NEW VENUE: For the Summer, The Oxford Slow Session is moving to upstairs in St Aldate’s Tavern (opposite the Town Hall) as the White House is closed for refurbishment… which is renaming itself The Slow and Steady (part of the Dodo Pub Co), which seems a very appropriate name for the home of the Slow Session!

July Session: Sunday 7th July at 4pm upstairs in St Aldate’s Tavern

St Aldate’s require that we spend £200 overall, so some of us will be having lunch there beforehand just to make sure we hit the target (and a great excuse for a roast Sunday lunch!). Please do join us upstairs at 2.30pm! (see menu below). There will be pub brownies and vegan brownies at the break.

The tune of the month is the lovely Midsommerschottish (NB in G, not as in the original A).

New tunes added this month: Brennan’s and the Millhouse in G. See Tune of the Month for their months. And do put in your diary that the Oxford Slow Session will be at Bunkfest again this year (Sat 31st August at 12.30pm).

Do join us for lunch before the session, but don’t worry if not! Session will start at 4pm as usual.

Just in case you need a reminder of some of the new tunes added to the website since Christmas…
The Teetotallers
L’Air Mignonne
A Fig for a Kiss
Father Kelly’s
I Buried My Wife and Danced on her Grave
Lord Frog
Midsommerschottish
Brennan’s
Millhouse in G

If you can’t make it to Oxford on Sunday, you can join on Discord.
Discord link: https://discord.gg/tGqJ7sng

Instructions for Discord: https://oxfordslowsession.com/about/how-to-listen-in-on-discord/

Hope to see you on Sunday!

Let us hope that summer will stick with it, now that June is beginning, and, to encourage it, come and play music?
The June Oxford Slow Session is this Sunday, 2nd June at 4pm, upstairs at the White House pub.
The Tune of the month for this month is Lord Frog

Just in case you need a reminder of some of the new tunes added to the website since Christmas…
The Teetotallers
L’Air Mignonne
A Fig for a Kiss
Father Kelly’s
I Buried My Wife and Danced on her Grave
Lord Frog
Midsommerschottish

If you can’t make it to Oxford on Sunday, you can join on Discord.
Discord link: https://discord.gg/tGqJ7sng

Instructions for Discord: https://oxfordslowsession.com/about/how-to-listen-in-on-discord/

Hope to see you on Sunday!

As the sunshine returns, so the May Oxford Slow Session is on this Sunday, 5th May at 4pm, upstairs at the White House pub.
The Tune of the month for this month is I Buried My Wife and Danced on her Grave.

Just in case you need a reminder of some of the new tunes added to the website since Christmas…
The Teetotallers
L’Air Mignonne
A Fig for a Kiss
Father Kelly’s
I Buried My Wife and Danced on her Grave
Lord Frog
Midsommerschottish

That should keep us busy up to the summer!

If you can’t make it to Oxford on Sunday, you can join on Zoom or Discord.
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89001978194?pwd=bVJnRngvV3NhT285bEZyYXUrQUkvdz09
Discord link: https://discord.gg/tGqJ7sng

Instructions for Discord: https://oxfordslowsession.com/about/how-to-listen-in-on-discord/
Please note that we only have this month on Zoom and then it will be only Discord, so please do try Discord and try to iron out the inevitable teething problems!

Hope to see you on Sunday!

The April Oxford Slow Session is on this Sunday, 7th April at 4pm, upstairs at the White House pub. The Tune of the month for this month is Father Kelly’s.

There is an extra Slow Session this month as part of the Oxford Folk Festival at the earlier time of 2pm on Sunday 21st April.

Unfortunately, I don’t have many confirmed details for the Folk Festival, except that I can recommend you buy your tickets for the Saturday night ceilidh (20th April in St Barnabas Church) before they sell out! Oxfolk are organising several ceilidhs over that weekend so check out other dances too.

Also at the Folk Festival, in the Westgate Library is hosting a FREE folk workshop for primary-age children from 11 to 11.45am, and a FREE Youth Group Taster Session for secondary-age children from 12 to 12.45pm (all children need an accompanying adult).

Today (Friday 5th April) and (first Fridays of the month) is Bandcamp Friday! This means 100% of the money for music bought on Bandcamp Friday goes to the musicians. For example, you might like to look at music by Mike Vass (composer of Cavers of Kirdcubright), Blowzabella (Lord Frog and Motorway Mazurka), Imar (L’Air Mignonne), Talisk (Hills of Kaitoke), Martin Hayes, and The Owl Light Trio, amongst others!

Just in case you need a reminder of some of the new tunes added to the website since Christmas…
The Teetotallers
L’Air Mignonne
A Fig for a Kiss
Father Kelly’s
I Buried My Wife and Danced on her Grave
Lord Frog
Midsommerschottish

That should keep us busy up to the summer!

If you can’t make it to Oxford on Sunday, you can join on Zoom or Discord.
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83810003312?pwd=VHY5REVzSVJlZ1hpbnBNM2UzdXdJZz09
Discord link: https://discord.gg/tGqJ7sng
Instructions for Discord: https://oxfordslowsession.com/about/how-to-listen-in-on-discord/
Please note that we only have one more month on Zoom and then it will be only Discord, so please do try Discord and try to iron out the inevitable teething problems!

Hope to see you on Sunday!

Hoping for some more sunshine after a very grey February…

The March Oxford Slow Session is on Sunday 3rd March from 4pm, upstairs at the White House pub on Abingdon Road. Hope to see you there! The White House pub has stopped doing roast lunches… but doing pretty good pizzas if you fancy lunch beforehand.

The tune of the month is A Fig for a Kiss, a great tune fast or slow!

I’ve added another new tune: I Buried My Wife and Danced on her Grave… which you could take as a good thing or not, depending on your circumstances! But it is an excellent tune.

I’ve also booked the White House for an extra session at 2pm on Sunday 20th April for the Oxford Folk Festival which is starting this year!

Friday (fourth Friday of the month) Scottish Session
From 8pm, White Hart pub in Wolvercote. Tune of the month is Atholl Highlanders.
“A new session at The White Hart in Wolvercote, North Oxford, for Scottish and derived tunes, but not too strict, and with extra points for super-tenuously-Scottish tunes.”

Sunday (fourth Sunday of the month) Euro-plus Session
The EuroPlus (which means generously tunes that are not especially English) session will happen as usual starting at 4:30pm on Sunday 25 February, upstairs at the White House, Abingdon Road.

For  future announcements about the Fourth Sunday EuroPlus, including tune suggestions, please subscribe  to the mailing list by sending an email to: oxfordeuroplus-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk

And the next Slow Session will be Sunday 3rd March at 4pm, Upstairs at the White House and the tune of the month is A Fig for a Kiss.

Hope to see you soon!

The February Slow Session is on Sunday (as usual) at 4pm, upstairs in the White House, Abingdon Road. I do hope you can join us!

The tune of the month is L’Air Mignonne. This is a lovely simple tune and I hope you find it easy to learn.

If you can’t manage to make it to Oxford (or you’re feeling too sick), please join on Discord… Zoom is still available, but I have a new page to guide you through using Discord and since it is free, we will move to Discord only from May.

Link to join Discord: https://discord.gg/4eaUkgkFnH

Link to join on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81865258624?pwd=bndFbGVNSXZGcVljcmwzV1JGWk5XUT09

I’ve also added two new tunes to the website to start learning: A Fig for a Kiss and Father Kelly’s. Both of these are in the University Ceilidh band repertoire so handy to play when you see some of them in a 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:

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!