Category Archives: What’s New?

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Week 30: Tunes Update

Hello!
It's been another week of a weekend of gigging, which has been great. I did some filming - then had to re-o the filming. We had to pull the livestream studio 2 apart to get the PA out so we could take it to a real life ceilidh dance! It was a short dance, but a dance none the less! It was fun!

So what's new this week?

Our Dance Tunes
The Japonica Jig
Hyde and Seek

The Zen Scales Course - it's been a year since I filmed these scales in the first lockdown and I have now fully transferred them to this site. 56 days of scales to help you get up and down the instrument and listen to your tone. Give them a go! If you complete them all - let me know and I'll do some more!

Enjoy and stay safe!
:))
Vicki

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Week 29: Tunes Update

Hello!
We went out and did a real gig! We were lucky enough to play for the Valhalla Viking Festival and it was truly amazing! To play for a bunch of Vikings singing along and banging the table to their favourite Viking songs was brilliant! We're going to make a couple of music videos over the next few weeks and they'll have some freshly composed Viking melodies to learn in them. Watch this space!

So what's new this week?

For Children
C-Saw (don't be put off by the presentation, you can still do this tune if you're an adult and a beginner!)

Complete Beginners
HarpaFours

Moraharpa
A Santa Maria Dadas – Cantiga 140 (totally new)

Tune Friday
Banish Misfortune
Dusty Windowsills
The Global Halsway Parade (2020)

The Folkie Flute tune of the week is Polska after Båtsman Däck and the Scottish Smallpipe tune of the week is Castle Dangerous.
Enjoy!
:))
Vicki

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Week 28: Tunes Update

Hello!
I hope you are well and that you enjoyed the session of Waltzes last week! If you’ve not had time to catch up with it yet, it’ll stay up forever, as will all the sessions we’ve done during the pandemic! It’s been a busy week on a secret project, so the only filming I’ve managed is for a half hour slot at the Whitby Folk Week for August. Luckily I have videos in hand from when I was a little quieter a month or so back! We’ve chosen the next session theme and it’s back to Playford again. Filming for that will take place at the start of the week, so the link should be up mid-week.

So what's new this week?

The Sesson 9 Playford Dance Tune List
Mr Lane's Maggot
Jenny Pluck Pears
Duke of Kent's Waltz No. 1 (new lesson)
Gathering Peascods
Hunt the Squirrel

Moraharpa Tunes
Skäggigtpolskan

Tune Friday
Grizzly Hills from World of Warcraft

For Children
Au Clare de la Lune

Folkie Flute tune of the week is Planxty Hewlett by O'Carolan.
Enjoy and see you at the next session!
:))
Vicki

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Week 27: Tunes Update

Hello!
It's summer and lovely and warm out there. We're still losing face to face work in the folk world, but we're getting some corporate work, but still most of our work is online. Another dance this week on Tuesday. The dots are available on the dance list page. The dance is in Zoom, it's free with donations appreciated. For the past few days I've been involved in a new project that I'll be able to announce at some point in the future - but it might take a little time away from filming videos. But have no fear - I'll still be posting new things each week. We haven't decided the next session yet - so if you have a request, leave it in the comments section! So what's new to the site this week?

Vicki & Jonny's Dance Tunes
The Lace in the Door (Jig)
Hands Across the Pond (Waltz)

A Focus on Technique
Fläderhuspolskan (polska bowing)

Tune Friday
Hamburska efter Pehr Ericsson

Moraharpa
Polska efter Pål Karl Persson

The whole of the Virtual Halsway Session 16 has been transferred. (I'm not moving them in order!) This week's Folkie Flute is Tierpspolskan and we have The Piper's Wedding in the Scottish Smallpipes Course.

Stay well and in tune!
lots of love
Vicki

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Week 26: Tunes Update

Hello!
This weeks session is another week of our Waltzes. We really have had fun putting together lots and lots of waltzes and we love sharing them, so here's another 5 tunes! The blog entry is up with the details!

So what's new this week?

Vicki & Jonny's Dance Tunes
Poppy's Present (totally new)
The Revelstoke Wedding (totally new)
Lightening the Load

Focus on Technique
The Bowstring Reel

Zen Scales Week 7 has arrived on the site.

A little bit of tidying has been done in the Four-A-Day for C tuned harpa and I've made a note of the lessons with only audio lessons.

This weeks Folkie Flute Friday tune is Skålbergslåten. I've now also added a Scottish Smallpipe course and over time will be transferring my old bagpipe teaching materials to this site. It's good to have everything in the same place!

