I started playing guitar and learned a few songs to sing. Then, last summer I got a mandolin for my birthday and started taking lessons. Today, I am taking breaks on most songs at the jams. I have also had the opportunity to record a few tunes. My greatest accomplishment is that I am an honorary member of the "Moonlite Express," band. I received a fiddle on my 16th birthday this year and I am learning to scratch out a few songs.

I hope to be a great mandolin player. I also wish to be known for my voice. My long-term goal is to be able to play all the bluegrass instruments. My short-term goal is to be in a band and perform on stage in front of large audiences.

This scholarship will help me achieve these goals and fulfill my hopes and dreams. This scholarship will help pay for mandolin lessons as well as learn to play fiddle.

I deserve this scholarship because I am dedicated to playing bluegrass. I have been playing for five years and nothing could replace the joy its given to me. I am a regular member at the local jams and active in the bluegrass community. I put forth a lot of effort to help give back to the community with my music by practicing daily. Bluegrass is very important to me and it’s something I am never going to give up.

Abigail Dawn Crawford
While other teens are listening to rock and country, the only music you'll find in my CD case is bluegrass! For all of my seventeen years, I have grown up listening to bluegrass music. I have always enjoyed groups like Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, IIIrd Time Out, and Blue Highway. Gosh, since bluegrass music is all my parents ever listened to, it was perfectly natural for me to do the same! From a very young age, listening to these groups inspired me to learn to play bluegrass music.

Something sparked inside of me while sitting on the front row at a bluegrass festival watching Rhonda Vincent and the Rage perform one evening. All of a sudden it hit me! Although I had played the stand up bass for 6 years, more than anything else in the world I knew I wanted to play the bluegrass fiddle! I thought to myself, "One day I will be just as good as they are!" This group was totally oblivious as to what they did for me! They motivated me to learn to play the most difficult bluegrass instrument, the fiddle!

I have been taking lessons and playing the fiddle for three years now. I have already learned and accomplished so much! I have achieved basic fiddle skills, learned pitches, improved bowing techniques, and gained personal confidence while performing. My fiddle instructor has taught me that I am capable of doing anything that I set my mind to. I have set high goals for myself and have done my best to achieve them. One of the biggest goals I have accomplished is that I can correctly identify pitches and tell when I am flat or sharp. My teacher has been helping me develop my ear. Another important accomplishment is that I have begun to learn to play by ear. I no longer need a piece of sheet music in front of me to play a song. I have mastered the art of my bow not riding on the bridge and other bowing skills. Overall, I feel that I have made great accomplishments over the past three year of playing the fiddle.

Bluegrass music is becoming more popular, and I have aspirations to be a part of this established music field. My number one goal is to learn to play bluegrass music so well that I can play with any group or band. Another one of my goals is that I would like to see bluegrass music stay alive. Let's face it, most youth these days have no clue what bluegrass is! I hope to keep bluegrass music flourishing. I would like the younger generation that is coming up to know what bluegrass is. I appreciate that there are organizations like North Florida Bluegrass that have kept bluegrass music available to me. Whose knows? Maybe I will even play fiddle for a big name group one day!

If I am awarded this music scholarship, it will help me pay for my fiddle lessons. I travel an hour to and from my home each week for my music training. My lessons cost $17.00 for a half hour session. My lessons challenge me to work even harder to become a better musician. I really like my instructor and he has helped me so much! I look forward to being able to continue my lessons and this scholarship will help me to do just that. I think that I am deserving of this scholarship. I truly have a desire to learn to play the fiddle. I am very dedicated student and huge bluegrass fan. My teacher says I am a diligent and enthusiastic student. I feel that I deserve this scholarship because I work hard and try to learn as much as I can. I always have a good attitude and even when a piece that I am learning seems impossible, I keep trying.

I feel that the North Florida Bluegrass Association has established this scholarship because they want to help youth and keep bluegrass music alive. As a young person learning how to play traditional bluegrass music, this scholarship is a wonderful opportunity. I still feel that spark inside of me whenever I hear one of my favorite groups perform. It helps me to keep practicing; to make me throw myself into my music.

I will continue to learn and play bluegrass music because I enjoy it. At the next bluegrass festival or NFBA picking, you will most likely see me on the front row listening to the music on stage or jamming underneath a camper awning. As my favorite saying states, "Country rocks, but BLUEGRASS RULES!!!"