We're so glad you've registered for the festival, and we wanted to give you some information about participating in the daytime jam classes. Note that there are jams Friday and Saturday night in the lobby of the festival church conducted by Tina Gugeler after the concerts - there are un-structued, anything goes jams. Just bring your instruments and your adventurous spirit, a few songs to suggest, and voila! instant jam!

The day time "jams" are classes in jamming repertoire and skills. The ideal thing would be to choose which jam classes you'd like to go to (using the listing below), then learn as much of the repertoire for that class as you can - find the tunes here. The jam classes will start with the handful of tunes listed under that class; after these tunes have been played, students and teacher will suggest other tunes to play. The jams will be conducted in the true oral tradition spirit - without written music - and your teacher will help you play the tunes you know, learn the tunes in the context of the jam, or play chords when you don't know the tune. It's a different way of playing than with music, very freeing, and we're thrilled to be passing these skills along to you.

The Song Circle and the two ¡Caliente! jams do not list music ahead of time - it's assumed that you know the sort of repertoire they will be doing. Otherwise, there is a list of tunes for each jam class, and it's strongly suggested that you familiarize yourself with these tunes so you can play them in the context of the class. We're not talking "performance ready" - just "jam ready." Get them good enough that you can play they with other people, but without music. You might not remember them till someone begins them, but then you're off and running, or playing as the case may be.

Here is the schedule for jamming so you can decide which sessions you'd like to go to and work on the tunes proposed for each jam. You can find music to many of the tunes on the Colorado Dulcimer Festival website under Colorado Jam Tunes . For the jams where there are specified tunes, we'll play these first, and if there's time, we'll do others you might suggest on the spot! Basic jamming etiquette makes the whole jam better for everybody, so make sure to check out a guide to jamming etiquette and our jamming resources to get the best out of your day.