Winter Cowan 2026
For the seventh year, we will offer virtual classes to keep you progressing in fiddle, banjo, guitar and songs from Kentucky. Each class meets for one hour each week for 8 weeks via Zoom. All class times are listed in US Eastern Standard Time. Standard tuition is $160.
A Nancy McClellan Scholarship is available for students 11 years old and up. To apply for a scholarship, select the desired “scholarship” button when registering. If you need help with registration or have questions, please contact the CCMMS coordinator, Stacy Dollarhide at CCMMS@cowancommunitycenter.org or (606) 335-5350. Class size is limited to 15 so register soon!
Try out a class? Be sure to register for the Pickin’ Party on December 7th. The free 20 min. classes will start from 1PM. Experience how the classes are online! Invite your friends!
2026 Faculty
Intermediate-Advanced Mandolin : Old Time Mandolin-Ohio River Valley Tunes
Thursdays at 7:00 PM
Level: Intermediate & Advanced
Instructor: Scott Rucker
Course Description:
Join Scott as we explore adapting traditional fiddle tunes of northeast Kentucky and the Ohio River valley area to the mandolin. We will focus on learning melodies, melodic variations, mandolin specific techniques that are helpful in adapting fiddle tunes to the mandolin, and backup styles.We will use tunes from such fiddlers as Buddy Thomas, Roger Cooper, JP Fraley, and Jimmy Wheeler but much of the material can be applied to playing fiddle tunes from various regions and to playing different mandolin folk styles in general.
The course is best suited for rising intermediate and above level players. Having a basic knowledge of the fretboard in first and second positions, understanding and knowing common fiddle tune keys, and having basic pick direction skills before taking the class will be helpful.
Bio:
Scott Rucker, an Eastern Kentucky native, has been playing and performing string band music with a variety of people for over two decades. He has performed at various festivals in several different bands over the years but loves informal jams just as much as performing. Scott plays multiple instruments and styles but is an old time mandolin player first and foremost. He has been focusing most of his musical energies on adapting fiddle tunes of the Ohio Valley region to the mandolin for the last few years. Scott’s teaching style focuses largely on teaching tunes that feature different techniques and styles that can then be applied to other tunes and playing situations.
Intermediate Fiddle: Kentucky Fiddle Tunes
Wednesdays at 7:00 PM
Level: Intermediate, Students should be able to play a few tunes comfortably in the key of A, D, and G.
Instructor: Andrew Duckworth
Course Description:
In this course we will learn some tunes from various regions of Kentucky as well as some tunes from outside its borders that share some similarities to Kentucky fiddling. We will start thinking about variations on the tunes and how that affects the bowing arm.
Bio:
With a foundation in Kentucky’s rich musical heritage, Andrew Duckworth is an old-time fiddler dedicated to preserving tradition while infusing it with a unique personal style. A rhythmic, rocking bowing technique honed over years of absorbing the deep-rooted sounds of the Bluegrass State and beyond gives his playing a distinct, propulsive feel.
Beyond playing the fiddle, Andrew plays guitar and blends his voice with his wife Stephanie Duckworth in their classic country duo, Rose and Vine. He also builds fine violins in the classic Cremonese tradition with time honored techniques.
Early-Intermediate Dulcimer
Wednesdays at 7:00 PM
Level: Early Intermediate
Instructor: Evleyn Tackett
Course Description:
Have you dabbled in playing the dulcimer before? Maybe you’re familiar with tuning the strings and playing simple melodies, or maybe you know chords, but playing melodies and changing keys is unfamiliar. If you feel like you’re not quite a beginner, but an intermediate class is too big of a leap, this early intermediate class is for you! This course is designed for people who have some experience playing the dulcimer and have basic knowledge of how to tune the strings and play a few tunes. During this course, we will learn how to play in different tunings and keys, how to play chords and melodies in different places on the fretboard, and plenty of traditional Appalachian tunes and ways you can add your own flair to them. A capo will be necessary.
Bio:
Evelyn Tackett grew up close to Bardstown, Kentucky, and has gradually moved further East as the years have passed, finally landing her in her current home in Jenkins close to her father’s family. Always having guitars in the house and hearing her father play inspired her to learn to play, too. Her musical journey led her to teaching for the Pick & Bow programs of Letcher and Knott counties, where her love of traditional Appalachian music has grown and connected her to her community in a deeply meaningful way. Because of this connection to her community, she has been playing the dulcimer for the last year, practicing frequently and performing at farmer’s markets and community centers. This summer she served as the Teaching Assistant for the intermediate dulcimer class at the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School. In her free time, she loves going hiking with her dog and daughter and engaging in various arts and crafts projects in nearly every medium.
