Stewart Hardy

Repertoire & Music Skills (Mixed Instruments)

12th – 14th June 2020
Parcevall Hall, Appletreewick, Skipton, N. Yorks BD23 6DG
5.00 pm start and finish time.

Join Stewart in the beautiful surroundings of Parcevall Hall in North Yorkshire for a weekend workshop learning new repertoire and improving music skills. Courses are open to players of any instrument (including transposing instruments) and are aimed at a broad range of abilities from intermediate to advanced. This workshop will focus on “How to Learn by Ear” with tips and techniques for improving this invaluable music skill – whether for use in future workshops, learning tunes from recordings or for picking up tunes more easily in your local sessions. Repertoire will be carefully chosen to facilitate the teaching of this skill, whilst adding interesting and exciting tunes to your repertoire.

The workshop will typically take between 8 and 12 people from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. The residential weekend fee of £335 covers all food, tuition, daytime refreshments and two nights single occupancy accommodation, some of which is en suite (for medical reasons, then first come first served). The non-residential rate is £250 and includes everything except bed & breakfast. Sheet music and mp3 files of the tunes covered are sent out in advance, and recordings of arrangements created during the course are sent on to you afterwards.

For further information or to book your place on this course, please email Ali (jsarts@stewarthardy.co.uk)

This workshop series will explore how to use harmonic relationships, melodic flow, lift and narrative development together with groove to create great sets of tunes for folk sessions and ceilidhs.

Tools: 4 x 1 hour weekly online workshops exploring different considerations when combining folk melodies with a view to creating your own sets of tunes. These will be followed by a single 2 hour evening online session (a separate event on Fri 18th June) where we will try out some of the tune combinations discussed in the workshops. Participation in the workshops is not a prerequisite for joining in with the session.

£10 per workshop / £35 for all 4 workshops.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for these sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website

This workshop series will explore how to use harmonic relationships, melodic flow, lift and narrative development together with groove to create great sets of tunes for folk sessions and ceilidhs.

Tools: 4 x 1 hour weekly online workshops exploring different considerations when combining folk melodies with a view to creating your own sets of tunes. These will be followed by a single 2 hour evening online session (a separate event on Fri 18th June) where we will try out some of the tune combinations discussed in the workshops. Participation in the workshops is not a prerequisite for joining in with the session.

£10 per workshop / £35 for all 4 workshops.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for these sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website

This workshop series will explore how to use harmonic relationships, melodic flow, lift and narrative development together with groove to create great sets of tunes for folk sessions and ceilidhs.

Tools: 4 x 1 hour weekly online workshops exploring different considerations when combining folk melodies with a view to creating your own sets of tunes. These will be followed by a single 2 hour evening online session (a separate event on Fri 18th June) where we will try out some of the tune combinations discussed in the workshops. Participation in the workshops is not a prerequisite for joining in with the session.

£10 per workshop / £35 for all 4 workshops.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for these sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website

This workshop series will explore how to use harmonic relationships, melodic flow, lift and narrative development together with groove to create great sets of tunes for folk sessions and ceilidhs.

Tools: 4 x 1 hour weekly online workshops exploring different considerations when combining folk melodies with a view to creating your own sets of tunes. These will be followed by a single 2 hour evening online session (a separate event on Fri 18th June) where we will try out some of the tune combinations discussed in the workshops. Participation in the workshops is not a prerequisite for joining in with the session.

£10 per workshop / £35 for all 4 workshops.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for these sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website

This one-off 2 hour session will allow participants to play a variety of folk tunes, led by Stewart Hardy and Mary Tyler and will also be an opportunity for attendees at Stewart’s ‘Folk Set’ series to try out tune combinations that were discussed in the workshops. Attendance at the previous workshops is not a prerequisite for joining this session.

Access to a copy of the HISS Tunebook is required for this sessions. If you do not already have one, you can buy a download from the HISS website.

July Workshops 2022
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 22nd July, 19:00 – 21:00

A single workshop is £20, attend two for £35 or all three for £50.

For more information, please visit the July Workshops 2022 information page.

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.

July Workshops 2022
Fiddle Workshop 1

Zoom Workshop
Saturday 23rd July: 10:00 am – 12:00 noon
Competent Beginner to Upper Intermediate level

Joy Together (S. Hardy)
 – a lyrical triple time tune written for Stewart’s wife, Tine, which Frank McLaughlin and Stewart recorded on the CDs Root 2 and Compass.

A single workshop is £20, attend two for £35 or all three for £50.

For more information, please visit the July Workshops 2022 information page.

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.

July Workshops 2022
Fiddle Workshop 2

Zoom Workshop
Saturday 23rd July: 14:00 – 16:00
Intermediate to Advanced level

Wedding Bells (S. Hardy)
– a reel written in 2001 in anticipation of the big day. This tune was recorded by Alistair Anderson and Northlands on their eponymous CD.

A single workshop is £20, attend two for £35 or all three for £50.

For more information, please visit the July Workshops 2022 information page.

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.

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