Oxford Slow Session

A new session is starting tonight at the White Hart in Wolvercote (from 8pm)… Hoping to prioritise Scottish tunes but not too strict and “with extra points for super-tenuously-Scottish tunes”. Fourth Friday of the month and launching tonight, the day after Burns Night. The pub will be serving food and I’ve heard rumour of haggis pizzas!

The Fourth Sunday EuroPlus Session at the White House on Abingdon Road is back, this Sunday 28 Jan. Starts at 4:30pm. It’s always nice to see SlowSessionistas there. 

Hope to see you soon!

Happy January 2024

Come and celebrate: from 4pm SATURDAY 6th January, Upstairs at the White House
You can drop in anytime:

4-5pm	Usual Slow Session
5-6pm	Cakes
6-7pm	Slightly Faster Slow Session
7-8pm	Bread & Cheese and snacks by the White House
8-9pm	A Bit Faster Session

If you are sick or too far away, please join online:
Zoom
Discord
(Zoom is ending in May as it is so expensive, so do try Discord and email me problems for us to iron out before May 2024)

The tune of the month for January is appropriately, The Teetotallers

I hoped when setting up the website and the session that it would help my playing improve. Thanks to everyone coming along, I think we have ALL improved! It is very encouraging to play with others, especially as we are all learning together. So a big thank you and well done to all!

The website has now been viewed over 180,000 times and has steadily increased:

And the Oxford Slow Session playlist on Spotify has been saved 89 times!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5q2fcIro5AkXa8tctJ9mIm?si=eICbza6wSp6FB68YEYdWqw&pi=e-GBAuqRneSa6b

I’ve added a nice easy tune for February: L’Air Mignonne

But I’ve also created a new Archive page (scroll down to the bottom of the Tune pages) for the tunes that we don’t play. I thought too many tunes is daunting for newcomers and so I’m trying to keep the website to the 100-ish tunes that we do play, and archive ones that we’re less keen on to make space for new tunes for us to learn. I find that learning a new tune is a tremendous motivation for practice but having too many to learn can be off-putting. I hope this ends up being a good balance.

Happy New Year!

It’s grey and cold, so come and be cheery with tunes and mince pies!

December Slow Session this afternoon (3rd Dec) from 4pm
Upstairs in the White House pub on Abingdon Road. Slow tunes at 4pm, and slightly faster tunes at 5.30pm. The tune of the month is Jimmy Ward’s Favourite.

And if you are unwell or too far away, join us on zoom (supply your own mince pies):
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5729078889?pwd=Y3NmQUNzZC9kdUxiSjNjOHJFN3Fsdz09

Don’t forget to put the Tenth Anniversary Slow Session in your diary:
4pm SATURDAY 6th January 2024

Next week (3rd December) is our December Slow Session… so I’m experimenting with making some vegan mince pies…

If anyone else fancies making and bringing some mince pies… don’t hesitate!

Meanwhile, Ray is hosting the Euro-plus session at the White House tomorrow (Sunday 26th November) at 4.30pm. It is a good opportunity to play some tunes together!

Ray says: “In October we had a great turnout, with some new players and a lot of new tunes, plus a lot of SlowSession and Scandi/French favourites.  There was a request to do some more current Balfolk stuff, esp. Naragonia. I have put one Naragonia tune on the session site linked at revontuli.uk . (I have the whole tune book, but got special permission from Naragonia to post one tune). Also, I saw a lot of SlowSessionistas picking up the Leveret tune book at the recent Leveret concert, so EuroPlus is a great place to try some of those out.  Hope to see lots of you there.”  — Ray Pierrehumbert

Also the Oxford University Ceilidh Band is hosting an end of term ceilidh in the Digital Hub (the brand new building) of Jesus College (entrance on Market St, opposite Wagamama) at 7pm on Wednesday 29th November until 10pm.

Tickets are only £10 for students, £12 to non-students. Drinks available. No experience with the dances is necessary… a caller will guide you through the steps. Our regular players, Noah, Eve and Amy are currently members of the band so they must be good!

The dark afternoons (!)/evenings have arrived… so best to make merry and play some tunes!

