Category Archives: What’s New?

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Week 38: More Halsway!

Hello!
Wow what a weekend! It was amazing to be teaching at Halsway Manor again to so many wonderful nyckelharpa players. As you can imagine it's been a busy old time here with a lot of preparations and then after event catching up. I've filmed the tunes that I taught and and in the middle of editing and uploading them to YouTube. These are all completely new tunes to the site. 🙂
This week we have three tunes that I taught. The others will come next week.

Slängpolska ur Hugo Gustaf Svenssons Sammling
Pollonesse ur Andreas Dahlgrens Notbok
Schottis efter Sixten i Verpeshultaberg

These three by next week:
Christina Nilsons Vals
Polska ur Carl Johan Johanssons Notbok
Polska ur Hugo Hägerströms Notbok

No flute or pipe tunes this week - it's been full on with Halsway! For a fuller report on Halsway go and visit the blog entry on the main website -> Click Here!

As soon as I'm done with this blog entry it's straight over to preparing for the nyckelharpa teaching weekend at Burg Fürsteneck in less than two weeks time. Lots to do!!
:))
Vicki

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Week 37: Halsway Week!

Hello!
It's Halsway week! That means that I've been putting together some tunes to be teaching at the weekend. It does mean that I've been very busy learning them and making lots of preparations.  But rest assured there will be videos of all the tunes I'm teaching this weekend over the next couple of weeks! So what is new this week?

Långdans från Sollerön (Tune Friday)
Dancing Out (Vicki's Dance Tune)
Mount Hills (Tune Friday)
Go Tell Aunt Rody (for Children - but adults might find it helpful too)
The Seven Stars  - is totally new to the site.

We also have:
Björnlåten on the double bass.
Bonden i Paradis on the flute.
Menuetto efter Sven Donat on the Scottish Smallpipes

That's it for this week - I'll report back from the Harpas at Halsway weekend next week hopefully with lots of good video footage for you!
:))
Vicki

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Week 36: The Week Before Halsway

Hello!
It's all systems go here now in the count down to the mega weekend at Halsway Manor. There is so much preparation to do and I need to decide what I am going to teach. I plan on filming the next session at Halsway - just like the last time we were there. So I'll make sure I decide this week which tunes are going to be in the session so I can get them out to people to brush up on! In the meantime - what's new this week? It's all Swedish tunes this week to offset all the Playford from last week!

Hia Hia Svärmor
Polls ur Sven Lorenn Brunn’s Notbok
Polska efter Johan Skedin från Tärnsjö
Hans Grinds Jäspodspolska

Røros Pols - (totally new to the site)

The Folkie Flute tune of the week is also Polska efter Johan Skedin Frances Tärnsjö. (This is a different lesson to the one above!). The tune of the week for the Scottish Smallpipes is Hamburska efter Pehr Ericsson (one of my favourite tunes of all time!)

Enjoy
:))
Vicki

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Week 31: August Already?

Hello!
How can it be August already? The year is slipping away fast!

So what's new this week? I decided to complete the lessons for the Fifth Virtual Halsway Bar session. Especially as we took a break from the sessions this week. (We had expected a quiet July/August - but that hasn't happened!). We hope to start filming some more sessions next week, but yesterday I managed to sprain my ankle, so I'm hobbling around a bit at the moment. So what's new?

New Tune of the Week:
The Cedar Fence

Tune Friday
The Sloe
The Rochdale Coconut Dance
The Rogues March
Captain Lanoe's Quick March
Tree in a Bog and Marie's Wedding
Horses Branle (now updated to include the dots!)

For Children
CDs (also good for adults if you see past the animated background!)

In other instruments I've added London's Burning for double bass (who wouldn't want to play London's Burning on the double bass!) and The Black Joke from Playford for Folkie Flute.

Enjoy!
:))
Vicki

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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-do 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! Then it went back together again and finally it's being taken apart and then put back together. It looks like things are definitely starting to be more blended. This has put us a little behind for the sessions. So we're going to take a break for a couple of weeks. But have no fear we'll start filming the sessions soon. There are 20 from the original Virtual Sessions at the Bar at Halsway to revisit!

So what's new this week?

Our Dance Tunes
The Japonica Jig
Hyde and Seek
Jonny's Jolly Polska

8-note Polska
Sistapolskan (new tune of the week)

Old Style Harpas
Slängpolska efter Calle Svankvist

For Children
Jumping Beans (of course adults can play this little beginner tune!)

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!

The Folkie Flute tune of the week is Linus På Linjen.

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