Stewart Hardy

Arrangement Techniques (Mixed Instruments)

28th Feb – 1st Mar 2020
Ushaw College, Durham
3.00 pm start & finish time.

Join Stewart in the beautiful surroundings of Ushaw College in Durham for a weekend workshop exploring arrangement techniques for mixed instrument ensemble. Courses are open to players of any instrument (including transposing instruments) and are aimed at a broad range of abilities from intermediate to advanced. Workshops focus on techniques for arranging tunes for the combination of instruments to hand, using tools such as tempo, texture, dynamics and harmonic structure to create a musical narrative. To enjoy the full benefits of these courses, participants should be able to read notation or confidently and quickly pick up tunes and musical ideas by ear. We will aim to create well-mixed groups by monitoring the instrumentation as participants sign up for the course.

The workshops typically take between 8 and 12 people from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. The residential weekend fee of £335 covers all food, tuition, daytime refreshments and overnight single occupancy, en suite accommodation. 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)

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)

Arrangement Techniques (Mixed Instruments)

9th – 11th October 2020
Parcevall Hall, Appletreewick, Skipton, N. Yorks BD23 6DG
5.00 pm start & finish time.

Join Stewart in the beautiful surroundings of Parcevall Hall near Skipton for a weekend workshop exploring arrangement techniques for mixed instrument ensembles. Courses are open to players of any instrument (including transposing instruments) and are aimed at a broad range of abilities from intermediate to advanced. Workshops focus on techniques for arranging tunes for the combination of instruments to hand, using tools such as tempo, texture, dynamics and harmonic structure to create a musical narrative. To enjoy the full benefits of these courses, participants should be able to read notation or confidently and quickly pick up tunes and musical ideas by ear. We will aim to create well-mixed groups by monitoring the instrumentation as participants sign up for the course.

The workshops typically take between 8 and 12 people from Friday evening 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)

NEFS Residential Weekend
Fri 2nd – Sun 4th December 2022
Shepherds Dene Retreat Centre

For full details, see the NEFS Residential Weekend web page on the NEFS website.

We will be holding our first in-person NEFS Residential Weekend at the beautiful Shepherds Dene Retreat Centre near Riding Mill on Friday 2nd – Sunday 4th December 2022.

This weekend will include our usual Saturday Workshop for the block, which will be on Saturday 3rd December 10.00 am – 5.00 pm. There will be three tune workshops and a session during the day, which will give us a chance to learn new tunes, work on the relevant techniques, and play some of our NEFS tunes together. Tea and coffee is provided, and there is the option to add lunch provided by the venue. Otherwise you are welcome to bring a packed lunch, or to drive down into Riding Mill for something to eat. The lunch break will be 1 hour long.

In addition, we will begin the weekend on Friday evening with dinner and an informal session, and there will be an option to book Bed & Breakfast, so you can stay over, ready for the workshop on Saturday.

After the workshop on Saturday, they is the option to stay for dinner, and to join us for the evening. We are planning a short informal concert to inspire and entertain you, and this will be followed by a session. The bar will be open to purchase drinks and there is again an option of bed and breakfast, so you can relax and enjoy the evening.

On Sunday morning, some short 1-1 sessions with Stewart will be available for those who are interested, and we will recap Saturday’s tunes, or learn a new one, depending on what people would like to do. We will finish the weekend with lunch provided by Shepherds Dene before we head home.

We have come up with some packages to allow you to book the events you wish to attend. These include the following options:

• Saturday Workshop (tea & coffee included, bring a packed lunch, or…)
• add Lunch provided by the venue during the Saturday workshop
• Evening meal and a session (Friday evening, and/or Saturday evening including the concert)
• Bed & Breakfast on Friday and/or Saturday night
• Sunday workshop and lunch

Some or all of these options can be booked as packages, with residential and non-residential options available. For full details, see the NEFS Residential Weekend web page.

Block 6 Online Option is also available to book separately.

Please email or use the contact form for with any queries. To book your place, please place your order in  the NEFS Shop.

*Just a couple of places left