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Hello!
January is well and truly here and the Christmas decorations are down and everything is dark. Sigh. But lighter times are coming. I've been busy working on the things I'm going to be teaching over the next few months. I wrote my Burns In Memoriam, set what I'm going to do at the American Nyckelharpa Association Zoom Jam and also some Henry Purcell. Lots to get through! I'm focusing on trying to get all of our waltzes sorted in the composition section of the website. We always do a waltz at the end of every Symmetry dance - so I'm pulling these videos out and adding them to the lessons. I will get all our tunes up here if it's the last thing I do (and it probably will be!)

This week I spent quite a bit of time filming and editing the Global World Nyckelharpa Tune. It is the Byss-Calle tune that Torbjörn Näsbom found and taught at Halsway. You'll find that on the World Nyckelharpa Day website here.

I started at the top and added A Little Swedish Waltz written by Jonny Dyer.
On the Scottish smallpipes we have Banks of the Allan.
On the flute we have Masbopolketten.
On the fiddleharpa we have The Ash Grove.

More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
I've done a lot of recording, filming and editing this week, especially on the Scottish smallpipes and work for World Nyckelharpa Day. You'll spot the videos I did as they come through because I left the green screen at home! I was hoping to have the World Nyckelharpa Day global tune out by today - but I had to re-record the ensemble as the tuning was terrible!! It should be done by next week! I'm still waiting to find out what I'm going to be doing on the 27th April so I can figure out what form WND will take. I did rather enjoy the Zoom last year, so I hope I can do that again!

We had the Symmetry dance on Sunday and the video is now ready for playing along with.
The Dusty Pipes has been added to the Scottish Smallpipe tutor in Chapter 4. If you're a piper and you're working through earlier chapters do let me know and I'll jump to the section you're on!
The Red Ribbon (Walsh 1740) has been added to flute. This was a dance track request, so it's repeated many times!
Enfield Common on the nyckelharpa has had the articulations added to it.
I also felt inspired to record the first tune I ever wrote. It's called How Does it Go? It's a simple tune, but I taught it this week, so this is the lesson!
More next week! Stay safe out there!
:))
Vicki

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Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. I've had a week of tidying a few things up. We had a lovely end to the year with a Symmetry Dance, the video is edited up ready to watch again and play along with. And we have our next dance on this Sunday - the Zoom is free to come along to and all subscribers and donators get a link to the video after the event.

I managed to get the articulations completed for the advent calendar.
21st December - In Dulci Jubilo
22nd December - Frosty the Snowman (also on the flute)
23rd December - Santa Claus is Coming to Town (also on the flute)
24th December - We Wish You A Merry Christmas
25th December - I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas
26th December - Jingle Bell Rock
27th December - It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

Then I had a tidy up in the subscriber extras for the Halsway Manor tutors concerts. This is as complete as I can get this section now with and many videos for all the concerts found as possible!
Halsway Manor tutors Concert September 2024
Halsway Manor tutors Concert September 2023
Halsway Manor tutors Concert September 2022
Halsway Manor tutors Concert September 2021
Halsway Manor tutors Concert September 2017
Halsway Manor tutors Concert September 2016
Halsway Manor tutors Concert September 2015

NEW TWO / NEW THREE - These two lessons have had a Symmetry version added.
I made these two videos public on YouTube from the 2024 concert:
Epitaph -Second Part of Bartholomew Fair by John Blow https://youtu.be/OKyB90yWUGk
Polska efter Sven Donat Arr. Emilia Amper - https://youtu.be/uTchPQY45dU

What's coming up next week?
I've started work on some workshops I'm leading in the next few months. So I've been working on Purcell, Playford and most importantly the tune for World Nyckelharpa Day! I hope to be able to start some plans for the 27th April very soon. I'm waiting to find out my schedule so I can work out if I'm in a field or can run a Zoom! More about all of that in the coming weeks!
:))
Vicki

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Happy Christmas everyone! - God Jul allihoppa!
We complete our Christmas work on Sunday 22nd December. On Monday 23rd I grabbed the camera and spent the day filming. Normally I would then spread out the videos that I'd made - but they are all Christmas ones and a bit time dependent! So here is the entire haul that I videoed, edited, uploaded and then added to the site! It's Symmetry on Sunday - so hope to see you there! Video will go up as soon as it's edited!

