Unlock your music potential

The JamWithLauren membership teaches you to learn music by ear, master techniques, and confidently join jam sessions through our comprehensive online learning platform.

This online studio has over 400+ videos, including workshops, play-along tracks and skill challenges. Lauren will guide you through learning tunes, creating your own left-hand and right-hand variations on melodies, and how to hear and play chord progressions. Each tune includes a video to jam with, and a play-along track to download. Music theory is explained in a way that will make sense on your violin, and the videos provide insights on good technique and practice tips.

What’s included in your membership.

Lessons

  • In-depth lessons and play-along tracks for the following tunes:

    • Bile 'Em Cabbage Down
    • Little Liza Jane
    • Hot Cross Buns
    • Shortnin' Bread
    • Cripple Creek
    • Buffalo Gals
    • Camptown Races
    • Cindy
    • Miss McLeod's in A
    • Chinquapin Hunting in A

  • In-depth lessons and play-along tracks for the following tunes:

    • Old Joe Clark
    • Cluck Old Hen
    • Red Haired Boy
    • Squirrel Hunters
    • Salt Creek

  • In-depth lessons and play-along tracks for the following tunes:

    • Miss McLeod's in D
    • Angeline the Baker
    • Lazy John in D
    • Soldier's Joy
    • Arkansas Traveler
    • Buffalo Gals in D
    • Camptown Rances in D
    • Cindy in D
    • Whiskey Before Breakfast
    • Saint Anne's Reel
    • Chinquapin Hunting in D
    • Liberty
    • Midnight on the Water
    • Fisher's Hornpipe
    • Forked Deer
    • Say Darlin' Say
    • Sugar Babe
    • Swannanoa Waltz

  • In-depth lessons and play-along tracks for the following tunes:

    • Miss McLeod's in G
    • Lazy John in G
    • The Girl I Left Behind
    • Temperance Reel
    • Big Sciota
    • Leather Britches
    • Sail Away Ladies
    • Shove the Pig's Foot a Little Further in the Fire
    • Seneca Square Dance
    • Last Chance
    • Old Carpenter's Waltz
    • Blackberry Blossom
    • Wheel Hoss

Skill Challenges

  • 6wk self guided challenge focused on how to fill the spaces in a song when the vocalist isn’t singing. Throughout the challenge you'll learn to use conversational, emotional, rhythmic, and theoretical components to support the vocalist on three different song styles. 

  • 6wk challenge focused on understanding the foundational folk chord progression, and how to solo over it using scales, scales, and MORE SCALES. The goal is to show you that if you know the key you’re jamming in, the chord progression, and your scale, you can create a really great solo.

  • The bow is the defining component of fiddle playing, responsible for tone production, rhythm, groove, expression, articulation, and style. So often we focus on what our left hand is doing and our right arm becomes an afterthought. This 6wk challenge is based on bow direction, and how it impacts your groove, ease of playing, and creativity.

Workshops

  • Each chord used in the JWL curriculum is voiced in 1st position over all CGDAE strings. The chord workshop includes 59 video tutorials. A fantastic no-nonsense and accessible way to learn and practice theory in a hands-on manner.

  • In this workshop you'll learn how to add accents and bowing patterns to your subdivisions so you can get out of a rut and into a groove. I'll explain 4 different shuffle patterns, the popular 1/4/7 and 1/3/6 grooves over the course of 18 video lessons.

  • One of the most compelling components of Old Time Fiddling is re-tuning or 'cross-tuning' to an open chord (as opposed to the standard GDAE tuning). We'll start your cross tuning adventure by putting your instrument into Cross A, or AEAE, and learning two tunes: Breaking Up Christmas and Walk Along John to Kansas. A special feature of this bonus is that you'll also learn the iconic Tommy Jarrell bowing pattern for Breaking Up Christmas.

Ready to get started?

Join today for only $15/mo

What people are saying about JWL.

“Lauren has a deep intuitive understanding of people and their musical journeys; and therefore has a lot to offer in terms of guidance as well as a real knack for explaining the nitty-gritty details of string playing and music theory. Signing up for lessons on JamWithLauren is always a good idea. ”

-Brittany Haas

“Lauren and her site JamWithLauren are the absolute best online resources for beginning to intermediate fiddlers, or any level of classically trained violinist trying to get a handle on playing by ear, improvisation, and back up accompaniment for real ‘Old-Time/Bluegrass Fiddling.”

-Mark Thatcher

“The blog is only a part of the educational brilliance happening here at JamWithLauren. Do yourself a favor and keep exploring the site. ”

-Taylor Morris

“What I like best about JamWithLauren is that there’s something for every skill level. After you’ve learned the basic tune, you can challenge yourself to master the embellishments, chords, and harmony. It’s a great confidence booster when you suddenly find yourself jamming along with the practice tracks.”

-Carolyn Finlay

Quick PSA*

*public service announcement about our content.

JamWithLauren launched back before online learning was mainstream. The benefit of this is that when designing the curriculum Lauren was intentional and thorough about building a best in class library of videos that build upon each other.

However, the downside of being ‘ahead of the times’ is that our video content is dated from a technology perspective. Our videos look older, but our content is still very relevant and applicable to the learning process.

We are not in a place to re-film 400+ videos so we have elected to significantly decrease our price. At this moment in time we are not working to add new content to the platform.

Learn Salt Creek

Take a look at the 1st video in our Salt Creek lesson. Each tune includes up to 8 videos teaching the tune, walking through the variations, chords, and jam practice.

Salt Creek - Lesson 1

Bonus Content

Play-Along Tracks

• 32 downloadable play-along tracks recorded exclusively for the JWL curriculum.

Student Questions

• 40+ recorded video teaching lessons based off questions from students and to help support students during the JWL skill challenges.

Etiquette & Technique

• Video responses to frequently asked questions, included but not limited to play technique and jam etiquette.

Shall we begin?

This curriculum works if YOU work. It's going to take time and patience, and consistent practice from you to achieve your goals. It's OK if you're nervous or have doubts. Once you get inside JamWithLauren, you'll see that my lessons are designed for you to be successful.