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30 Years Collection Advanced Advanced Fiddle Technique Advanced Style & Repertoire (Mixed Instruments) Andy Craig Arrangement Techniques (Mixed Instruments) Bill Elliott Bottle Bank Band Bryan Jackson Competent Beginner Fiddle Day Fiddle Technique Fiddling Three Frank McLaughlin Geordie Night George Welch Halsway Manor Harmony Holly & Ivy Intermediate James Hill Jimmy's Fiddle JSArts Laura Connolly Maddison's Thread May Tour 2017 Mick West Trio Mixed Instruments Morpeth Community Strings Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering North East Fiddle School Northumbrian Ranters Repertoire & Music Skills (Mixed Instruments) TFA Wisewood Folk Woolsington Strings

Mick West, Frank McLaughlin and Stewart Hardy – Scots song and instrumentals from Scotland and Northumberland on fiddle, guitar and Scottish small pipes. Mick has one of Scotland’s most distinctive voices, and in this trio his rich, warm and expressive singing is complimented on guitar and fiddle by the highly creative playing of Frank McLaughlin and Stewart Hardy. The trio has a long standing musical kinship which shines through their arrangements, and makes for a joyous and inspiring performance.

Stewart and Frank are delighted to be finishing their May 2017 Tour at Gallery 45 in Felton. This wonderful gallery and arts centre was the location for their recent video shoot and with the venue’s fabulous acoustics this promises to be a great concert, featuring lots of new material from the forthcoming release.

Mixed Instruments with Stewart Hardy – Fully Booked
The workshops typically take between 7 & 10 people for three days of instruction. The cost covers all food, tuition, refreshments and overnight accommodation.The course cost for weekend (Friday Lunchtime through to Sunday evening) includes everything by way of meals and refreshments, so no need to spend another penny on anything once you are here. Vegan and vegetarian diets are catered for, as are lactose and gluten intolerance.
There are on average 6 hours of workshops daily. Dinner is followed each evening by an informal session led by Stewart. These help reinforce the techniques learned during the day, give you a chance to hear and learn new tunes and teach others some of your own favourites.
Your tutor is available to you from breakfast until bed-time for questions and advice.

Music returns to Hartlepool Cricket Club in a big way. Local stars, Maddison’s Thread – Singer songwriter Lee Maddison joined by his band that features internationally acclaimed fiddler Stewart Hardy. They create an earthy, acoustic driven soundscape that perfectly complements the realism of Lee’s conscientiously crafted songs. Strongly melodic and unashamedly accessible songs. Rooted in folk whilst embracing elements of blues, rock and country. And don’t forget superb bassist Nige Spavin holding things together.
Get there early for a six o’clock pick-off….seats WILL be at a premium.

Fiddle Techniques with Stewart Hardy
Tunes are carefully selected to work as exercises demonstrating particular techniques, whilst at the same time providing a melodic stimulus. Exercises are extracted from the tunes to facilitate applying the technique to other tunes. Many of the tunes are suitable for multi-level workshops, with the teaching of a variety of techniques, requiring greater or lesser technical experience, applied to them. Subject matter includes: bowing technique, left hand technique and general fiddle well-being. In the choice of repertoire emphasis is given to stylistic aspects of the music. A number of considerations are given to the selection of tunes, including their interest to Stewart in his studies, their interest to the general musical community, their demonstration of particular stylistic nuances, and as being representative of a composer’s style.
All sheet music and mp3 files of all the tunes covered are provided. Plus recordings of exercises from the course where these are helpful.
The workshops typically take between 7 & 10 people for three days of instruction. The cost covers all food, tuition, refreshments and overnight accommodation.The course cost for the weekend (Friday Lunchtime through to Sunday evening) includes everything by way of meals and refreshments, so no need to spend another penny on anything once you are here. Vegan and vegetarian diets are catered for, as are lactose and gluten intolerance.
There are on average 6 hours of workshops daily. Dinner is followed each evening by an informal session led by Stewart. These help reinforce the techniques learned during the day, give you a chance to hear and learn new tunes and teach others some of your own favourites.
Your tutor is available to you from breakfast until bed-time for questions and advice.

Frank and I are very pleased to have been asked to come and play at this year’s Rothbury Traditional Music Festival, which is one of my favourite events in the local calendar. We are expecting to perform outside on the green during the day, in the Auction Mart in the evening and possibly popping into the tea time concert in the Church. There will always be time for fish and chips on the village green and for taking a shufty at some of the competitions.

