disappointed . . .

I'm sorry to have to say that I was disappointed with the Swannanoa Gathering.    That's really too bad, too, because the setting is idyllic, the housing and classrooms are first class, the staff are solicitous and helpful to a fault, and even the cafeteria food is tasty and interesting.    While there are many classes in which large numbers of students might be desirable, instrumental instructional classes are not among them.    I had two fiddle classes and a banjo class and the class size ranged up to 16 in each of them.    Way too many for any meaningful instruction by one teacher.

I suspect that the staff being 'helpful to a fault' may have indeed been the fault.    In each of these classes students on the 'wait list' just showed up and participated.    And each class grew in size as the week progressed with other students 'transferring in'.    The most productive and satisfying class of the whole week was my first period fiddle class on Friday when 'only' eight of the dozen to 15 regulars showed up.

I'll have to think about next year.

It is really unfortunate because some really fun things go on there.    Here are a couple of them -