Chris Prickitt

Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Fiddle

Artist Statement

What is your philosophy about teaching and music education?

Yes, we want to improve, and that takes practice, but music does not have to be highly technical to be beautiful, and it should be fun. Chris wants his students of all ages to enjoy playing, to enjoy the sounds, and the songs or tunes of various styles that he and/or they bring to the lesson and to the ensemble. “Ensemble?” Yes, lesson fees include the opportunity to play with others of all ages and varying abilities in monthly group sessions; individual lessons are partly focused on material for the ensemble.) He encourages learning by ear, but tablature, chord and lyric charts, and staff music are all good tools, depending on the most natural lean of the student.

Teaching Bio

What’s led me down the path of teaching and my musical specialty?

While primarily a banjo player (for some 58 years), his first instrument, was actually a nylon-stringed Stella guitar. Good music of all kinds inspires him. Way back it was the Kingston Trio, Broadway musicals, the Beatles, and banjoist Don Stover. More recently, it’s been Jens Kruger, in Chris’s mind the world’s best banjo player His teaching took full flight when in 2000, he began a thirteen year stretch of leading youth and adult bluegrass and American Roots ensembles in the Dexter, Maine school district, where he taught 8th grade English for 31 years before returning to Middlebury, his hometown. His groups of high school students -- the Abbott Hill Ramblers -- averaged a dozen shows a year and produced six recordings. One highlight of his teaching/mentoring the Abbott Hill Ramblers was a five-school tour in Maine with the world-renowned Kruger Brothers, an outreach program supported by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.

Performance Bio

Chris was an original member of the Maine Country Dance Orchestra, and for many years called and played for contra dances. For 22 years Chris was a member of Maine’s premiere acoustic music group, Evergreen (five recordings), playing primarily banjo, but also fiddle, accordion, and guitar. Their last show was in 2013. He has taught banjo -- clawhammer and bluegrass styles -- at Maine fiddle Camp and has composed numerous songs and instrumentals. He has been on the MCMC faculty since its inception.