The autumn has flown by and as we head towards a further lockdown I thought it would be nice to have some more workshops to look forward to. The feedback from the October workshops was very positive, and so we will repeat the format, with a Play-along Session in Harmony on the Friday evening, and…
October Workshops
As we are unable to run our lovely residential weekends at the moment, I thought a few workshops might be welcomed! It will certainly be lovely to see some happy faces taking part on Zoom! The Friday evening Play-along session on 2nd October is open to all instruments. I’ll play the tune through your headphones,…
July Fiddle Workshops
I am excited to annouce that there will be three online Fiddle Workshops on 25th and 26th July, open to all intermediate & advanced fiddle players. Drawing on what we have learned in various group workshops during lockdown these workshops will be held on Zoom, focusing on three fabulous tunes associated with the North East….
Virtual Summer School with NEFS
North East Fiddle School is hosting an online Summer School in August with some wonderful guest tutors. There will be guided fiddle practices, live workshops, exclusive video tutorials, Q&A panels, a play-along session led by the tutors and a Summer School Tutors’ Concert. Melissa Whitehead and I are joined by Sophy Ball, Kevin Lees, Grace…
Virtual NEFS!
North East Fiddle School is online! We are running our first block of virtual classes, using pdfs of worksheets, audio files of studio recordings of the tunes at different speeds, and video tutorials on YouTube for interactive technical practice sessions and for teaching the tunes with bowing and ornamentation. We are also running Fiddle Technique…
Interesting times
Well, it’s the morning after the PM’s address to the nation advising against unnecessary contact and travel, staying away from pubs and theatres and working from home wherever possible. Quite where that leaves us is difficult to say. Schools are still open for now so does that mean educational activity is still encouraged? Probably not,…
A Spring Celebration
Tyneside Fiddle Alliance are hosting a concert which will be A Spring Celebration of Northumbrian Music, and will be joined the by The Northumbrian Ranters. The concert will be in St George’s Church, Jesmond on Saturday 14th March and will provide a feast of traditional music from Northumberland and beyond. The Northumbrian Ranters are a…
New Tunes for Christmas
As a celebration of the year, or indeed in an effort to focus on the positive in these current ‘interesting times’, I’d like to offer four tunes, free to download for a limited period, that came too late to be included in my 30 Years Collection. Links to the audio, notation and the zip files…
37th Annual Glenties Fiddlers Weekend
Graham Dixon continues to be a great ambassador for the fiddle music of North East England. His books on Robert Whinham and James Hill are among my favourites and I would recommend them to anybody. He is also a lovely, lovely man. So when he asked me to play some of James Hill’s tunes to…
30 Years Collection
Exciting news! This book of original compositions is now out of my control and with the printers. Thirty years of life as a professional folk musician portrayed in melody… as well as the occasional harmony! Huge thanks to Amanda Jayne White (www.mandascat.com) for her original artwork for the cover, and to Rob Say for putting the…
Recordings
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Upcoming Events
Dec4Fri7:00 pm December Workshops: Play-along S... @ Online - on ZoomDecember Workshops: Play-along S... @ Online - on ZoomDec 4 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
December Workshops 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...Dec5Sat10:00 am December Workshops: Fiddle Works... @ Online - on ZoomDecember Workshops: Fiddle Works... @ Online - on ZoomDec 5 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pmDecember Workshops Fiddle Workshop 1 This workshop will provide a warm-up, technical session and will teach a tune which illustrates the use of the technique explored. Suitable for players from competent beginners to upper intermediates....2:00 pm December Workshops: Fiddle Works... @ Online - on ZoomDecember Workshops: Fiddle Works... @ Online - on ZoomDec 5 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pmDecember Workshops Fiddle Workshop 2 This workshop will provide a warm-up, technical session and will teach a tune which illustrates the use of the technique explored. Aimed at intermediate to advanced level fiddle players. Full...