Saturday, July 17, 2010

Tuneworks at SFF

We're really proud of the variety of sessions that happen at Shrewsbury, Izzy and his team do a fantastic job at organising these and they always end up being a highlight for anyone who takes part or even just wanders in and listens!

Here are the details of the Tuneworks sessions that will be held at the festival this year....


Tuneworks Beginners Session

This session uses the beginners tunebook available on the festival

website - from the homepage follow the link to Tune Workshops. The

tunes are all tried and tested session standards and are backed up

with some audio files that will give you an idea of the speed. The

idea is that you learn them at home ready for the session. We will

play plenty of repetitions of each tune allowing you to get them

firmly under your fingers in a session environment. Bring your own

tunebook!


Tuneworks Improvers Session

This session uses the improvers tunebook available on the festival

website - from the homepage follow the link to Tune Workshops. With a

wider range of tunes that incorporates those learned in the beginners

sessions, the pace will be slower than at a normal tune session,

giving learning musicians the chance to practice in a larger session

environment. These sessions have been great fun in the past and we

look forward to sharing a tune with friends old and new! Bring your

own tunebook!


Tuneworks Follow On Beginners/Improvers

Last year, many musicians wanted to keep playing after the beginners

and improvers sessions so if you make your way to the Tuneworks

noticeboard in the food tent you'll probably find a gang of fellow

tune addicts ready to kick off again!


Tuneworks Full Speed Session

A chance for everyone to have a blast before the end of the session -

using the tunebooks means you'll know at least some of the tunes, and

get to hear and play them at full speed!


Tuneworks Turn Up and Play Sessions

A few of the Tuneworks staff will meet you at the Tuneworks

noticeboard in the Food Tent and help you get some tunes from our

tunebooks on the go - a good chance to unwind after or before seeing

some of the other great music available at the festival!


Tuneworks Beginners Coaching Fiddle

Kitty Greenwood is an experienced fiddle teacher who can help you get

to beginners session standard. Concentrating on a tune or two from the

beginners tunebook, she will help you to get those all-important

techniques right from the word go! You'll need to bring a fiddle along

to this workshop.


Tuneworks Beginners Coaching Whistle

Rob Pierce is a great flute and whistle player - just the person to

get you going on a tune or two from our beginners session book. You

will need a D whistle or a flute to participate in this workshop.


Tuneworks Uilleann Pipes Course

Jim Carroll is fast becoming one of the country's most respected

Uilleann Pipemakers and has a vast wealth of knowledge of playing

Irish music on a range of instruments. Turn up at the first session

and he will arrange how best to teach attendees over the weekend.


Storytelling

Tim O'the Oak will entertain everyone in the family with his

fascinating stories. A real festival find last year, Tim is one of the

country's best loved storytellers and brings an animated and energetic

style to each night's bedtime story.


Irish Session

After a number of very popular sessions last year, our friends from

Nottingham are back for a session each evening. A great chance for you

to get involved or sit back and listen!

8 comments:

Cassy said...

What a fantastic range of options for people - really looking forward to the festival! Thanks for putting this together! When/where will the storytelling be?

SFF Neil said...

Hi Cassy - will try and get back to you later today with the full details on storytelling.

SFF Neil said...

Cassy - the bedtime stories for children are on the village stage at 19:30 on Saturday and Sunday.

Felicity Burke said...

Hi Folks

Im Fliss Burke and Im one of Izzy's helpers. I suspect Im going to be helping start sessions from the tunebook. I play English concerting, and guitar.

I organise a Folk music practice session at The Birchmeadow Centre, Broseley - Sunday mornings 10am-12.30pm. We are using Izzy's tunebook, plus one we have compiled ourselves.

Look forward to meeting you.

Fliss

Unknown said...

Hi - I'm learning the melodeon - G/D - where do I fit in ??? Jules

SFF Neil said...

Jules - I'll pass your comment on to Izzy...look out on here for the reply.

izzymac said...

Julia - depends what level you're at and what tradition you're more likely to play. Have a look at the Improvers session - if it's too fast the beginners session may be right and if not, you know the level of each for next year. The beginners session is about the speed of the sample tunes on the tunebook page.
There will also be follow on sessions in the food tent after the beginners and the improvers, and also the turn up and play slow sessions in the afternoon and early evening. Depending on who turns up for these we will aim to put people into groups with players at an equivalent level and leave you to your own devices. Then later, and for experienced players, Irish tunes in the beer tent and and a lot of the time there are English tunes in the members bar.
When you are learning it's important to use your ears as much as your fingers, so do a lot of listening and ask for a title if there's a tune you like.

izzymac said...
This comment has been removed by the author.