If you haven't been to Sore Fingers before then I'd suggest that you read the two illustrated commentaries I've written. They'll give you some idea of what life is like for a student and tell you something about the environment and the schedule.

With any sort of luck you may even find them mildly amusing.

You could also read the student's and tutor's reports from previous years classes that are collected for easy browsing on the Sore Fingers website (www.sorefingers.co.uk)

I'd like (with hat in hand and all due respect) to proffer my "Tutor wish-list", based on my experiences as a Seasoned Veteran of two SFSS weeks and three Bluegrass Festivals...
- Enjoy it. Brits are fun to be with and Kingham Hill School food is definitely quite OK!
- Bring lots of copies of your CD & instruction books/DVDs to sell during the week.
- Most of us like to learn new tunes, and those who already know all the tunes like to learn new ways to play them.
- PLEASE stop and say " .. now's a good time to turn on your recorder" when teaching licks, runs, tunes etc.  Lots of us don't have anyone to teach us or play along with on a regular basis and need something to help when the course is over.
- Ivan Rosenberg had a great idea, a short "recording session" at the end of the day to play through the day's lessons.
- If you've already written instruction books, videos and/or books of tab, by all means copy bits and pieces that illustrate what you're going to teach. Ivan Rosenberg put together an enormously valuable "Sore Fingers 2004 Instruction Book" for us. I've abandoned my Jay Buckey dobro books in favour of Ivan's stuff!
- Do go over the most basic fundamentals of playing your instrument - hammer-ons, pull offs, slides etc as appropriate. Most of us probably either don't practise them enough or can't do them properly.
- Playing CDs to illustrate things is perhaps a great way to kick off the day after a hard night's jamming at the pub, but should be used sparingly. We can do that at home!
- Avoid the Vegemite on toast if Hamish offers it. You probably won't like it, nor it's English cousin Marmite.