Mar
21
Fri
JSArts Fiddle Technique
21st – 23rd March 2025
Rydal Hall, Ambleside LA22 9LX
3.00 pm start and finish time.
£402 fully inclusive (except bar drinks)
Join Stewart in the beautiful surroundings of Rydal Hall in the Lake District for a weekend of intensive fiddle tuition. The workshop will take a maxiumum of around 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. Accommodation is in single occupancy rooms, almost all of which are en suite. Sheet music and mp3 files of the tunes covered are sent out in advance, detailed worksheets are provided, 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.
For information and a booking form for 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. Please do not travel to the venue if you feel unwell or have cold-like symptoms.
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Standard Level courses are aimed at fiddle players with a broad range of experience and ability, from competent beginner to upper intermediate, but please note they are not suitable for absolute or early beginners. We would expect players to have most of the following skills:
- – 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
In addition fiddlers who attend these courses often have some of the following experience:
- – attend other fiddle workshops
- – play with a community folk music group
- – join in folk music sessions
- – receive tuition on the fiddle/violin
Apr
5
Sat
Phoenix Folk are organsing their next ‘Spring Thing’ on the weekend of 4th – 6th April. This is a their annual weekend get-together in Newcastle, aimed at tune players and singers, with a mix of sessions, singarounds, ensemble playing, performance, outdoor activity and social events.
Stewart Hardy & Ali Say have been invited to provide an informal concert on Saturday evening where we’ll be sharing a selection of our fiddle duets.
Get in touch with Phoenix Folk if you’d like more information.
Apr
23
Wed
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 on Saturday 17th May.
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. Grace Smith and Stewart will each be providing a new Video Tutorial for this block.
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. Join Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith for the Fiddle Practice and Live Teaching Zoom calls.
Check out the NEFS website for full details and you can book via the NEFS Shop: http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
Apr
30
Wed
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 on Saturday 17th May.
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. Grace Smith and Stewart will each be providing a new Video Tutorial for this block.
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. Join Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith for the Fiddle Practice and Live Teaching Zoom calls.
Check out the NEFS website for full details and you can book via the NEFS Shop: http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
May
2
Fri
Advanced Fiddle Technique
2nd – 4th May 2025
Rydal Hall, Ambleside LA22 9LX
3.00 pm start and finish time.
£402 fully inclusive (except bar drinks)
Join Stewart in the beautiful surroundings of Rydal Hall in the Lake District for a weekend of intensive advanced fiddle tuition. The workshop will typically take between 10 and 15 people from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. The residential weekend fee of £402 covers all food, tuition, daytime refreshments and two nights single occupancy accommodation, almost all of which is en suite. Sheet music and mp3 files of the tunes covered are sent out in advance, detailed worksheets are provided, and recordings of exercises from the course are sent on to you afterwards.
This course is aimed at proficient players with good to high technical competence, who are comfortable with their instruments and their repertoire, and who may have some of the following experience and skills:
- – Playing folk tunes at dance tempo
- – Comfortable in key signatures of up to 3 sharps and 1 flat
- – Familiarity with key signatures of up to 4 sharps and 3 flats
- – Attending folk music sessions and confidently joining in with the tunes
- – Leading sets of tunes in sessions
- – Playing in ceilidh and/or concert bands
- – Teaching violin and/or fiddle
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 by ear, 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. There will also be two evening sessions, allowing participants to play common repertoire together and to exchange tunes, picking new ones up by ear.
Places on Advanced Fiddle Techniques courses are available on application. For further information or to express your interest in this course, please email Ali (music@stewarthardy.co.uk)
May
7
Wed
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 on Saturday 17th May.
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. Grace Smith and Stewart will each be providing a new Video Tutorial for this block.
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. Join Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith for the Fiddle Practice and Live Teaching Zoom calls.
Check out the NEFS website for full details and you can book via the NEFS Shop: http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
May
9
Fri
Stewart and Frank will be playing an intimate concert in Cullercoats Watch House on Friday 9th May at 8.00 pm.
Tickets are available via the Phoenix Folk website
£12.00
Music rooted in the traditions of Scotland,
the Borders and Northumberland
Fiddle virtuoso Stewart Hardy and superb Scottish guitarist Frank McLaughlin are a critically acclaimed duo who possess a rare musical kinship as they explore music rooted in the traditions of Scotland, the Borders and Northumberland while incorporating sensibilities from the worlds of classical, blues, klezmer and jazz.
As a duo they perform traditional and contemporary tunes stripped back to the bare essentials of fiddle and guitar.
With their long-term collaboration, they have achieved a deep and instinctive understanding of each other’s musical interpretations.
The unique and versatile approach Stewart and Frank bring to their music, combined with their ability to draw on a wide variety of styles, produces an uplifting and joyous performance.
May
14
Wed
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 on Saturday 17th May.
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. Grace Smith and Stewart will each be providing a new Video Tutorial for this block.
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. Join Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith for the Fiddle Practice and Live Teaching Zoom calls.
Check out the NEFS website for full details and you can book via the NEFS Shop: http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
May
17
Sat
This full-day workshop forms a part of the North East Fiddle School’s 2025 Block 3 offering, along with video tutorials and Zoom calls, but can be booked separately there is no requirement to attend the Online course.
The in-person Workshop Day on Saturday 17th May will run from 10:00 until 17:00 at Wylam Methodist Church. There will be three workshops looking at fiddle technique and tunes, with a session to finish the afternoon. Join Stewart and Grace for some more fabulous in-person tuition and a session to end the afternoon.
Check out the NEFS website for full details and book your place soon. A discount is available if you book both the Online option and Saturday workshop
http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
May
21
Wed
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 on Saturday 17th May.
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. Grace Smith and Stewart will each be providing a new Video Tutorial for this block.
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. Join Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith for the Fiddle Practice and Live Teaching Zoom calls.
Check out the NEFS website for full details and you can book via the NEFS Shop: http://www.northeastfiddleschool.org.uk/
Recordings
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🎧 The Tune VaultReally looking forward to heading to Rydal Hall next weekend for the JSArts Advanced Fiddle course. I learnt Foul Weather Call from the lovely Frankie Cleeve at an evening session on one of the very early courses we held in South Wales, so this is a good time for it to go into The Tune Vault.
Foul Weather Call
A cracking English country dance tune to be found in the Welch Manuscript of West Sussex and published in a very influential book for the southern English folk tradition, The Sussex Tunebook, edited by Anne Loughran and the very wonderful Vic Gammon.
Foul Weather Call | The Tune Vault
youtu.be
Foul Weather Call - The Tune Vault by Stewart HardyA cracking English country dance tune to be found in the Welch Manuscript of West Sussex and published in...
It will be great to get started again with NEFS on Wednesday after Easter! Great tunes and lots of scales and exercises coming your way!😆 Do join us on Zoom, with catch up on YouTube available for all calls, and video tutorials on-demand too.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.
🎧 The Tune VaultKevin Burke played a couple of favourite Carolan tunes at the Watch House in Cullercoats as part of the Phoenix Folk Ltd. Spring Thing, which gives me an excuse to drop this pretty air into The Tune Vault. I first played it in public across the road from the Watch House at The Bay Hotel, sadly no longer there.
Fanny Dillon (Turlough O’Carolan)
A very pretty tune indeed from the writing of Turlough O’Carolan. There are a few tunes dedicated to Dillons among his compositions and this is a personal favourite.
Fanny Dillon (Carolan) | The Tune Vault
youtu.be
Fanny Dillon (Carolan)- The Tune Vault by Stewart HardyA very pretty tune indeed from the writing of Turlough O’Carolan. There are a few tunes dedicated to ...