Frosty the Snowman on flute
It's Starting to Feel a Lot Like Christmas on the NH
Tuning the Mini-harpa
Nu Är Det Jul Igen and Jul Jul Strålande Jul on the Säckpipa
Nu Är Det Jul Igen and Jul Jul Strålande Jul on the Scottish Smallpipes
Good King Wenceslas and Nu Tändas Tusen Juleljus on the Moraharpa
We Wish You A Merry Christmas on the nerdyharpa

It feels strange that this will be the last update this year! See you next year!
Happy Christmas!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's solstice week and we've not touched ground since my last update, so this week it's a little thin on the ground. We had our Zoom concert on Monday and it was a lot fun! Just like we do for the Symmetry Dances it was filmed and is now available for watch again. The concert entry was by donation. (Which could be as small as £1.) Click here to get to the donate page. Once you have the link it stays up so you can watch it over Christmas or New Year or whenever you like!

I urgently needed to do a tuning lesson for tuning the miniharpa, the video needs re-doing as I had to film it in the undercroft at Warwick Castle. Because I did it in portrait and it was around a minute YouTube put it up as a short. I'll be replacing that when I get home! But the lesson is up - Tuning the Miniharpa

I managed to add articulations and gracenotes to the Advent Calendar this week (from a Days Inn hotel on the M40 just outside Warwick!) I'll try to finish them by Christmas!
14th December - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
15th December - Nu Har Vi Ljus
16th December - I Saw Three Ships
17th December - Mary Free
18th December - Silent Night
19th December - O Little Town of Bethlehem
20th December - Past Three O'Clock

This is the last update before Christmas - so I hope you have a relaxing break that gives you plenty of time to play whatever your instrument is!! More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's Lucia today! To get a real feel of Lucia take a little trip over to SVT (Sweden's national TV channel and watch their Lucia concert). At around 20 minutes in you'll get to see Josefina Paulson playing nyckelharpa! We had our Symmetry dance on Tuesday and the video is now edited and up for you to watch or play-along with. Our next Symmetry dance is on Sunday 29th January. The music is nearly ready!

What have I added to the site this week? We're on the road pretty much the whole time until Christmas and I'm focussing on updating all the Christmas tunes I can! So this is the seasonal haul this week for the advent calendar!
7th December - Down in Yon Forest (also on fiddleharpa)
8th December - Gläns Över Sjö och Strand
9th December - The Sussex Carol (also on Scottish Smallpipes)
10th December - Jingle Bells (also on fiddleharpa, Scottish Smallpipes)
11th December - Jul, Jul Strålande Jul (also on flute)
12th December - Good King Wenceslas
13th December - Sankta Lucia (also on fiddleharpa)

We have our zoom concert on Monday. Entry is by donation and it can be as small as £1. Or just get in touch and say you'd like to come along and we'll drop you the link! Doors open at 6:45pm UK time and the concert starts at 7pm. (That's 8pm Central European time and 2pm Eastern). We've already set the room out as we're on the road until the last minute!
Hope to see you there!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
We are now well into our Christmas work, so I decided it was time for the Christmas Advent Calendar again. So I've decided to spruce up the file a little bit and add articulations and bowings for the main advent calendar. I'll try to get through all the tunes by Christmas - so here are the updated tunes for this week! There are plenty of versions of these tunes for several instruments!

1st December - The Holly and the Ivy (also flute, fiddleharpa and Scottish Smallpipes)
2nd December - När Juldagsmorgon Glimmar (also flute and Scottish Smallpipes)
3rd December - Deck the Halls (also Scottish Smallpipes)
4th December - Nu Tändas Tusen Juleljus (also fiddleharpa and Scottish Smallpipes)
5th December - Ding Dong Merrily on High (also Scottish Smallpipes)
6th December - Nu Är Det Jul Igen

I also added The Happy Marriage for flute and Little Swedish Waltz on nyckelharpa has had the grace notes added to it. I also added The Healths or the Merry Waffle for Moraharpa.

