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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 February 2023 workshops Fiddle Day Fiddle Technique Fiddling Three Frank McLaughlin Geordie Night George Welch Halsway Manor Hardy Tyers Harmony Historically Informed Summer School Holly & Ivy Intermediate James Hill Jan 2022 Workshops Jimmy's Fiddle JSArts July 2022 Workshops Laura Connolly Lee Maddison Maddison's Thread Mar 2022 Workshops Mar/Apr Workshops 2023 May 2022 Workshops May Tour 2017 May Workshops 2023 Mick West Trio Mixed Instruments Morpeth Community Strings Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering NEFS SWW North East North East Fiddle School Northumbrian Ranters November 2022 workshops November Workshops Phoenix Folk Repertoire & Music Skills (Mixed Instruments) Repertoire for Mixed Instruments Residential TFA William Shield Wisewood Folk Woolsington Strings Zoom
NEFS Summer Workshop Weekend with Grace Smith and Stewart Hardy
Full details from the NEFS website: http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/classes/
- Saturday 8th July – Full day of Fiddle Tune & Technique Workshops (Wylam Methodist Church)
- Satuday evening informal concert & session, featuring Stewart Hardy & Frank McLaughlin (Riding Mill Parish Hall)
- Sunday 9th July – Fiddle Ensemble Day (Riding Mill Parish Hall)
Each workshop day is £44, attend both for £84.
£44 – places are limited.
- In-person tuition focusing on developing fiddle technique
- Tunes and technique delivered by both Grace Smith and Stewart Hardy
- In-depth fiddle teaching aimed at Levels 2 and 3
- The day includes 3 mixed ability workshops, looking at tunes and techniques, and time for a tutor-guided session
Satuday evening informal concert & session, featuring Stewart Hardy & Frank McLaughlin (Riding Mill Parish Hall, 7.30 – 10.30 pm)
Sunday Full-day Fiddle Ensemble Day Sunday 9th July, 9.30 am – 4.00 pm at Riding Mill Parish Hall, Millfield Rd, Riding Mill, Northumberland NE44 6DJ
£44 – places are limited Includes:
- In-person tuition focusing on fiddle ensemble playing techniques
- Includes tunes, harmonies, fiddle chords and fiddle ensemble arrangement techniques.
- Teaching delivered by both Grace Smith and Stewart Hardy
- The day will finish with a tutor-guided session
Fiddle Foundations
1st – 3rd September 2023
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 fiddle tuition. The workshop will typically take between 10 and 15 people from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. The residential weekend fee of £375 covers all food, tuition, daytime refreshments and two nights single occupancy accommodation, most of which is en suite.
The Fiddle Foundations workshop is a standard level technique course and is being run as an opportunity for fiddle players to look at, in some detail, the fundamental building blocks that Stewart uses to create stylistic interpretations of tunes. He will be teaching some of the basic bowing patterns that help to bring out the distinctive flavour of the most common tune forms. For the left hand, he’ll be concentrating on hand frames and melodic motifs (those note patterns that occur again and again in folk tunes), as well as an approach to ornamentation which is designed to help players access ornaments in a way that is both natural for them and appropriate for the tunes.
This course can accommodate a broad range of experience and ability, from competent beginner to upper intermediate, but is not suitable for absolute or early beginners. All tuition, resources, accommodation, food and daytime refreshments are included. Sheet music and mp3 files of the tunes covered are sent out in advance, and recordings of exercises from the course are sent on to you afterwards.
For further information or to express your interest in this course, please email Ali (music@stewarthardy.co.uk)
- – playing simple dance tunes at steady to mid tempo (e.g. reels and jigs at 50-80 beats per minute)
- – able to clap in time to a tune
- – have basic control of the bow on the string
- – able to slur notes together
- – comfortable in the keys of G,D and A major and familiar with their note names
- – familiarity with C major
- – able to play basic scales without notation
- – able to play at least 2 tunes without notation
- – attend other fiddle workshops
- – play with a community folk music group
- – join in folk music sessions
- – receive tuition on the fiddle/violin
Zoom Session
NEFS Live Tunes with added harmonies
Meeting ID: 812 6580 8817
Passcode: nefs2023se
North East Tunes: Repertoire course for Mixed Instruments
15th – 17th September 2023
Shepherds Dene, Riding Mill, Northumberland NE44 6AF
4.00 pm start and finish time.
For players of all instruments of intermediate level and above, focusing on great tunes from the North East of England.
Join Stewart in the beautiful retreat venue of Shepherds Dene, for a weekend of learning tunes from the North East of England. The workshop is aimed at intermediate players of any instrument (including transposing instruments), focusing on melody tuition, and will run from 4 pm on Friday until 4 pm on Sunday afternoon. The workshops will be taught “as if by ear”, with the phrases broken down into recognisable motifs, and with enough repetition for those learning by ear. Notation will be provided and can be used as a remider after the course, or at any point for reassurance.
All tuition, resources, accommodation, food and daytime refreshments are included in the course fee. Sheet music and mp3 files of the tunes covered are sent out in advance, full worksheets of the tunes taught are provided, and any recordings from the course are sent on to you afterwards.
