Many cellists don't know where to start or they get stuck in a rut playing the same ideas

Sammy is going to walk us through best practices so you can get started backing up fiddle tunes by ear, or bring your skills to new levels.

What to Expect:

• Apply backup concepts to 4 common fiddle tunes so you can bring them to a jam immediately
• Learn effective and efficient ways to incorporate chopping and shuffle patterns into your everyday practice
• Have tools you need to fill the role that guitarists, Banjo and bass players, and other instruments use to backup tunes in folk jams
• Know the most common grooves that fit with Celtic, American, and Bluegrass fiddling styles
• Make your grooves rock solid!
• Have a road map for modifying common tunes/chord progressions 
• Discover ways to figure out chord progressions by ear (once you know the key)
• Orient to lead sheets and read chord notation with ease
• Build a library of chord voicings and double stops you can use to play backup grooves

About Sammy Wetstein

Endlessly inspired by bonds of kinship forged through music, Cellist, composer, and teacher Sammy Wetstein found his love for music traveling between multigenerational folk music camps and festivals in search of a musical community to call home. His journey led him to pursue a degree in folk and jazz string performance at Berklee College of Music and become versed in a variety of styles, performing, recording, and teaching throughout the worlds of classical, jazz, and traditional Celtic, New England, Bluegrass and Old time fiddle music. 

As a multi instrumentalist fluent in playing accordion, guitar, mandolin, bass, violin, and viola, he has appeared at such venues as the Newport Folk Festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass festival, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the annual International Bluegrass Music Association conference. He has served as faculty at Maine Fiddle Camp, The Swannanoa Gathering, The Ashokan Center, Fiddle Hell, and the IBMA Kids on Bluegrass Program.

Sammy has appeared alongside artists such as the Grammy winning 8 Bit Big Band, jazz icons Joe Levano and Kenny Barron, renown string players including Eugene Friesen, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall and Jason Anick, and toured with trailblazing folk artists Jake Bount and Nic Gareiss. Advocating for furthering the role of the cello in traditional music, he has been featured on Bluegrass Today and Sirius XM Bluegrass Junction. In 2024 his new acoustic quartet Catfish in the Sky was a winner of the Freshgrass band competition, and his Celtic trio was voted one of the top 5 Celtic bands of 2022 by Irish and Celtic music podcast. 

Sammy's love of music stems from his dream to find belonging and bring others together, and in his teaching he hopes to encourage string players of all ages and backgrounds to find freedom in their music, explore global music styles, and play music as a means to exist in community while better understanding oneself.

About Your Host

Daniel Plane has helped to pioneer groove techniques on the cello, and is a seasoned improviser in a number of styles. Classically trained at Interlochen Arts Academy and The Longy School of Music, he also attended the Berklee School of music where exposure to Bluegrass, Klezmer, and Jazz fanned his passion for trad/roots music. For the last 18 years his principal focus has been the study and performance of Blues, Jazz, Folk, and American and Irish fiddling on the cello & violin. His abilities as a multi-instrumentalist have created fertile ground for developing harmonic approaches to the cello that are shared by only a handful of people in the world.

Check out this interview

 where we discuss how to develop groove playing, where to get backup ideas organically, practice tips, jam etiquette and much more

What to expect in class

• Tools for building a solid sense of groove
• Approaches to backup and performance
• Clarifying backup options and how to explore them on your own
• Tips to build harmonic vocabulary

Working with fiddle tunes improves:

• Your ability to play by ear so you can have freedom in your expression

• Your rhythm and understanding of grooves so you can play non-classical styles with ease

• Listening skills that make you a better musician

• Build understanding of music theory so you can improve the craft

• Improvisation and willingness to try new things

• Creativity and musical flow so you can write and compose