The String Band practice sessions are open to newcomers, and are held monthly on the second Saturday of each month, September through April. Those who are interested in playing with the band should be able to play their instruments at an intermediate level.
Folks who would like to play with the band at barn dances and in performances should attend the monthly practices regularly, become familiar with the music and practice at home.
If you have any questions, please call Jen at 630-518-2619 Or email: j.shilt@comcast.net
Every second Saturday 2-4pm (September through April)
First Church of Lombard
220 South Main Street in Lombard, IL (next to Maple Street
Chapel)
(Map)
Things to Bring:
The String Band performs at Plank Road barn dances and has performed for many community groups such as Lombard Historical Society and other living history museum events, barn dances for church groups, local area folk festivals, the Danada Fall Equestrian Festival, Civil War reenactments and more.
The music we play draws mostly from the traditional tunes of North America, which includes music from New England, Southern and Midwestern United States, Eastern Canada and the British Isles.
The origin of the Plank Road All-Volunteer String Band began with Cathy Jones, Mark Dvorak, Marianne Mohrhusen and Marvin Lensik. Marianne wanted to learn how to call dances, so Mark and Cathy decided to have a volunteer band with whoever wanted to play. It grew from primarily Plank Road members to incorporating many of the Jones Family Music School students.
Additionally, "barn dance dynamics" classes and workshops (that included Plank Road members) were held by Cathy for students who wanted to get more involved in the specifics of performing old-time music as a band. Over the years, as the Jones Family Music School started to wind down, the band began meeting at the First Church of Lombard.
Today, the String Band remains, a passionate, committed group of musicians whose common goal is to perform traditional old-time music. Our leader is Betsy Anderson.
Below are tunes that we play or are working on: Sound files for listening and chords or sheet music for learning. This symbol indicates tunes we are currently working on or play regularly. So now, rosin up the bow or get a grip on your pick, and get to playing.
We have compiled our current tunes into composite files, one for ALL Chord Sheets, one for ALL Melody Sheets, and one for each key of Melody Sheets.
NOTES on Chords Zip file: When you unzip the contents you will have a separate PDF file for each tune so you can just print off what you need or import the files into sheet music apps like forScore for iPads or MobileSheets for Android tablets.
NOTES on Melody Sheets PDF files: Choose to get PDF for ALL or just one key; click on the button of your choice to open up the PDF file. You can then print or download the file using the icons on the upper right toolbar in the PDF reader. To navigate easily: 1) click the 3 bars in upper left, 2) click on the bookmark icon, 3) click on the tune you want to view.
