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Hello!
It's been a week of frantic filming to try to get everything that I taught at Halsway filmed, edited and uploaded. We also had some request tunes to record for callers and the Casterton Dance weekend to prepare for! So what is new?

From a comment on one of my flute shorts I discovered that two of the play-along videos had an fps error in them - in plain speak. I had managed to export them wrongly so that they sounded a semi-tone lower. I've now fixed this and as a result the play-along videos for the Symmetry Dances from the 20th February 2024 and the 19th March 2024 are now actually play-along-able! I've checked all the other Symmetry videos to make sure they didn't have the same issue! We also had Symmetry this week so that video is up and ready to watch / play-along with. I've had a bit of a today up in the Dance section and added a new Dance Resource Course. I've added a new collection there - Kitty Bridges 1745. We've been asked to record six of these tunes. So I thought about in the end completing all 21. So as a start here is the first of them: Auretti's Dutch Skipper on the flute.

I've also added an update to the Sailor's Hornpipe in the flute course, adding the dots and a video for it being played in D. (This is the tune that led me to fixing the key of the Symmetry videos!)

Having come back from Halsway I'm working my way through the tunes I taught there. So Femtiöringen now has the C string lesson added to it and I filmed and added the Maypole Gånglåt by my other tutor David. The more difficult tunes will follow in the next week or two.

On the Scottish smallpipes this week we have The Southwind. A pretty waltz. Enjoy!
More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
I'm now back from an excellent week at Halsway Manor. Many tunes were played and many dances had. We also found some time to go walking up in the hills. I took a camera and over the course of two days I filmed the walk, edited it together, sped it up and uploaded it. So now you too can experience the majesty of the Quantock Hills. (Either again if you came on the walk after the any course or for the first time if you can't get to Halsway or up the hill).

I am still to film some of the missing lessons, but I did do some before the weekend so the first of those is below. So what is new?

The Scarf Långdans has the lesson video now included in the lesson page.
At Halsway I taught this rather nice little wedding march - Bröllopsmarsch efter Blinde Janne
I split out the tuning of the sympathetic strings into two lessons so there isn't any confusion with tuning the way most of us tune with the Enar Magnusson Sympathetic String tuning.
On the Scottish Smallpipes we have Pushbike Part 2 - the Reel. I published part 1 a little while back and here is the promised part 2!
On the flute I have uploaded the lesson for John's Maggot, my change tune challenge.

We have a Symmetry Dance on Sunday - 7pm in Zoom. Hope to see you there!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
I've had a recount of all the lessons and as I type this we have 777 different tunes on this site! I wonder what a reasonable goal is to reach by the end of 2025? I'm going to aim for 816 (that's one a week). Watch this space! It's been a busy week preparing for Lewes and Halsway x2. But I've still had time for adding things.
What's new this week?
• We had Symmetry and it was a lovely dance. 🙂 The video is ready for watching / playing along too!
• I've made a front page for the Moraharpa. It'll make it a little bit quicker to find things in that section! I have added Douce Dame Jolie to this course this week.
• On the Scottish smallpipes we have The Lochaber Badger by Fred Morrison.
• On the nyckelharpa we have a waltz called Spegeln. We played this at Symmetry the other week, so here it is with a lesson.
• On the flute we have a tune Jonny wrote a really long time ago called Morfar. It pretty and one of our earliest tunes!

This weekend I have two days of workshops in Lewes - Swedish tunes and Purcell tunes. Then we're doing the Walking and Dancing Week at Halsway Manor Monday to Friday and then it's the Spring Nyckelharpa weekend. So my next update will be in April. At which point it's going to be full on heading for World Nyckelharpa Day!
More soon!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
A week of editing! And just when I thought everything was edited, I did some more filming. I'm doing a workshop of Swedish tunes for any instrument and a Purcell tunes workshop in a weeks time and then it's the Halsway Spring weekend after that. So it really is all hands to the pump on those three workshops! I did find time to start thinking about my videos for World Nyckelharpa Day and I filmed an unboxing of a new block of rosin. It's the Larica Gold II that I usually use, but the video has a slant on it. But you're going to have to wait until the day itself and the premier to see the video - make sure you have headphones!
We had our Symmetry Dance this week and the video is ready to play along with / listen again too! We also have our next dance next Tuesday!

