Great Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont

"Kiddin' Around" and Campfire Pickin'

Young people experiencing Appalachian instruments

First experience on a guitar

Waiting in line to conquer the Fiddle

The next Bill Monroe?

Learning to how navigate a Lap Dulcimer

Cigar Box Guitar, Canjo, Fiddle, Dulcimer and Limberjacks

Ms Joan explaining the origin of Appalachian instruments

Campfire picking at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont

Nate, from Rockwood , MO School District joins us with a tune on the Dog House Bass

Mission Statement

Educating people of all ages, about the music of the Appalachian Mountians, is one of our prime objectives. We try to foster an interest in actually playing an instrument of some sort. Many people pick up a guitar, banjo or some other instrument, and are unsuccessful with it. They therefore assume that they cannot play music. They simply may have picked up an instrument that was not a natural "fit" for them, making it overly difficult to learn.

It is my personal belief that if a person has a natural sence of timing, (which MOST of us do) then they can play music if they discover the instrument that comes "natural" to them. This is why we offer the Kiddin" Around program. It allows every participant to have a hands on experience with ~ 10 Appalachian instruments, primitive to advanced. Invariably, one of these instruments catches the interest of one of the participants and encourages them to persue learning it.

Due to the intensly interactive nature of the our 1 hour Kiddin' Around program, we must limit our class size to 25 participants. If a group has more than 25, we will do shows back to back, with the second hour at a reduced rate since we are already set up and ready to go.

Please contact us for availability. We need as much advance notice as possible.