Mar
27
Wed
North East Fiddle School returns with another block of fully online materials, plus a single day workshop in-person that will be held this block on Saturday 16th March.
Technique and tunes are taught through Video Tutorials which are added to weekly and can be accessed indefinitely after that so you can work at your own pace. Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith will each be providing a Video Tutorial for this block.
For those who enjoy the live engagement, there are weekly Fiddle Practice sessions and tunes taught live on Zoom each Wednesday evening for the five weeks of the block, plus a play-along session on Weds 3rd April. These are great fun, and a good way to keep up with playing your fiddle regularly, whilst improving your technique and learning some core repertoire tunes. Join Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith for the Fiddle Practice and Live Teaching Zoom calls.
Check out the NEFS website for full details and you can book via the NEFS Shop: http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
Apr
3
Wed
North East Fiddle School returns with another block of fully online materials, plus a single day workshop in-person that will be held this block on Saturday 16th March.
Technique and tunes are taught through Video Tutorials which are added to weekly and can be accessed indefinitely after that so you can work at your own pace. Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith will each be providing a Video Tutorial for this block.
For those who enjoy the live engagement, there are weekly Fiddle Practice sessions and tunes taught live on Zoom each Wednesday evening for the five weeks of the block, plus a play-along session on Weds 3rd April. These are great fun, and a good way to keep up with playing your fiddle regularly, whilst improving your technique and learning some core repertoire tunes. Join Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith for the Fiddle Practice and Live Teaching Zoom calls.
Check out the NEFS website for full details and you can book via the NEFS Shop: http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
Apr
6
Sat
Apr 6 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
WILLIAM SHIELD: Northumbrian Fiddler and Piper??
Presentation by Dr Amélie Addison with Stewart Hardy (fiddle)
My friend, Dr Amélie Addison, will be giving a presentation at The Chantry Bagpipe Museum as part of the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering on 6th April. She is the leading authority on local composer William Shield, a man with close ties to the fiddling and piping traditions of the North East, and I am delighted to be illustrating her talk with some tunes on the fiddle.
Tickets £5 adult / £2 school-age
Apr 6 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering
Winners’ Concert – Special guest singer Benny Graham, plus winners of the 2023 music, song and reciting competitions, Town Hall Ballroom.
Including performances from Stewart Hardy & Ali Say (fiddle duo), and the Tyneside Fiddle Alliance.
Apr
12
Fri
April Workshops 2024
Play-along Session in Harmony for Mixed Instruments
This will be a Zoom call open to intermediate players (and above) of any instrument. Notation will be provided in advance for all the tunes, together with suggestions for basic chords and a harmony line, but feel free to join in by ear! You can play the tune along with Stewart, play an accompaniment with a bass line, chords or a harmony (your own or follow the suggestions) or enjoy playing the tune whilst Stewart plays a harmony. If you wish to join in on an instrument with a different range from the fiddle, or with specfic key requirements, please get in touch before booking.
Zoom Workshop
Friday 12th April, 19:00 – 21:00
£20
April Workshops 2024: £20 each.
Buy any two for £35 or all three for £50. The discount will be applied in your basket – visit the Shop.
If you haven’t attended a music workshop on Zoom before, here is a page of Zoom Workshop Tips to get the most out of your experience. A strong and reliable internet connection, plus headphones or an external speaker are recommended. A recording of the live call will be available for those who experience technical difficulties, or who find themselves unable to attend the live Zoom call.
Apr
13
Sat
April Workshops 2024
Fiddle Workshop 1
Zoom Workshop
Geordie’s Rant (George Mitchell)
One of many fabulous tunes to emerge from the creative melting pot of The Cheviot Ranters.
Learn a tune steadily, taught phrase by phrase with detailed instruction for any useful techniques that can be taken away for use in all your fiddle playing.
Saturday 13th April: 10:00 am – 12:00 noon
Aimed at Competent Beginner to Upper Intermediate level
£20
April Workshops 2024: £20 each.
Buy any two for £35 or all three for £50. The discount will be applied in your basket – visit the Shop.
If you haven’t attended a music workshop on Zoom before, here is a page of Zoom Workshop Tips to get the most out of your experience. A strong and reliable internet connection, plus headphones or an external speaker are recommended.
April Workshops 2024
Fiddle Workshop 2
Zoom Workshop
Shrewsbury Lasses
One of the classic country dance tunes of the English repertoire.
Learn a tune steadily, taught phrase by phrase with detailed instruction for any useful techniques that can be taken away for use in all your fiddle playing.
Saturday 13th April: 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Aimed at Intermediate to Advanced players
£20
April Workshops 2024: £20 each.
Buy any two for £35 or all three for £50. The discount will be applied in your basket – visit the Shop.
If you haven’t attended a music workshop on Zoom before, here is a page of Zoom Workshop Tips to get the most out of your experience. A strong and reliable internet connection, plus headphones or an external speaker are recommended.
Apr
19
Fri
Phoenix Folk are organsing their ‘Spring Thing’ on the weekend on 19th – 21st April. This is a their annual weekend get-together in Newcastle, aimed at tune players and singers, with a mix of sessions, singarounds, ensemble playing, performance, outdoor activity and social events.
