Singing with Cindy H.

Cindy has been making music for as long as she can remember. She was the assistant director of a synagogue children's choir by age 14 and has directed and sung with many community choirs and pickup groups since then. But it wasn't until 1996 that she discovered the autoharp and began teaching and performing in earnest. Now one of the best recognized autoharp workshop leaders in the US, she has taught and performed at festivals and private concerts from Pennsylvania to California, as well as Tasmania, Australia, England, Scotland, aboard cruise ships, and in Sweden. She also shares her knowledge of old-time West Virginia fiddle techniques and repertoire, and is known locally as a sympathetic and effective voice teacher for those who think they cannot sing. In addition to her teaching activities, Cindy founded and directs the Pittsburgh Threshold Choir, a group of women who sing at the bedsides of people who are very ill or dying. She is also the leader of GrayScale, a non-traditional band that plays for square dances and contradances. Lessons with Cindy are self-directed with coaching intended to help the student accomplish his or her personal objectives. She will ask you to provide examples of music that you love so much that you'd be willing to work hard to learn to play it, and you will find yourself working on that music right from the start. Technique is taught in the context of the music: if you need a technique for a particular song, you will learn that technique. And of course once you've mastered a technique it's yours to use on the next song or tune and the next. It's a constant process of enjoying the music and discovering and mastering the technique needed to recreate it in your own playing or singing. *** Lesson Details *** Lessons start with a review of the work you've been doing. We might take that song or tune to the next level with a new technique, or we might apply technique you've already learned to a new piece. Every lesson is different, customized to the needs of the student at that moment. *** Studio Equipment *** Instruments, audio and video recording equipment *** Travel Equipment *** Instruments, audio and video recording equipment as needed