The Program

The timetable below is the one the seminar published. It looks orderly on paper. In practice the printed part was the smaller half of the day, because the hours between the listed items were where most of the week actually happened.

A typical day

Class size and choosing classes

Classes typically ran from five to fifteen people. Students did not have to select classes before arriving, and there was no danger of being closed out — the seminar did not cap class sizes. Instead, if one class turned out significantly larger than the others, an "instigator" worked alongside the teacher with the beginning students so they did not get left behind and the more advanced students still received instruction pitched at their level.

This is worth dwelling on, because it is the single structural decision that most defined the week. Classes were separated by subject, not by skill. Someone in their second year of playing and someone who gigged for a living could sit in the same room on Delta rhythm. The seminar's position was that this was a feature: the beginner heard where the material went, the professional was reminded what the fundamentals actually are, and neither was quarantined from the other.

The late-afternoon slot

The 5pm hour was for informal workshops led by faculty and students. Its purpose was to let students study with staff members other than their own class teachers, without having to give up the class they had chosen. Participants could also request and design special workshops — topics, the programme said, "will be limited only by imagination."

Evenings

Evening events rotated between three kinds. There were staff concerts, which for many students were the reason the faculty roster mattered in the first place. There was the faculty "de-constructed" jam, an unusual format in which the players pulled a piece apart in front of the room rather than performing it. And there was the all-student concert, the acknowledged highlight of the week, at which everyone was encouraged to perform — with staff accompaniment if requested, and the programme was clear on the point: "we can't say no!"

Nobody had to play. The FAQ addressed the question directly and answered it plainly: performing at the student concert was voluntary. In practice a lot of people who arrived certain they would not, did.

The unscheduled hours

Between the listed items there was, as the programme put it, "plenty of relaxation time throughout the day for individual practicing, spontaneous workshops, and jams." Students consistently reported that this was where the week did its work — in corridors, on lawns, in dormitory common rooms, in small groups that formed because two people happened to be working on the same tune. Several of the alumni letters describe learning more in an unplanned half hour than in a scheduled one.

Additional workshop possibilities

Beyond the timetabled classes, instructors covered topics on request. The published list of possibilities was:

• Country Blues Songwriting
• First Time Performing
• Practical Theory
• The Music of Skip James
• How to Practice
• Amplifying Your Guitar
• Early Jazz and Blues Styles
• Blues to Jazz
• Open Tunings
• Student-led workshops
• Requested workshops

Living on site

Everyone was encouraged to live on campus for the week "to fully appreciate the unique atmosphere of around-the-clock learning." Accommodation varied by venue — private rooms at Columbia University, mostly shared rooms at UC Santa Cruz with a small number of singles. Meals were catered, and the seminar ran on the assumption that the community formed at the dinner table was part of the syllabus rather than a perk attached to it.

For the practical questions students asked before they came — instruments to bring, recording the classes, travelling with a guitar — see the frequently asked questions. The forum where many of those conversations continued afterwards is described on the forum page. Discussion of this kind still goes on in places like the long-running folk and blues community at Mudcat Café.