Workshops
live group Instruction
Since when do you do workshops?
Lessons With Marcel is now offering workshops via Zoom to cover all kinds of topics including right hand technique, improvisation, arranging, rhythm, playing in a group, etc. You’ll see everything taught on the YouTube channel in more detail and in a space where questions can be asked live and instructor feedback can be given. The workshops will be hosted by Marcel Ardans, Mickey Abraham and Andy Hatfield, and we’ll often bring in special guests (which will likely include some big names)!
We love the community that’s been growing on the LWM Discord, the YouTube live streams, and of course the group jams with the Bluegrass Coalition. We want to keep creating educational content and keep creating online spaces for flatpickers and other bluegrass musicians to hang out and one way to do that is with workshops.
Upcoming Workshops
Teacher: Hayes Griffin
When: Saturday, April 1st at 1-2:00 PM Eastern
Where: Virtually via Zoom.
Cost: $40
Seats: 25 Students
Level: Intermediate
Creating bluegrass music isn’t all about note choice! You could spend all of your days studying major scales, minor scales, modes, and you’d still be missing something: phrasing.
In this workshop, you will learn to identify common rhythms and phrase structures in bluegrass music to better inform your rhythm and solo playing. This is an oft overlooked missing link, you won’t want to miss this workshop!
Teacher: Andy Hatfield
When: TBA
Where: Virtually via Zoom.
Cost: $40
Seats: 25 Students
Level: TBA
TBA
Have questions before you sign up?
We've got answers
Each workshop will be different, sometimes you might be in a small group where interaction is key. With more than five people in a call it’s probably not the best idea to leave yourself unmuted though. Remember to use Zoom’s “raise hand’ feature to not interrupt mid-lesson.
In other workshops you might find yourself in a large group where interaction might be difficult, we plan on structuring these larger calls more like a lecture. Hold you questions until the end and we’ll have a dedicated Q&A session before the workshop ends.
The base price of our workshops is $40 per session. Depending on the instructors we bring in and the nature of the class that price might fluctuate but our goal is to provide our instructors adequate compensation for the valuable experience they provide.
This rate remains below the cost of our one-on-one lessons and we aim to keep it that way. The workshops serve as an affordable alternative for folks who might not be able to do weekly one-on-one video instruction for any reason.
You can download Zoom here or you can open the meeting in your browser.
After you purchase a seat in a workshop your email address will be added to a mailing list that will send out the link to the call 24 hours before the workshop begins. Remember to use your real email address at checkout, check your spam folders and if you run into any problems don’t hesitate to reach out at help@lessonswithmarcel.com.
Meet The LWM Instructors!
Marcel, Mickey, Hayes, and Andy
Marcel Ardans
Big Bad Billy Goat
Marcel Ardans is a guitarist, teacher and YouTuber active in the Raleigh music scene. His time in the bluegrass scene began in the Pacific Northwest, where he wood-shedded and gigged extensively with local and regional acts. Rightfully earning the nickname “The Biggest Baddest Billy Goat In The Barnyard”. 150 shows a year led to opening for national artists such as Kyle Gass (of Tenacious D), the late Jeff Austin, Jacob Jolliff, Missy Raines, and festival favorites such as, Special Consensus, The Purple Hulls, and Chris Jones & The Night Drivers.
In 2015, he started the online business Lessons With Marcel. The goal was to bring flatpicking and bluegrass guitar to those who wanted instruction but lacked local resources, essentially trying to make bluegrass more accessible, to grow the community.
Since then Marcel has hosted local events, taught guitar workshops, and had the opportunity to interview some of the best contemporary bluegrass guitarists on YouTube, like Trey Hensley, Zeb Snyder, Andy Hatfield, and Jon Stickley. Billy Strings once said of a LWM YouTube video, “Whoa. . . this guy just taught me how I play”.
In 2017, Marcel moved to Raleigh, NC. By partnering with supportive and commendable brands like Straight Up Strings, Strum Machine, and Guitar Pro, his schedule is now filled with LWM Skype students and shooting videos for the Lessons With Marcel YouTube Channel.