One for Diana has had the grace notes added to it and also a duo video added to the lesson page.
For Moraharpa this week we have Tant M'Abelis. It's a second tune with the drone string cranked right up to a G.
On the Scottish Smallpipes we have The Soup Dragon by Gordon Duncan.
One the flute we have the very regency tune La Nouvelle Panurge – 1823.
More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's been a mixed week this week. Prepping more dance tunes. Editing more videos. Working on the tunes I'm going to teach at Lewes in a couple of weeks time. This has meant a lot of very nerdy work on researching Purcell/Playford music. These tunes will get filmed in April I should think! We had fun at the IVFDF25 and I took a few videos. Nothing that I could make a play-along video from, but we did do three change tune challenges! Can you get all three? I'm still editing videos to complete these and I wrote one the day before the dance! We have Scullery Marinade, The Parsnip Grater and Lollicowlero! (These are all YouTube links as the lessons aren't filmed yet! I'm in the middle now of putting together what I'm going to teach at Halsway at the end of the month. So I made a list of the tunes that I've taught since the pandemic at all the major workshops! You'll find that list here. I can and will go back further, but this was all to hand!

So what's new this week?

On Moraharpa I had a request so I added De La Iensor.
On the Scottish smallpipes I added another tune that Jonny wrote many, many years ago, It's a two parter. This is Pushbike Part 1. You'll get part 2 next week!
I wrote a change tune a couple of months back and we played it at a dance, the lesson is now done for Find the Mole. Nominally it's in the nyckelharpa section, but should be played on any instrument that can!
This year is a Jane Austen anniversary year, so I think there are going to be many Regency tunes being played on the flute this year. So I've added one from the Jane Austen Festival last year. It's The Lass of Richmond Hill. A great tune that goes past in a flash!

We have a Symmetry dance on Sunday so hope to see you there!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
Since last week we've been up to York for the Jorvik Viking Festival, led some tunes for the American Nyckelharpa Association, had a Symmetry dance and a folk club gig! But I have managed to add a good spread of things to the site this week! If you'd like to see the show - I filmed it and have uploaded it to YouTube. It's now in the Subscribers Extras section. Grab a coffee and enjoy!

We had Symmetry this week and here is the link to the play-along/listen again - Symmetry 25th February
On the säckpipa we have Tyrfing's Polska. A polska that Jonny wrote for Jorvik. I love the tune and it's likely to be taught at Halsway at the end of next month!
On the Scottish smallpipes we have a tune by Jonny called Friday Afternoon. It's a perfect example of jumping down to the drone note to make staccato rhythms,
On the nyckelharpa I added the articulations to Pablo Goes Fishing and added a duo version taken from Symmetry.
On the flute I added The Tightrope Walker. This was one of the change tunes from last summer and is paired with Jacob Hall's Jig II.

I've been doing quite a bit of filming and it's going to take time for everything to filter through, so more next week!
Enjoy
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
Another week passes and time seems to pass faster and faster! I am writing this update from the A1 as we drive north to see the finale of the Jorvik Viking festival where Jonny wrote the sound track again. I did quite a lot of filming and it'll take a while to edit it all up! But I promised an update with things other than nyckelharpa this week. So here we go!

On Saturday 22nd February I am one of the workshop leaders for the American Nyckelharpa Association Zoom jam. This takes place at 6pm UK time. I'm going to be leading 5 tunes well known over here. Come along!

We had our Symmetry Dance on Tuesday with the caller Mady Newfield. The video is up for watching again and playing along. Our next dance is on Tuesday 25th with Neil Stuart. We did an extra tune after the dance - The Mischief Makers by Dave Bartley. I chose a key that fits on the simple system 6 hole flute!

