You don't have to attend a concert or convention to hear the best musicians the mountains have to offer - just pull up a chair on a porch packed with pickers or stop by an old country store.

This summer, the Blue Ridge Music Center on the parkway will give visitors a taste of the experience of living in an area where the extraordinary happens everyday.

The center, about 10 miles from Galax, will have resident artists on site each day of the week, ranging from the finest fiddlers and banjo pickers to storytellers, skilled instrument makers and fine artists who capture in pencil strokes the spirit of the area's musical heritage.

Debbie Robinson, director of the music center, said the resident artist program is an effort to expose visitors on any day of the week to the area's talent.

Musicians will set up in the plaza area outside the center and in the luthier shop area. Robinson said they are all signed up as official resident artists with the National Council for the Traditional Arts.

The artists are on a schedule, and each group is assigned a specific day of the week.

The music center will feature fiddler Stu Shenk and banjo picker Brien Fain playing old-time music and stories on Sundays.

Fain, a Patrick County native, grew up playing old-time music and comes from a long line of great musicians.

He'll demonstrate the differences between banjo picking styles and share stories of the instrument's history.

Fain shows a visitor the fast-moving three-finger style - using the thumb and first two fingers - and the clawhammer style, strummed with all four fingers at once.

He explains that Earl Scruggs is often inaccurately credited with inventing the three-finger style, but it was actually a picker named Scruffy Jenkins who taught Scruggs.

His musical partner, Stu Shenk of Galax, is also a font of musical knowledge and can regale guests with tales of how the old-time tradition first formed hundreds of years ago from the musical marriage of the European fiddle and African banjo.

Ask Shenk a question, and you'll get a fascinating earful of colorful facts from American history.

On Mondays, The Buck Mountain Band with Amy Boucher and Bob and Sue Taylor will perform old-time music.

On Tuesdays, Bobby Patterson and Willard Gayheart will offer mini jam sessions throughout the day.

Gayheart also will exhibit his well-known pencil drawings. “His lifelike images of musicians and scenes of people performing early traditional skills are just one his passions,” Robinson said.

In a frame on an easel above two racks filled with his numerous art prints, Gayheart shows off a new drawing of himself and Patterson playing a duet, surrounded by examples of the area's venues and promoters of traditional music - Galax Moose Lodge, Fairview Ruritans, Rex Theater, Crooked Road, Heritage Records, Hillsville VFW and more.

Those institutions will be topics of conversation when visitors come to the music center on Tuesdays.

He and Patterson have been playing music together since the 1970s in bands. The duo has just recorded a CD, which will be out soon.

The “instrument doctor” is on call in the luthier shop every Wednesday, when Bill Anderson will have tools ready to repair stringed instruments.

Anderson is a certified Martin warranty repairman. His wife, Maggie, will join him throughout the day to share music, songs and stories.

Thursdays will feature “Pick and Play and How It's Made Days,” presented by Clarence and Bobbi Roberts from 1 to 5 p.m.

Robinson said visitors can stop in for tips on how instruments are made and how they are played, including fiddle, guitar, dulcimer, Autoharp and old-time banjo. Picking sessions are offered during the day.

On Fridays, the duo Anderson-Strickland will be on site for picking and to share instrument-making techniques.

Gerald Anderson began making mandolins about 30 years ago in Wayne Henderson's shop in Rugby and has since crafted more than 100 instruments.

He shared a workspace with Henderson until recently, when Anderson moved his tools and instruments into the bottom level of his home. Anderson now shares his expertise and workshop with apprentice Spencer Strickland.

Strickland was awarded the Virginia Folklife Program's apprenticeship scholarship. The program allows the seasoned luthier to share his talents and craftsmanship with talented apprentices in order to preserve and enrich the traditional arts.

Anderson and Strickland will set up in the luthier shop each Friday to demonstrate instrument-making and to share their musical talents.

Saturdays will not feature scheduled resident artists, but the center offers plenty of music and educational and interpretive programs through its 6th annual Summer Concert Series, which runs from June to September.

Musicians often set up for informal jams and performances at the center before concerts at the center's outdoor amphitheater.

This Saturday, for example, will feature a special “Salute to Galax Musicians,” with bands Southern Pride, No Speed Limit and Broken Wire. Admission is $3.

For a complete schedule of performances, see www.blueridgemusiccenter.net.

Musicians will be allowed to sell items at the center. Visitors will be able to take some of the music, art and perhaps even a handcrafted instrument home with them.

As always, the Blue Ridge Music Center features an indoor exhibit space with a collection of photos and instruments from bluegrass and old-time artists, special traveling exhibits, a gift shop and an indoor theater and performance space.