN	Mark Stoffel	20
MUSIC DEVELOPEMENT	Andy MacKenzie	20
MUSIC DEVELOPEMENT	Mike Pryor	20
OLD TIME BANJO	Chris Coole	20
OLD TIME FIDDLE	John Showman	20
SINGING	Kathy Kallick	20
SONGWRITING	John Lowell	20
UKULELE	Percy Copley	20
BEGINNERS
BEGINNERS ALL INSTRUMENTS	Ed Hicks	20
BEGINNERS ALL INSTRUMENTS	Peter Earle	20

Read tutor biographies

Prices

Arrival from Sunday 9th (after 3pm).
Departure Saturday 15th by 10am.

All prices appear on the booking form. Please note prices are per-person even if sharing accommodation.

Booking stays open until classes are full or until commencement of classes on Monday 10th April. Early reservations are advisable because some classes and accommodation options fill up very quickly.

Early reservations must be supported by a deposit payment. Reservations made after January 31st will be subject to full fee payment. Please read the "Payment" section of the Booking Form Terms and Conditions for further information.

Sore Fingers Summer Schools Ltd strongly recommend you take out adequate insurance to cover you in the event of illness or circumstances beyond your control that prevent you from attending the course.

Please go to the booking page for full details on how to book your place.