Eric McDonald has been playing traditional music on mandolin for 15 years. In this workshop he’ll share some of the tools he's developed, namely a set of ornaments well-suited for Irish, Scottish, Quebecois, Swedish and other traditional tune styles. He will methodically go through each of them and their technical application (with video examples). He will offer practice techniques for incorporating them naturally into your playing, and we’ll end with a bit of a group practice session. He's going to focus on tunes that were recorded on his 2017 album “Rove”, including but not necessarily limited to Munster Buttermilk (Jig in D), The Morningstar (Reel in G) and MacLeod's Farewell (Reel in D).

Eric McDonald is a product of the rich Greater Boston music scene. A former student of John McGann at Berklee College of Music, he is internationally known in the traditional music world. Touring credits include The Outside Track, Daymark, Katie McNally, Connor Garvey and Cape Breton fiddlers Andrea Beaton & Wendy MacIsaac. Today you can see him touring with his bands Cantrip, Kalos and Bellwether. As an instructor he has taught at the March Mandolin Festival, Ministry of Folk’s Winter Weekend, Club Passim’s School of Music, Maine Fiddle Camp, Acadia Trad School, Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle School, Kulturzentrum K9’s Irish Weekend, Spanish Peaks International Celtic Festival, Maine Celtic Celebration, Bellingham Folk Festival, Dance Flurry, BCMFest, The Celtic Arts Foundation and more. Learn more about Eric, his bands and his teaching at www.ericmcdonaldmusic.com. Support Eric monthly in return for exclusive music at www.ampled.com/artist/ericmcdonald.

Included in the $25 workshop registration fee will be a download of Eric's album "Rove".

20% of proceeds go to supporting Ministry of Folk's future programming.