Stewart Hardy

The Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering is celebrating its big 50th Anniversary this year and there is lots planned. On the Friday night there will be the Golden Gala Concert in the Methodist Church, in which I will be playing with Bottle Band Band, Tyneside Fiddle Alliance and leading the Morpeth Community Strings group in their debut performance. On the Saturday there will be the usual competitions, and I will be supporting family and friends in the fiddle classes, and might even be persuaded to enter the instrumental duos! The Tyneside Fiddle Alliance plan to defend their title in the Concert Band category and there will be many other great things going on. Do come along and support this wonderful celebration of Northumbrian traditional music, song and dance.

“An exciting three-day annual festival of street entertainment, indoor events, music, dance, craft, dialect, heritage and traditional fun – held the weekend after Easter in the medieval market town of Morpeth, 14 miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The festival is a true gathering of people who come together to enjoy the traditional culture of Northumberland and the wider NE region. It features concerts, dance, crafts, battle re-enactments, dialect, stories, drama, workshops, sessions, singarounds, competitions, stalls, bellringing, orienteering, tours, walks, talks and street performances which include a young people’s pageant as part of the Saturday morning Border Cavalcade.”

Fiddle Techniques with Stewart Hardy
Fully Booked

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 and included in the price. 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 there. Vegan and vegetarian diets are catered for, as are lactose and gluten intolerance.

Over the weekend there are 10 * 75 minute workshops. 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.