Our next Zoom dance is on Tuesday 6th July - the dots will end up on the dance page, but isn't quite there yet. Get in touch for the Zoom link!
:))
Vicki

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Third Week of June Update

Hello!
It's been a busy weekend with four gigs, but I've still managed to do plenty of creating this week! Double bass, flute and fiddleharpa have all been out. I've also added a second method of becoming a subscriber using Patreon:

So if you're not a subscriber already - it's even easier than ever to support the site!

Tune Friday
Polska after Andreas Dahlgren Number 87
Pollenesse efter Andreas Dahlgren Number 99
Fanteladda
Finnskog efter Jan Andersson

Our Dance Tunes
The Race for Home (totally new)

I've decided to add a fiddleharpa course. These instruments are becoming more popular and I do use mine quite a lot. They are playable on the normal pitched nyckelharpa, but they are challenging.
Andy Clarke's
Långsammapolskan
Trip to Habertonford

This week's flute tune is Sistapolskan.

The session for Sunday is ready and waiting you'll find all the details on the Session 7 Blog entry page! See you there!
:))
Vicki

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Second Week of June Update

Hello!
I hope you're all having a great week and enjoyed playing along with the slow airs on Sunday! This week I've added the children's course. These were videos that I made during the first lockdown and didn't really do much with them. If you're a complete beginner you could do worse than give these a go! You'll be able to tell straight away they've been aimed at children and played on a mini-harpa - but all playing is good playing!

Tune Friday
Skomakarpolskan

Beginners
Oskars Schottis (totally new)

Focus on Technique
Study in D major (totally new)

Children's Course
Merrily We Roll Along
Hot Cross Buns

Zen Scales Week 6 is now live on the site!

The next session will be on Sunday 20th June at 2pm and as it is so close to Midsommar - it's going to be Swedish tunes fit for Midsommar! To give you a sneaky peek at what is likely to be on the list it's likely to include:
Äppelbo Gånglåt
Näckens Midsommar Polska
Spikens Vals
Gärdsbgubbarnas Polska
Sture's Schottis

I've also spent some time ordering the tunes that we've done in the session, so if you want to jump to a tune, or jump to the session that a tune is in, you can now use the list!

I've been quite inspired to do more flute and double bass - so each Friday there is going to be a new flute tune published. A Folkie Flute Friday! I've filmed and edited 12 so far - so they'll be going up one at a time!
:))
Vicki

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First Week of June Update

Hello!
Such glorious weather! We have another dance this week - it's on Tuesday evening and the tune pad is up and ready! Click Here!
Then on Sunday we have our next session, this week it's going to beautiful slow airs and some we've not done before, so we have a few new tunes to learn this week:
Hector the Hero
Bonnie at Morn
The Ash Grove (new lesson)
O’Hara’s Cup by O’Carolan (new lesson)
Fair Maid of Barra (new lesson)

Other tunes added:
Tune Friday
Näckens Midsommar Polska (in Gm)

Old Style Harpas
Näckens Midsommar Polska (moraharpa)
Polska efter Calle Svankvist (kontrabasharpa)
Kontrabasharpa Polska (kontrabasharpa)

A Focus on Technique
Spiderfingers

This week I've also added a double bass course. There won't be so much added to it - but every so often there'll be new videos for my students! I'll be adding more as the week goes on!
:))
Vicki

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Third Week of May Tune List

Hello!
Another week gone! I have no idea where May is disappearing off to! So here are the tunes as I add them this week! There are now 138 tunes on this site. (That doesn't include tune Friday or the Zen Scales!)

In other news we had a gig! Wednesday 19th May we left the house and performed Smörgåsballad - Songs and Tales from the Land of the Midnight Sun. We're really excited because it's a hybrid event, meaning that we had a live audience and we also had a virtual audience watching a livestream. It's at Benslow Music where I am doing a workshop weekend in January 2022 in Swedish tunes (which was covoided this year). If you missed it and want to catch you can buy a catch up ticket!

Don't forget about the session this Sunday - All the tunes in Session 5 on Sunday are actually from Smörgåsballad! If you'd like to play-along to the livestream you can find the music here!

I've been working hard on adding lost resources to my website that broke. I am putting informative things for the general public on my main site and all the teaching resources on this site. So I added, What is a Nyckelharpa and some history. I've had all my harpas out this week and given them a run - so I'm putting some videos up on a subscriber only page for you all to have a listen to.

Finally we are still playing for Zoom dances and you can come and playalong to those too - I always publish the dots!
:))
Vicki

Tune Friday
Brudmarsch efter Johan Vilhelm Söderkvist
Älgknappen
Schottis från Lima
Svängrumpa

Vicki & Jonny's Dance Tunes
The Piper's Wedding Jig

Miscellaneous Website Things
What is a Nyckelharpa?
'harpa history
Nyckelharpa Sample Page