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Community tuned up

Thank you for your front-page story on The Village Experience and its drive to raise money for music lessons for low-income kids. It’s a great project for a great cause.

For over three decades, Frank Wagner from the Spokane Valley has been giving free weekly workshops for anyone wanting to learn the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, banjo or upright bass. The format is a one-hour group lesson, followed by another hour of small group or one-on-one instruction. If the student didn’t have an instrument, the Valley Kiwanis provided them with one at no charge.

The only requirement is that if you learn to play through the workshop, you have to come back and teach someone else. In addition, the Inland Northwest Bluegrass Association and the Spokane Old Time Fiddlers have been giving scholarships for private lessons for many years.

The result is an acoustic community in our community that is second to none.

If you want more information on these programs, go to spokanebluegrass.org and follow the links.

Jim Shamp

Cheney

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