Oxford Slow Session

Happy New Year 2017…

Well, it’s still January.
And before February starts, I’ve managed to put up the Four-Up Hornpipe and the Kesh Jig on the website so that we have plenty to work on as we start 2017. They are both fun tunes to play and not too difficult to learn so I hope you enjoy them.

Booley House is a lovely tune but in G seems to present some problems for the flutes and whistles… so I’ve transposed it to D and added it to the page. Let’s hope this key proves easier.

Sorry to upload three in one day, but I’ve also updated the All tunes A-Z  and in a way, it’s easier to do it all at once.

Finally managed to add Harvest Home – it’s gradually been appearing this week (hard to notice!) and now it’s there… a lovely new tune to learn over Christmas.

This is a great 3/2 hornpipe, probably from Northumberland, that we’ve learned from listening to the great band Spiro. You’ve been a long time away Willy Gray is a little trickier to learn than it looks (although easier in D than it was in C), but I hope you find that it is worth it. In the meantime, always fun to listen to more Spiro, and if you are free this coming Saturday (26th November 2016), I really recommend a trip to Reading to see them play there.

The fantastic harpist Steph West is running a “build a band workshop” in the Baptist Church in Headington from 9.45am to 12.15pm on Saturday 22 October 2016.

Steph is a great harpist and also a fantastic teacher so I’m sure there will be much to learn and interesting people to meet. Here she is playing and singing one of her songs, and better still there are more videos and audio files on her website.

Book places at https://fao.yapsody.com/event/index/52195/build-a-band-in-a-day (Tickets £20) and bring your instrument along.

Fortunately for those of us who are local to Oxford, Xogera and the Owl Light Trio have organised another joint gig. I’ve been lucky to hear them both before, so I strongly recommend you catch them this time!

7.30pm Wolvercote Village Hall, Friday 21st October 2016

Unfortunately neither have an internet presence yet… although you can follow Mano Panforreteiro (the Spanish piper of the “Anglo-Cymraeg-Galego four-piece” band that is Xogera) on Twitter. And you can follow the Owl Light Trio too, and watch a short clip of Owl Light playing with the Fell Duo at the Albion bookshop in Oxford on Youtube.

Tickets are available (cheaper in advance) from We Got Tickets

£10 on the door and £8 in advance. Hope to see you there!

We’ve been playing this great tune for some time at home and although it’s hard to play slow, it is fun… so I couldn’t resist adding it to the list. It’s very well known and not too hard to learn.

For a lovely simple tune, it’s taken me a long time to add it… I hope it takes less long for us to learn it! I hope the research (as well as the tune) proves worth it. Enjoy Salmon Tails.

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill show how less can be more… if you can manage the journey to Milton Keynes on a weekday evening, it will be entirely worth it.

They are performing at 8pm on Tuesday 4th October at The Stables in Milton Keynes…. hope to see you there!

I couldn’t resist adding a tune that I learned in Skye, especially since I’ve taught it to Peter and now feel that I know it much better. Nothing like teaching something to learn it. Has to be the best ever learning technique if you can find the willing student… or partner!

Written by Louise Mackenzie (who was our teacher on the Skye course) for her father’s birthday, it really has Louise’s kindness inside it, with a cheeky grin to capture a how she feels about her father. I hope you too enjoy playing it.

Here’s a link directly to the page

Added Drowsy Maggie

Do have a look at its page as I’ve found some nice playings of it to listen to in various places. Haven’t yet added it to the All Tunes link… as I’m hoping to add some other tunes this month, but I will update that soon.