The Historically Informed Summer School is a unique international residential course exploring the common ground & connections between early music and folk & traditional music. The course covers all aspects of early music and folk & traditional music and is suitable for students of all ages and experience from elementary to advanced.
Stewart will be exploring the music of the great Irish composer Turlough O’Carolan whose music is still heard in concert halls as well as played in pub sessions. His compositions embrace ideas from the baroque whilst remaining firmly rooted in Gaelic folk music. These workshops will introduce some of O’Carolan’s finest melodies and explore the effect of applying folk articulation and ornamentation to a form that is free of the constraints of regular folk dance structures. As is the tradition on HISS courses, he’ll be involved in a few collaborations – with Mary Tyers working with small folk ensembles which will use old English maggots as repertoire; with Jake Herringman on tunes constructed over a ground bass; and with Anne-Marie Chistensen-Brown looking at playing for “country dances,” comparing and contrasting material from England and Denmark. Material for other classes will include dance tunes used by Nathaniel Thompson in his 1680 publication, “180 Loyal Songs” and, under the banner of acquiring skills for learning by ear, he will also run a workshop looking at pattern recognition in music. Who could possibly resist? Book your place here.
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5 days ago
Memories of live gigs! Cheers, Lee! 😊maddisonsthread.bandcamp.com/
1 week ago
This year the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering is taking place online, with a mix of YouTube and Zoom calls. You can visit their page and look at the programme for all the events. Here's the link for the Saturday evening concert with a recorded video spot (including a guest appearance from Emma and Yannik!) It will go live on YouTube on Sat 10th April at 7.00 pm.youtu.be/LoEEw_U4WsE
The event is not ticketed, but you can donate here to support the festival: gofund.me/bc3d36f4This event will be available online from the scheduled time on Saturday 10th April. The YouTube link will be youtu.be/LoEEw_U4WsE . The concert has international connections - Glowan were filmed at home in Canada, while the singers of Tonbande are from the Louis Braille Blind School at Dueren in Germany. Tonbande were recorded at the Bridge Folk Club in Newcastle in June 2019 when they came as guests of the Gathering, later singing at the Chantry. (Thanks to Eric, Peter and Mike at the Bridge for the video)
For links and information on other Online Gathering events see the Morpeth Gathering Facebook page or visit www.northumbriana.org.uk/gathering . If you would like to support this year's free Gathering online events, please consider making a donation at gofundme.com/f/morpeth-northumbrian-gathering . ... See MoreSee Less
1 week ago
Huge thanks to Wil Walker (ExileFM) for including 'White Jock' on his Take on Tradition playlist for this week. It's available for one week from 6th April, so check out the link - what a great line up!www.mixcloud.com/WilWalker
If you like the track, the album is available to download from the website 😊
www.stewarthardy.co.uk/product/tods-assembly-download/Snow, and maybe other April surprises - in this week’s podcast, available now to stream or download via the Media tab at exilefm.com for one week from 6/4/21, with:
1. Si Barron - Singing Lovely Nancy
2. John Kennedy - Reels: Snow In April/Craig's Crossroads
3. Ben Lennon and Tony O'Connell - Murphy's/The Smoky Chimney
4. Bróna Mcvittie - A Pity Beyond All Telling
5. Harbottle & Jonas - Black Is The Colour
6. Robbie Greig Music - Blàr Inbhir Lòchaidh
7. Maurice O’Keeffe - Molly Morrissey's/Tom Billy’s
8. Bryan O'Leary Music & Mikey O'Connor - Boat to Bofin/Tom Billy's Waltz
9. Sliabh Notes - Polkas Medley: John Collins’ Fancy/Eileen’s Polka/Ned Kelly’s Polka
10. The Lomond Ceilidh BAND - Marches
11. Stewart Hardy Music - White Jock
12. Jim Eldon - Queen Of Tavendor
13. Johnny Handle - Alwinton Show
14. David Faulkner & Steve Turner - The Auld Goodman/Any Second Now
Also on Mixcloud at www.mixcloud.com/WilWalker ... See MoreSee Less
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30 Years Collection Bill Elliot Bottle Bank Band CD Launch Community Strings Fiddle Day Frank McLaughlin George Welch Graham Dixon Halsway Manor HISS Holly & Ivy James Hill Jimmy's Fiddle JSArts Maddison's Thread Mick West Trio Minstrelsy Morpeth Gathering North East Fiddle School Northumbrian Shop Solo TFA workshop