November Slow Session at 4pm Sunday 5th November upstairs at the White House as usual. Please do come and join in. The tune of the month is Peter T’s suggestion: The Origin of the World…
I recommend having a go in advance… and make sure that you are starting on an F# so that you are playing it in the right key…
If you can’t make it to the White House, we are also on zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83950612678?pwd=UkhYR0hoakFXUXJnTCtobktrcDE2dz09

But I’m afraid brownies only make it to those who come in person!

December’s Slow Session is on 3rd December… and our Tenth Anniversary Session, January 2024, is on SATURDAY 6th January… please put the date in your diary!

I’ve added The Teetotaller’s (or Temperance) reel to the website… Hope you enjoy playing it!

There is a Euro-plus session at the White House on Sunday 22nd October: Ray says: “The EuroPlus session will meet at the White House Pub again, this Sunday 22 October starting at 4:30pm.  EuroPlus is a great place for SlowSessionistas who want to play a bit faster, or pick up some new tunes that aren’t in the Slow Session tune book. Basically, anything goes, but the session focuses on European music (mostly French and Nordic, but we’re starting to pick up a few more things) plus Scottish/Shetland tunes of all types.  The session is more or less self-organising, but this week Ray Pierrehumbert will be back to help jolly things along.”

and October has a fifth Sunday…

So we can have Fifth Sunday special session in the Covered Market… Bring along camping stools or chairs or be prepared to stand… from 2.30pm until 4pm Sunday 29th October

Hope you can come along!

Autumn greetings…

and happy October

And the October Slow Session is happening on Sunday 1st October at 4pm
Upstairs at the White House (phew)

And the tune of the month is If You Will Not Have Me, Then You May Let Me Go

There will be brownies for those in person
And Zoom for those who can’t make it to Oxford

And please put the date in your diary… 10th Anniversary Slow Session: Saturday 6th January 2024

Please do say if you no longer need these emails.

Some alerts to future interesting learning events…

Bellows and Buttons: learn box playing in Wolvercote:
17-19th November (but booking now)

Big Workshop Weekend with Dipper, Malkin, Moss & Moore
27 – 29 October 2023
Weekend lessons in ensemble playing, fiddle, box, and guitar

David is taking our Slow Session to the Bunkfest fringe festival: 2-3.45pm Saturday 2nd September, Upstairs in the Curtis Room at The Corn Exchange as part of the Bunkfest in Wallingford

And Janet and Janet are running our September Slow Session, 4pm Sunday 3rd September, Upstairs at the White House as usual. Any tunes on the website but no zoom.

Please come and give these sessions lots of support!

Looking forward to seeing you all in October!

If you are in Oxford, do come along!

August Slow Session at 4pm, Upstairs at the White House pub, Sunday 6th August
And the tune of the month is The Old Favourite

And in September…

David is taking our Slow Session to the Bunkfest fringe festival: 2-3.45pm Saturday 2nd September, Upstairs in the Curtis Room at The Corn Exchange as part of the Bunkfest in Wallingford

And Janet is running our September Slow Session, 4pm Sunday 3rd September, Upstairs at the White House as usual.

Please come and give these sessions lots of support!

Here we are in summer… and hoping that tomorrow won’t be too hot…

July Slow Session at 3pm, Sunday 2nd July, upstairs at the White House by Tap Social

Note that we are starting at 3pm to accommodate the Comedy Festival in the evening.

Also, I’ve updated the music on the page for You’ve been a long time away, Willie Gray as Alex noticed a typo and so I rewrote it out (having long ago left the music notation that I started with as I’ve updated computers!). I’m currently on Musescore which has the benefit of being free… except they have just updated to an online version which is annoying if you don’t have wifi (eg. on the train).

Upcoming other sessions:

Sunday evenings: Irish Session at the Half Moon, St Clements from 8pm
Saturday 8th July: Queer Open Friendly Folk at the Jolly Farmers, Paradise St, from 12noon
Sunday 9th July: Engl-ish Sunday Session at Gulp Fiction, Covered Market, from 1.30pm
Sunday 9th July: Bal folk dancing and music at the Isis Farmhouse, from 2pm
Friday 14th July: Bastard English Session at the Isis Farmhouse, from 8pm
Sunday 16th July: Open Session at the White House, from 4.30pm
Monday 17th July: Auntie Shanty at the Jolly Farmers, from 7pm
Sunday 23rd July: Euro-plus Session at the White House, from 4.30pm
Friday 28th July: Open Session at the Royal Blenheim, St Ebbe’s, from 8.30pm

Hope to see you soon!