Stewart Hardy & Ali Say have been invited to provide an informal concert on Saturday evening where we’ll be sharing a selection of our fiddle duets.
Get in touch with Phoenix Folk if you’d like more information.
Apr
24
Wed
North East Fiddle School returns with another block of fully online materials, plus a single day workshop in-person that will be held this block on Saturday 11th May.
Technique and tunes are taught through Video Tutorials which are added to weekly and can be accessed indefinitely after that so you can work at your own pace. Kevin Lees and Stewart will each be providing a new Video Tutorial for this block.
For those who enjoy the live engagement, there are weekly Fiddle Practice sessions and tunes taught live on Zoom each Wednesday evening for the five weeks of the block. These are great fun, and a good way to keep up with playing your fiddle regularly, whilst improving your technique and learning some core repertoire tunes. Join Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith for the Fiddle Practice and Live Teaching Zoom calls.
Check out the NEFS website for full details and you can book via the NEFS Shop: http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
Apr
26
Fri
Advanced Fiddle Technique
26th – 28th April 2024
Rydal Hall, Ambleside LA22 9LX
3.00 pm start and finish time.
Join Stewart in the beautiful surroundings of Rydal Hall in the Lake District for a weekend of intensive advanced fiddle tuition. The workshop will typically take between 10 and 15 people from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. The residential weekend fee of £398 covers all food, tuition, daytime refreshments and two nights single occupancy accommodation, almost all of which is en suite. Sheet music and mp3 files of the tunes covered are sent out in advance, detailed worksheets are provided, and recordings of exercises from the course are sent on to you afterwards.
This course is aimed at proficient players with good to high technical competence, who are comfortable with their instruments and their repertoire, and who may have some of the following experience and skills:
- – Playing folk tunes at dance tempo
- – Comfortable in key signatures of up to 3 sharps and 1 flat
- – Familiarity with key signatures of up to 4 sharps and 3 flats
- – Attending folk music sessions and confidently joining in with the tunes
- – Leading sets of tunes in sessions
- – Playing in ceilidh and/or concert bands
- – Teaching violin and/or fiddle
These courses are centred around the technical issues that come with playing fiddle music, with as much emphasis on the how as there is on the what. Focusing on left-hand and bowing technique, with stylistic interpretation of the music a key feature, these workshops delve deep into the tunes, extracting exercises to improve technique and allow its application to a wider repertoire. Tunes are carefully selected for their technical or stylistic content whilst also baring in mind practical considerations such as their usefulness in folk music sessions or as dance repertoire. The tunes are taught ‘as if by ear’, meaning they are taught phrase by phrase at a tempo and with sufficient repetition to enable learning by ear, but with notation available at any point should that be desired or necessary. This encourages the development of aural pattern recognition and general musicality, enhancing musicianship and the enjoyment of playing music in social settings. There will also be two evening sessions, allowing participants to play common repertoire together and to exchange tunes, picking new ones up by ear.
Places on Advanced Fiddle Techniques courses are available on application. For further information or to express your interest in this course, please email Ali (music@stewarthardy.co.uk)
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NEFS Block 3 starts this week!Sign up now 🎻We have a new block starting on Zoom this week!
Join us for our five weekly Wednesday evening Zoom sessions starting on 24th April with video tutorials on demand, and/or our in-person workshop in Wylam on Saturday 11th May. Bookings now open!
www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/shop/
More details are available on the Classes page of the NEFS website. Get in touch with Ali if you have any questions 😊
🎶 This block we have two more fabulous video tutorials, both English jigs collected in the middle of the nineteenth century from “Wheelwright Robinson” of Abbots Bromley, Flaxley Green Dance from Stewart Hardy Music and, of course, The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, this one from Kevin Lees - Music. Grace Smith Music will be teaching alongside Stewart on our Zoom calls, and will be introducing a lovely Shetland jig as our new live tune.
We are also delighted to announce that Chris Meredith will be teaching with Stewart on our Saturday Workshop in Wylam on 11th May. Chris is a wonderful player and teacher, and was the force behind FiddleTutor.com with some wonderful online tutorials.
📣 Sign up now!
🎧🎻🎹 Our next set of Zoom workshops is this weekend, on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th April. Each workshop can be booked individually, and all will be available on-demand after the weekend. Book now on the website!There will be lots of favourite tunes with harmonies and chords provided for the Friday evening play-along session. All instruments are welcome, and alternate clefs or keys for transposing instruments can be provided on request. Then on Saturday in the fiddle workshops, we'll be looking at a fabulous north east tune by Geroge Mitchell of the Cheviot Ranters, call Geordie's Rant, in the morning. In the afternoon, it will be the turn of Shrewsbury Lasses, one of the classic country dance tunes of the English repertoire. Full resources including audio files and a worksheet are provided.
Visit the website for more info and bookings 😃
There will be lots of fascinating facts and insights into the life and times of William Shield, presented by Dr Amélie Addison on Saturday afternoon, illustrated with a few fiddle tunes! We'll be at the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum at 4pm.Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering
(Disclaimer: more recent photos are available!)