I did some recording last week and I used a tune on the tagelharpa called - Polska. So I filmed a quick lesson and dubbed it Grendel's Polska. (That's just my name for it). You can have too many tunes just called polska. 🤣 Because I played it on both Tagelharpa and säckpipa there is also a lesson for it on the säckpipa. I added the articulations and a duo version of Poppy's Present. I added a pipe tune from the Scottish Smallpipe tutor called Fionnula's Little Finger. (No grace notes required)

Finally - World Nyckelharpa Day is coming up soon and we need to make an advert! I have made an advert that I want to edit myself out of. So I'd love it if people could film themselves reading the 'script' and I'll edit it in. Ad libbing is fine too! Film yourself and send it to me!

That's all for this week! More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
I've been back from Sweden for a week now and I spent it on the road! We had a folk club, I recorded for a secret project, then spent two days at Warwick Castle and then tried to catch up! I didn't feel I'd done enough to make this update yet, but I really want to send it out before our next Symmetry dance which is tomorrow! (18th February). That said - stuff has been added to the site, but it's all nyckelharpa and I wanted to add a spread of instruments. I'll make sure I redress that balance by this coming Friday! So what did I add?

I added Find the Mole as a Change Tune Challenge. The lesson for this is filmed, but not yet edited!
I added Jonny's tune Statoca House. It's really pretty!

We had a dance before I left for Sweden and I set up the camera. Unfortunately we messed up the recording slightly and ended up with the caller in the recording. But they're still worth watching! I put together a play-along video with four of the dances in them.
Waltz for Shari and The Kindness of Thwaite and I did Mary K, just because I love the tune!
You can find the play along video here: Nottingham Folk Dance Club Selection
I spent today sorting through some nyckelrhythmics videos and wrote two tunes to go with the videos. I do an exercise where we throw scarves in the air. So these are the two tunes! Scarf Schottis and Scarf Långdans
More of everything else on Friday! Don't forget the Symmetry Dance 7pm UK time in Zoom on Tuesday 18th February. The music is up!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
I'm running behind again, so I'm blending last week and this week into one update. I am now over in Sweden ready for the course at the Eric Sahlström Institute. It's been snowing lightly. everywhere looks lovely and I managed to get Herts to give me a car with studs! So what's new?

We had a Symmetry Dance and the video is now edited uploaded and ready for listening again too. When we get requests for tunes these days we will film and record them after the Symmetry dance and this week we had a request for Southwind. So you'll find that tune on the same page. Jonny wrote a lovely new waltz at the start of the year called New Years Day Waltz, so that was the waltz of choice for this week.

It was Burns last week and so a couple of Scottish tunes got a bit of a makeover.
100 Pipers has had articulations and fingering added.
Rory Dall's Port has had a solo version with fingering added
Jeanie's Blu E'en has had the articulations updated too.

On the flute I'm featuring a Swedish tune called Gladers Polska by Bent Ohlson on Wooden Flute. It's a great polska. On the Scottish Smallpipes we have In The Kitchen a great tune written by Jonny. 😀

That's it for now! It'll be reporting back after ESI next week! Hopefully lots of lovely videos!
Take Care
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
Happy Burns Night! I'm a little late in sending this out as it was a full on Burns Night weekend. As you can see from the video below I'm not averse to piping in the haggis and then giving it the full address! It was lovely to get the full tartan regalia on!

So what's new? Leather Lake House and Cotton Cottage have both had a couple of duo videos added to the lessons.
On the flute we have Slängpolska från Barsebäck.
On the Scottish Smallpipes we have How Does It Go?
On the fiddleharpa we have Walnut.
As it was Burns this week I am going to feature Rory Dall's Port. This tune was the tune that Burns used for his Song Ae Fond Kiss. It's a nice little trio.
More next week!
Enjoy
:))
VIcki