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Hello!
We've been up and down the A1 so many times and it's not over! This week has been full on with preparations for Whitby Folk Week and the Nyckelharpa Weekend at Halsway Manor. (At the time of writing there is still a room available!) I decided that I needed to write 'change tunes' for all the music at the Playford Ball at Whitby. These were written last night and today we get to work them through with the piano and see if they actually work. Watch out for these in the autumn! I've also selected the Catches for this years Catch Club.

Because I am late with this update there is a dance tonight! 7pm in Symmetry. Come along or watch the watch again video later!

What's new?
We had a Symmetry Zoom dance last weekend and the Play-along video is up and ready!
When a dance tune gets two outings in the Play-along video list I like to make sure there is a lesson for it so here is The Drummer!
On the flute we have Casady Jig by Gary Roodman.
Playford in Shorts is back in Session! I've added the tune that got missed from the first edition and am in the middle of releasing the second edition additions! There were only eight tunes added to the second edition. When I come to do the third edition I think that will be a much bigger task!

More next week, but next week is likely to be smaller update as we're not here much and the following week finds us in Whitby and I think internet will be limited, so Whitby week might be a week off the weekly update!
Happy Summer!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
The weather has been amazing and lovely and hot. We had a great time being medieval in the north and now have a very brief time at home before heading back up again! We have a Zoom Dance on Sunday - so hope to see you there. Fingers crossed we'll have a video for everyone to play along with.

It was brought to my attention that there are a couple of books for sale on Amazon that appear to be Nyckelharpa books for beginners. I knew that these were likely to be written by AI and I was curious, so I bought one. What I saw was worse than I could have imagined. It was terrifying. So I did a review. One review was not enough, so I did three. One as if I was a beginner, one as me and four shorts.

What's new?
On the Scottish Smallpipes we have Cailinn Mo Ruinsa.
On the Moraharpa we have a re-working of Day 1 & 2 of the Moraharpa Four-a-Day.
We're heading up to Whitby in a couple of weeks which made me think I should share the Whitby@Home 2020 Swedish Session from 2020! I'll be doing another Swedish tune workshop at Whitby. So watch this space!
More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
This week we went to Sweden. Just a little social trip with no work involved. It was lovely to be away for a few days! But there is new stuff for the website!

There is no Symmetry Dance play-along video this week, so instead I'm featuring the Lockdown Halsway Bar Session 3 - British Tunes. Enjoy!

On the nyckelharpa we have Enfield Common by Henry Purcell. It's in Playford's Dancing Master!
On Fiddleharpa we have Flickorna Svensson. A great little tune that almost everyone plays!!
On the Flute we have Schottis från Lima. Very popular and very G minor!

I've now run out of A1 to work on. This weekend it's lots of medieval work, so more next week! (Still the old flute in the pictures - but come along to the Symmetry dances and you'll see the new flute!)
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's lovely and warm this week and I'm writing this from the gazebo in the garden! Long may it stay! We had a nice little run of gigs last week culminating in the Zoom dance at Symmetry on Tuesday. I've been busy editing videos - seems I filmed rather a lot the other week and they're taking some time to get through!

So what is new this week?
We have the Symmetry Zoom Dance video ready for watching and playing along with. You'll see the new flute in full swing and me not quite able to find the bottom C on the bottom B foot joint. Interesting to see (if you're a flautist) is that I spent the best part of 35 years on one instrument and now I'm having to get used to the way a new one responds, which includes not making any squeaks on jumps over an octave! More practise required!
On the nyckelharpa we have Barbarini's Tambourine, which is a tune we often play for dance!
On the flute we have Vendelpolskan for simple system flute. (I still don't have any videos of the new flute - that probably won't happen until after September!)
On the moraharpa we have the sweet little tune Mysan.
On the Scottish smallpipes we have the last tune in Chapter 4 - The Damson Tree.

Next week's update should be from the AI! Have a good week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's been a nice week mostly at home with a Symmetry dance this week. So I managed to get the camera out and do quite a lot of filming. This all now needs editing, so it'll come through in the coming weeks. Don't forget you can always request things!

So what's new this week?
We had a Symmetry Dance this week and the video is now editing and uploaded for everyone to play-along with. The next dance is this Tuesday, so see you there! Remember it's in Zoom and it's free to come along to!
On the Flute we have Haste to the Wedding a lovely little jig on the simple system flute.
On the Fiddleharpa we have Björnlåten
On Moraharpa we have an update to the tuning it in DDA: Moraharpa Tuning updated
For pipes this week we have säckpipa and Polska efter Lennart Skoglund.
I have one more catch left that I have filmed, but I will put this up next week - spread out the catch goodness.
For nyckelharpa we have one for the D tuned people, Polska från Mulseryd in the key of D. Enjoy the schwing of pretending to be a silverbas!

