It's hard to believe it's been four years since we first launched the Tony Trischka School of Banjo, it seems like it was just yesterday when we were filming banjo lessons in the original ArtistWorks "studio" (aka the living room).

So in honor of Tony’s four year anniversary of teaching how to play banjo online with ArtistWorks, we're giving away a brand new Deering Goodtime Banjo! The contest is open through July 28 and no purchase is necessary. Click on the link here or on the Deering banjo to go to the contest page!

You see, learning online was still a new concept back in 2009 - it did exist in some academic circles, but for the rest of us there was simply no established way to get personalized feedback from a master teacher online.  So we knew we were on to something when we started this whole online learning thing.  Four years and countless Video Exchanges later, Tony continues to leave his teaching legacy to banjo players of all ilk. 

We sure have come a long way since recording Tony's original banjo lessons, here's just a bit of what's happened since launching the first ever online banjo school in July 2009:

We've since upgraded to an actual recording studio for our artists when they come to visit, so our film crew no longer needs to rearrange the kitchen in order to get a good angle. 

We've gone from offering online banjo lessons to a comprehensive Academy of Bluegrass which includes some incredibly talented Bluegrass musicians all personally selected by Tony Trishcka himself.  And moving beyond Bluegrass, we've also launched a whole fleet of other online learning schools - there's something for everybody now!

Because, what we discovered with Tony's online banjo school is that it works.  We hear from students all the time who tell us how awesome it is learning online, and Tony's loving it too!  He's able to teach more people than ever now how to play banjo, and he really enjoys interacting with all his students from all over the world.