For further information or to express your interest in this course, please email Ali (music@stewarthardy.co.uk)
**Covid-19 Update
This course will be run in accordance to our Covid-secure Music Workshop Guidelines, and is subject to any restrictions applicable at the time, and any coronavirus protocols from the venue.
October Workshops 2023
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 6th October, 19:00 – 21:00
£20
October Workshops: £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.
October Workshops 2023
Fiddle Workshop 1
Zoom Workshop
Saturday 7th October: 10:00 am – 12:00 noon
Competent Beginner to Upper Intermediate level
£20
October Workshops: £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.
October Workshops 2023
Fiddle Workshop 2
More details and bookings coming soon!
Zoom Workshop
Saturday 7th October: 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Intermediate to Advanced players
£20
October Workshops: £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.
JSArts Fiddle Technique
Fully Booked (please enquire to go on the waiting list)
3rd – 5th November 2023
Shepherds Dene, Riding Mill, Northumberland NE44 6AF
4.00 pm start and finish time.
Join Stewart for a weekend of intensive fiddle tuition at this beautiful location in the Lake District. The workshop will typically take a maxiumum of 14 participants and will run from 3 pm on Friday until 3 pm on Sunday afternoon.This course can accommodate a broad range of experience and ability, ranging from competent beginner to upper intermediate, but is not suitable for absolute or early beginners. All tuition, resources, accommodation, food and daytime refreshments are included. Sheet music and mp3 files of the tunes covered are sent out in advance, and recordings of exercises from the course are sent on to you afterwards.
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 without recourse to reading notation, 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.
This course is fully booked. For information about future courses or to go on the waiting list, please email Ali (music@stewarthardy.co.uk)
**Covid-19 Update
This course will be run in accordance to our Covid-secure Music Workshop Guidelines, and is subject to any restrictions applicable at the time, and any coronavirus protocols from the venue. Please do not travel to the venue if you feel unwell or have cold-like symptoms.
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- – playing simple dance tunes at steady to mid tempo (e.g. reels and jigs at 50-80 beats per minute)
- – able to clap in time to a tune
- – have basic control of the bow on the string
- – able to slur notes together
- – comfortable in the keys of G,D and A major and familiar with their note names
- – familiarity with C major
- – able to play basic scales without notation
- – able to play at least 2 tunes without notation
- – attend other fiddle workshops
- – play with a community folk music group
- – join in folk music sessions
- – receive tuition on the fiddle/violin
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 as part of the NEFS Winter Residential.
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.
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. Plus we will hold a play-along session of the Video Tutorial tunes and our new Live Tunes on the sixth week.
There is a full day’s workshop on Saturday 2nd December which is taught in person at Shepherds Dene and can be booked separately, with various packages available for the NEFS Winter Residential.
Check out the NEFS website for full details, see which tunes are being taught this block by Stewart Hardy and Melissa Whitehead, and you will be able to book online through the NEFS Shop very soon! http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
George and I will be heading to South Shields Folk Club for a relaxed Sunday evening on 12th November. Join us for some more of George’s moving songs and hilarious stories and, as always, I’ll be doing my best to keep up!
Once you have heard George perform his songs, accompanied by his guitar playing with Stewart’s fiddle, there is no doubt that the success of this highly entertaining duo is built on solid musical foundations
Recordings
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4 days ago
Less than a month to go to our Arrangement Techniques course for mixed instruments, which will be my 100th residential JSArts course!* 🥳There is just one place left if you would like to join us. Get in touch quickly, so we can book you in with the venue - the beautiful Shepherds Dene near Riding Mill in Northumberland.We will be learning a lovely selection of tunes, and choosing which to work on - exploring options for introductions & endings, varying instrumentation, creating harmony lines and different ways of accompanying the tune to produce alternate soundscapes and narratives. With a limited number of participants, there will be plenty of time to explore ideas from everyone. All instruments are welcome, and if you require notation in different keys or clefs, that can be provided. Dots and audio files are provided in advance, and any recordings from the weekend are sent on afterwards.*There will be cake! 🎂😊This content isn't available at the moment
When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it, or it's been deleted.5 days ago
Finally, a new tune for The Tune Vault, and to pick up where we left off, here’s another sparkling tune by Tyneside fiddle supremo, James Hill in the key of "F for vescence" 🤣 ... See MoreSee LessTykeside (James Hill) | The Tune Vault
Tykeside (James Hill)- The Tune Vault by Stewart HardyThis enigmatically titled reel in F major is another gem by Tyneside fiddling legend James Hill. No tr...2 weeks ago
Happy May Day!Looking back, April had some very lovely moments...At the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering illustrating Amélie Addison's wonderful talk on William Shield and with cracking performances by Tyneside Fiddle Alliance, our April Workshops on Zoom, a trip to see the amazing Dudok Quartet Amsterdam, a duo gig with Ali Say at the Phoenix Folk Ltd. Spring Thing, the start of Block 3 at North East Fiddle School, and our JSArts Advanced Fiddle course at Rydal Hall. Happy Spring everyone 🎻 ... See MoreSee LessTags
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 The Tune Vault Tyneside Fiddle Alliance