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Week 1: Happy New Year

Hello!
Happy New Year everyone! We really hope that 2022 is the year that things start to improve. They're looking pretty bleak just now - but as I sit and type this I'm listening to a new contra tune that Jonny has just written for tonight's dance in Atlanta - it's infectiously happy! That'll go on the site in the not too distant future and also into one of our sessions! If you want to come along to the New Years Day dance and play, the music is up on the site. Just click here - dance pads.

These are the links for this week.
1st January - Atlanta Distdance
4th January - Symmetry

This Friday I'm off to teach Swedish tunes at Benslow Music. There are still places left if you're in the UK. I haven't decided what I'm going to teach yet, but the write up is this!

Over the weekend you will learn about the different types of polska – the typical three beat folk dance and how to place the elusive second beat. You will also be taught a mixture of other types of Swedish folk tune, the Schottis långdans and vals. Each day will begin with a gentle physical warmup to help build rhythmic awareness and to aid in whole body feel for pulse and beat of the music. During the course of the weekend you will also be introduced to the older types of nyckelharpa: the silverbasharpa (1800s) , the kontrabasharpa (1700s) and the moraharpa (1600s) to place some of the music in its historical context. Some of the key players of the fiddle and nyckelharpa will also be introduced. Each tune learnt will be played as two or three part harmony pieces.

What's new on the site this week?
Branle de la Montarde - this is in the moraharpa course
I did a microphone comparison video too finding all the mics we had in the house for performing on stage. It's embedded at the bottom of this page!

I hope you had a great New Year and stay fit and healthy! If not - there's plenty of music on this site to keep you going! This week's spotify track is embedded below. All the tracks will be put in my Playlist.
:))
Vicki

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Week 52: Happy New Year

Hello!
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the Nyckelharpa Christmas advent calendar! That was mammoth to put together! We've had a quiet few days over Christmas - but spent most of it trying to catch up on sleep and giving the house a bit of a tidy up. It's been a long 22 months since we went digital at the start of the pandemic. I've now been moving materials over from my old Blogger site for nearly a year and at some point the job will be finished! But not yet!

Is anything new this week? I've moved one more tune as it's quite festive - but I hope you're still playing the tunes from the Advent Calendar!
Rum in the Pudding

I've decided it's time to release some music onto Spotify, my plan is to release a new track into the digisphere every week. So I am starting with Jonny's Suite that we performed at Halsway and Fürsteneck. The first movement was released at midnight on the 29th December and the second movement will arrive on the 5th January! If you don't have spotify it's also available on YouTube and all other good streaming services.

Happy New Year!
See you soon.
:))
Vicki