Bluegrass Music Program
Colorado College
Colorado College, located on a ninety-two acre campus in downtown Colorado Springs, is a small liberal arts college comprised of only two thousand total students (only 500 of the 20,000 annual applicants are accepted each year). The difference between Colorado College and the many other small four-year liberal arts institutions in the United States is that they offer instruction in bluegrass music.
The school’s curriculum is based on the “block plan.” In this program every class is built on a three-and-a-half week block, with four blocks offered per semester. One block is equal to one class on the semester plan. Classes meet from 9 am to 12 pm Monday through Friday. If applicable, labs are held in the afternoon. In other words, instead of taking several classes at once, students at Colorado College study one class at a time in a concentrated intensive. There are eight blocks per school year, with two additional blocks offered in the summer.
One of the best features of this system is that a class has the opportunity to travel during the block period without missing other classes. For instance, students in a geology class may travel during the entire block period to a location in South America, or a student who is taking an art class may travel with the class to Paris or New York during that block period. This allows students in the bluegrass ensemble to travel to perform at festivals or attend the World of Bluegrass event hosted by the International Bluegrass Music Association during block breaks.
The director of the bluegrass music program at Colorado College, Keith Reed, explained, “This is a liberal arts college, so students are coming in to learn about lots of different things. The music department is set up where the students can take private lessons anytime during the year, perform with the ensemble or take a full bluegrass performance block. For years and years it was very much a classical and jazz structure. When I came here eighteen years ago, I started teaching guitar and banjo.”
Prior to being hired as a teacher at the college, Reed was playing full-time bluegrass musician playing in the band Open Road, who were recording for Rounder Records. He was also working as a salesman at a music store and doing light repair work.
He said, “A professor from the music department at Colorado College came in and said, ‘We can probably use you. Do you have a music degree?’ I said, ‘Yes, I have a degree in classical guitar from Boise State and before that I went to South Plains College.” Keith was a student in the bluegrass music program at South Plains from 1981 to 1983. Stuart Duncan and Mike Bub were also at the school when Keith was a student there.
When Keith started teaching guitar and banjo at Colorado College, he said that the students were very interested in acoustic instruments and bluegrass or old-time music. He adds, “The students here are very intellectual and very sharp, but at the same time they tend to be interested in outdoor activities. There is a lot of great skiing and camping here in Colorado and they take advantage of that. You can see Pike’s Peak from campus. It has a very ‘mountain feel.’ It is not downtown Los Angeles.”
Using students that were taking guitar and banjo classes from him, Keith formed a bluegrass group that started to play shows on campus. He said, “Other kids would see them play and they would become interested. I started to build a really good group and infuse new players as the old ones graduated. I would teach them all by ear and teach them how to take a solo, how to play rhythm, how to be in a band, and how to perform with a band—guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and bass.” In addition to performing around campus, the band started also performing at local venues and at the Durango Bluegrass Meltdown festival. Later, the band also started traveling to perform every fall at the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual World of Bluegrass event.
Keith’s official bluegrass performance class is held during block seven in the spring and is open to all students who have a basic knowledge of either guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass, fiddle or autoharp. He said, “There are twenty-four students in the class and they subdivide into four or five small student groups. We learn the repertoire from the Carter family all the way through the present day and then we do a concert at the end. It is a creative performance class.”
In addition to teaching the students himself during block seven, Keith also brings in professional players to teach the students, perform for them, and jam with them. Bluegrass professionals who he has brought in include a very long list of top performers, such as: Sierra Hull, Bela Fleck, Abigail Washburn (who graduated from Colorado College in 2000) Jeff White, Shad Cobb, Dennis Crouch, Tim Crouch, Mike Bub, Richard Bennett, Sally Van Meter, Ronnie Bowman, Junior Sisk, High Fidelity Bluegrass Band, AJ Lee and Blue Summit, Greg Blake, Tristan Scroggins, Alison Brown, Missy Raines, Becky Buller, Don Rigsby, Jeremy Garrett, Chris Henry, Ron Stewart, and many more. Banjo veteran Don Bryant lives in Colorado Springs and is also involved in helping with the program. Keith said, “It helps the students because they are getting to see, learn from, and meet pro players and it helps the pro players because they are getting a good paycheck and having a great time and it builds their fanbase.”
Additionally, Keith teaches a summer ensemble class—which is only open to five to seven students—and the group performs at festivals, plays concerts, and enters the band competition at Telluride. Keith also takes this band into the recording studio. Although this band’s official class is held during the summer, the band continues to perform together all year. Keith teaches a jam class and works with top ensemble during the entire school year.
Although Keith only teaches the performance class in block seven and the ensemble class during the summer, students can take private lesson from Keith during the whole school year, during any block, as an adjunct to their block class. Keith also holds a jam session every week so that students have the opportunity to get together and practice what they are learning in their lessons. Keith said, “We build their repertoire through that method.”
Regarding his overall approach to teaching the bluegrass music program at Colorado College, Keith Reed said, “Students are not coming here to be professional bluegrass musicians. This is not a music conservatory. The college provides a very well-rounded experiential education and the students can choose music to be a part of that. They are not coming here already understanding bluegrass and where it comes from, but they are turned on by this music. So, when I bring in pro players, we are not trying to teach the Manzanita album. We are trying to teach good basic skills that they will have for the rest of their lives. Additionally, this program helps create community and friendships. I even tell them that it is ‘soft learning’ in that it teaches them how to get up on a stage and talk to an audience and how to work in a group.”
Anyone interested in learning more
about the bluegrass music program at Colorado College, can check out the school’s website: coloradocollege.edu. Search on “bluegrass.”
