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.

I’m afraid that although the Jericho Tavern seems very happy to host us… we hadn’t communicated very well about the bookings… and so I’m afraid the September session is forced to move to the second Sunday 11th. We’ll go back to the first Sunday of the month for October, November and December as those are now booked into their diary. I hope this doesn’t cause you to miss a session. Looking forward to seeing you in September.

Finally checked the dots, added some chords (not entirely tested yet) and searched youtube for interesting videos… and Jump at the Sun is added (with two versions). Either version is fine and they sound ok together, so pick which you prefer. Cool way to practice A#!

A popular tune from the Bastard English session – so I thought we might enjoy it too!

Ben introduced us to the Spirit of the Dance which is an ideal easy tune for us. I’ve enjoyed learning it and playing it this week as we sorted out the notes on the page and some chords to go along. I hope you enjoy it too!

I’ve persuaded Jane to teach me her lovely variations for Keel Row… I’m not a reliable player of them yet… but perhaps we might pick the odd note or triplet to add, while others maintain the melody. They do sound nice together. Anyway, it’s on the Keel Row page and added to the All Tunes Pdf.

I know it’s not quite spring, given that it’s still February, but the weather this past few days and the number of daffodils and primroses out in flower in this strange winter, made it feel like spring…

And before I started to add any more new tunes, I thought it was time to correct all the mistakes and changes we have gradually found over the last few months. So changes (mostly chord changes and minor corrections) to Butterfly, Hut on Staffin Island, Jenny Dang the Weaver, Kerfunken, Kerr’s Jig, May Mazurka, Old Tom and Rose in the Heather.

And all of these changes have been incorporated in the All Tunes pdf (for printing or using on an iPad or kindle)… It takes a surprisingly long time to make the changes and update the website, but I’ve been feeling guilty about the growing number and so it’s a relief to have found an evening for the process. I hope it proves useful.

Rose in the Heather turns out to be a very popular tune on Youtube… so I thought perhaps we should join in too. It’s lovely to play, not too hard, doesn’t have to be played at top speed and we could add some variations… Hope you like it.