Intermediate Banjo
Mondays at 7:00 PM
Level: Intermediate
Instructor: Anna Roberts-Gevalt
Course Description:
This class will be organized around a set of technical, musical, and listening skills; we’ll learn them through a set of new tunes and playing/listening exercises!
Learning on the fly: How to learn tunes AS YOU ARE PLAYING. Often, we learn by slowing things down, breaking tunes down into small parts and gradually speeding up — but we”ll practice approaching from the opposite direction, and focus on sharpening the skills of learning tunes “at speed” whether in a jam setting, from a recording, or learning a tune from a fiddler without hearing a banjo “version” of it. It can be stressful and overwhelming to be trying to join in, when you have no idea how the tune goes!
Break down some of the steps & skills to this process: identifying common patterns/fingerings in the different tunings (and patterns to practice at home!), listening skills, keeping track of (and remembering) the different parts of a tune as it plays, learning some back-ground rhythm licks and chords to play/support the fiddler with as you’re figuring the tune out, making a simple bare-bones version of a tune when it’s new (and how to gradually add detail to it)!
Dynamics, “texture” and phrasing: We’ll “zoom-in” to the sounds of the notes we’re playing — what range of sound can we get, with different types of pressure, different styles of strumming ? what techniques help us play louder or quieter ? Softer vs “clonky” ? Getting rounder notes vs brushier or more rhythmic notes ? Then we’ll take these building blocks and how to work with them, in the ebb and flow of the phrases of a tune.
“Being in the pocket,” and locking in rhythmically: Focusing on holding a rhythm, subtle ways to indicate the beat, and variations on the old time rhythm.
Variations and improvising: Not in the sense of “taking solos”, but improvising in the sense of being responsive, present, flowing ! We’ll work on developing variations of a familiar tune (using right and left hand techniques), shifting how “full” or “sparse” you are playing. Part of this will be focusing on the different roles and approaches we can take depending on if we are playing solo, accompanying a fiddler or singer, or in the density of a string band.
Bio:
Anna RG first learned old time fiddle and banjo at Cowan Creek over 15 years ago; she spent a decade touring the US and Europe with her ballad-singing duo Anna&Elizabeth: their record on Smithsonian Folkways was dubbed “a radical expansion of what folk songs are supposed to do” by The New Yorker. She is an artist with a master’s degree in Sculpture; she lives in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn) where she tends a small backyard garden, enjoys chats with her neighbors and works as a community organizer and disability activist.
Advanced Fiddle
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM
Instructor: Earl White
Course Description:
Repertoire and Skill-Building: This class will be a repertoire builder for advanced old-time fiddlers. We will focus on building a repertoire of infrequently played tunes. We will cover some bowing techniques and explore a variety of alternate tunings, crooked tunes and Oldtime tunes for contra dances. Overall, we’ll have fun.
Bio:
Fiddlin Earl White has been a prominent figure in the Oldtime music and dance community for more than 50+ years. He is one of the few Black Americans playing and perpetuating the music that was once an important part of black culture and black communities across the US. He is an original and founding member of the famed Greengrass Cloggers and received his first fiddle in 1975. Earl’s energetic, rhythmic, driving style is attributed to many years of dancing with the Cloggers to the delights of Tommy Jarrell, the Highwoods Stringband, the Plank Road Stringband, and the Horseflies, to name a few. His fiddling is as heartfelt as his dancing of earlier years.
Singing: Appalachian Ballad Singing
Thursdays at 11:00 AM
Instructor: Elizabeth LaPrelle
Course Description:
We will learn some favorite Appalachian Ballads together, and talk about some of the history and context of the songs. We’ll also dive into technique for this form of sung storytelling, and listen to each other sing individually for some personalized feedback and instruction.
Bio:
Elizabeth LaPrelle is a scholar and singer of Appalachian Ballads from Rural Retreat, Virginia. She built her style and repertoire from research into archival recordings, and family and friends. She started making recordings with her family as a teen, and received her undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary with a major in Southern Appalachian Traditional Performance. In the experimental folk duo Anna & Elizabeth, she toured internationally and helped re-popularize the “crankie” performance art form. She’s also a banjo-player, and a visual and interdisciplinary artist. She lives with her husband Brian Dolphin and their young son.