We have a Symmetry Dance on Tuesday, come along and listen/play/dance.
Don't forget to book for our Zoom concert on Monday 16th December too!
Jonny has just released one of his soundtracks onto BandCamp. It's the sound track for the show A Night of Legends that was performed by Time Will Tell back in September. Take a listen!

More Christmas next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
We had a really lovely trip to Sweden, full of snow and family times! It's now full on preparations for Christmas we have a lot of Victorian and Medieval work coming up which is going to be lots of fun. Lots of miles and many, many renditions of Ding Dong Merrily on High (which features in both our sets be it Victorian or Medieval! So what is new this week?

We were asked for a recording of Church in the Highlands for dancing too, so I've added this in the flute course complete with articulations and grace notes.
I have now added Byss-Calles Liile efter Torbjörn Näsbom. It's not been announced yet, but this is going to be the Global Tune for World Nyckelharpa Day next year! The Broken Drone on the nyckelharpa has had an update and the Symmetry Dance video from the 27th November is up and ready to go.
We also have a tune written by Jonny for the Scottish smallpipes this week - On the Mash.

That's it for this week as I'm really late in sending this update out! Hopefully I will be on time this week!
Don't forget to sign up for our Christmas Zoom gig on Monday 16th December!
Enjoy
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
This week I had a million and one things that were absolutely urgent. So of course I started to try to tidy up the site a little bit. You'll notice a few tiny changes here and there. Mostly these are surrounding dance and our tunes and putting some links on the front page to get to other areas of the site more efficiently.

I've created a Dance tier in our Patreon and given Dance a 'front page' to show where all the relevant things are for dancers/dance tune players. Of course - all members of this site have access to everything, so it matters not if you are a an instrumental player or dancer, you can see everything. Talking of dance - we had a Symmetry Dance on Sunday and the video is ready and up for playing along/watch again.

The section of the website for the all our tunes section now has a pdf of all the tunes that we've ever recorded on our albums. It's 94 pages and 147 tunes long. This part of the site will be under development for a long time as we have written far more music than that!

So what did I add this week? I spotted a request for a dance tune in Facebook - so we recorded and filmed Errol on the Green on the flute. I added Horses Bransle for moraharpa and added it to the original version that I had put the shorts version on and included the music. For nyckelharpa I added the jig Controtto from our album Sleep Deprivation and also Mjölnaren från Ulriksberg by Gene Carlsson has had an update with articulations added to the music.

I ran out of time to add pipes this week - so that will be the first instrument I add for next week! I'm now in Sweden for the weekend on a family visit. A very cold snowy Stockholm - extremely beautiful! So I am typing this not from the usual A14 or M6 - but the Swedish E20. Definitely makes a lovely change! Christmas starts next week and we have started advertising our Christmas Zoom Concert on Monday 16th December. Box office is open! We have our next Symmetry Dance on Tuesday, music is already up - hope to see some of you there!
Enjoy!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
We had a lovely dance last night and have just finished this weeks Symmetry Dance. I'll be editing that as soon as I have published/sent this update. So what's new this week?

I've updated Cilla's Födelsedagspolskan and Polska från Östra-Ryd to include articulations. I've added the final Småland tune from Halsway back in September - Polonoise ur Johannes Malkus Petterson’s Notbok.

On the flute we have Var Det Du Eller Var Det Jag and on the Moraharpa we have St Paul's Steeple.

YouTube have added a rather annoying feature that on occasion asks you to 'login to view video'. The videos are all still watchable without a YouTube subscription, you just need to go to YouTube to watch it. I'm working on a way of trying to get round this - but in the meantime I am adding direct YouTube links underneath each video. There are thousands of videos on this site, so it will actually take forever. So just be aware that I am aware of this problem, I'm hoping it will go away and in the meantime I'll be adding the links anytime I go to a new page!

More next week - with a link to the Symmetry dance from tonight.
:))
Vicki