Mickey Abraham
The Rabbi
Mickey Abraham is a Suncoast Emmy award-winning performer and instructor. Mickey has been involved in bluegrass and new-acoustic music in his home state of Florida and on the national scene for nearly twenty years. He teaches both mandolin and guitar lessons, and his approach to playing has been featured in Bluegrass Unlimited and Flatpicking Guitar Magazine.
Joe Craven, acoustic maestro says, “Mickey’s enthusiasm for music inspires his students, that’s the hallmark of a great teacher”. His influence as an educator extends to the Tallahassee Youth Orchestra’s Acoustic Ensembles.
Mickey performs alongside Kathryn Belle in their band Belle and the Band. In 2018, their song “Tallahassee”, was named Best Florida Song by the Will Mclean Foundation. And in 2019, Mickey and Kathryn met their fundraising goal through Kickstarter to start producing their new concept album, Voices: A Folk Opera. Their new project combines elements of Broadway with folk music to bring characters, locations, and a story to life.
Mickey spends his days recording, teaching lessons, and creating arrangements for Lessons With Marcel. Perhaps Flatpicking Guitar Magazine’s founder and editor Dan Miller sums up Mickey best by saying, “I predict that in the future you will not only hear a lot of great music from Mickey, but you will hear other talented players who will say ‘I learned from Mickey Abraham’”.
Hayes Griffin
Space Cowboy
Hayes Griffin is a musician, teacher, and YouTuber from central Ohio. After earning a degree in music from Denison University, Hayes received his Master’s in Contemporary Improvisation at New England Conservatory in Boston. He quickly became an active member of the local bluegrass community, studying with the great John McGann and recording the Trimountain Sessions EP with bluegrass phenoms Maddie Witler, Gabe Hirshfeld, John Mailander, and Josh Dayton.
After school, Hayes spent over a decade touring internationally with acts like Canadian fiddler April Verch and progressive bluegrass band Newtown. Featuring Hayes on guitar, Newtown’s 2016 album Harlan Road debuted at #8 on the Billboard Bluegrass Charts. In 2020, he released his first solo project, Midwestern Swing, dedicated to the sounds of American country and Western Swing music from the 1930’s, 40s, and 50s. The album snagged the #1 spot on the Local Spins Hot Top 5 for 2020, charting in the Top 5 for 3 months straight.
In 2020 Hayes began a weekly YouTube series on the playing of electric mandolinist Tiny Moore. Since then, Hayes’ channel has evolved to include weekly videos on bluegrass guitar, Western Swing, music theory, and mindfulness.
These days, Hayes spends his time teaching lessons, recording YouTube videos, and serving his growing community of online students in his Guitar Club. Hayes is proud to endorse GHS Strings and Belmuse Electric Mandolin
Andy Hatfield
mandohat
Andy Hatfield is a creative musician and teacher who loves to help students of all levels learn to play music. He has taught music full-time since 2003, and specializes in mandolin and guitar.
Andy is known for winning three National Championships: The 2011 and the 2017 National Flatpicking Championship, and the 2013 National Mandolin Championship. He is one of only four people (and the second from Peoria, IL) to win both mandolin and guitar in the 45+ year history of the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.
Born into a musical family, Andy started out by playing upright bass when his parents would leave the house. “We had a lot of instruments around, and nobody ever said you couldn’t touch them, but I assumed I’d get in trouble for playing that bass. Instead, once Dad knew what I was up to, he gave me a few pointers, announced that I would be the bass player that weekend, and we went off to the festival to jam. From that point, I was hooked.”
Later learning to play mandolin, guitar, and banjo, Andy spent his teens immersed in Illinois’s rich bluegrass scene.
Andy has taught for several years at Steve Kaufman’s Kamp in Maryville, TN. He is a 2001 graduate of Bradley University, earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Music. In 2018, he was the featured instructor at Roberto Dalla Vecchia’s Acoustic Guitar Camp in Vicenza, Italy.