More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's July! How did that happen! This week I've been focussing on the moraharpa, so there's going to be some new moraharpa stuff filtering through now! As usual I'm writing this update in the van. So what's new? I've bought a new tuner for the nyckelharpa that is amazing - video to follow as soon as I get time to "unbox it". I've also bought a new flute mic - this hasn't been tested at all yet. So I'll report back on that as soon as possible!

In Catch Club this week we have another easy Catch - Cal's Song. It's quite a long one, but very simple!
Perry the Partridge on the moraharpa. It's in D, so if you want to join in on any instrument you can. A canon version is included in the lesson. No-one escapes Perry the Partridge!
Josefin's Dopvals on the wooden flute (no keywork needed). It's a popular and very pretty tune!
On the nyckelharpa we have Byss-Calle 45. I loved playing this for World Nyckelharpa Day and here is the lesson to back it up! (I qualified for my 20 BC badge - but have in actual fact done 27. It's time to do some more!)

We have a Symmetry Dance on Tuesday 9th July and the music is up and ready for anyone wanting to come along and play. As usual we will make a video after the event.
A lot of the Symmetry dances are quite tricky and fast paced. So as there is no video to share this week I'm going to feature the Lockdown Halsway Bar Session Zero Part 2. It's nice and easy and at a sedate pace. So enjoy!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's been a scorching hot week here and we've been not far from home doing medieval work at a local castle. But before that I took a very exciting trip into London to All Flutes Plus to try a new flute. I can now say that I am a proud owner of a wonderful new wooden flute. It's so wonderful that this is now my full time flute and my trusty old Pearl is being retired into being a spare. I'll review the flute as soon as I get a chance, so for now you'll still see videos of the old flute. But it won't be long before the new one comes online in YouTube!
So what's new this week?
The latest Symmetry video from the 18th June is up and ready to watch or play again. The next dance is Tuesday 9th July.
Catch Club on Sunday is another Henry Purcell tune - He That Drinks Is Immortal.
I decided to start going through the shorts hunting out the ones I did for Moraharpa and include the music for them, so here is Colin's Cattle on the Moraharpa. These tunes seem to work really well, so there will be a few of those coming through!
On nyckelharpa we have Polonoise efter Johan Hagelberg.
On the flute we have Michael and Linda by Dave Weisler.
More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
As usual it's been a lot of time on the road, but I've managed to do quite a bit of editing and uploading!
Catch Club this week is Trolllåten. A tune originally conceived to be played by four players and one instrument, it makes a fine catch! Last week we were at an in person Regency Ball and we sat the camera in front of us and captured our music - just like we do for Symmetry. So you can find the final video of the Meryton Mob here! (Playalong music included)
On the nyckelharpa we have Fredagspolska. It's a great 8-note polska, quite similar to Polska efter Båtsman Däck, but it goes nice and high and is just a little bit trickier. I love it!
On the Boehm system flute we have Stenselepolskan.
On Fiddleharpa this week we have Angelina the Baker. A really great jolly tune!
On the Swedish Säckpipa we have Säckpipslåt efter Jont Lars Olsson
More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's been a very dancey week this week with both Symmetry and an in person Regency dance (more about that dance next time). I got very excited when I watched the latest episode of Doctor Who (Ep6: Rogue). It's set in a regency dance with lots of lovely costumes and two real pieces of regency music! The first was easy to identify - The Duke of Kent's Waltz. We play that quite often! The second one took a little bit of detective work. I started to write it out, figured out the style and then hazarded a guess as to which collection of Regency dance music I'd find it in and I turned out to be correct. It was  Paine's 1st Set of Quadrilles: No. 4 La Felecia - so an hour later I'd written it out and created a video with Jonny.

So what else is added to the site this week? We had the Zoom dance at Symmetry on Sunday and that video is now edited, uploaded and ready for people to watch. Enjoy! Our next Symmetry Dance is Tuesday 18th June - next Tuesday. Come along and watch, play or dance! The link is here and the dots are here!

I've been working on the Scottish Smallpipe tutor this week too and I've added Chapter 4 part 2 to that course. Slow and steady progress!

We have Henry Purcell again this week for Catch Club and Once in Our Lives.
On the nyckelharpa we have Polska från Glömminge. A really cool but slightly strange Polska. I love it!

More next week! We're heading off into medieval season, so who knows where this will take us!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
We've had a couple of days at home this week so I cracked out the camera and did a whole bunch of flute videos. It's a mix of Swedish tunes and dance tunes. So watch for those as they get published over the coming months! I'm hoping to film some more pipe lessons this week, so fingers crossed!

So what's new to the site this week? There's quite a spread, making up for so much time away!
In nyckelharpa news we have a silverbasharpa lesson! I play the tune on both nyckelharpa and silverbasharpa, but it is a silverbas tune. It's Polska från Mulseryd and it's a tune from Småland. Enjoy playing with gusto and as if you were an old style harpa player razzing all the strings!
I added a standalone video to Jonny's New Vals so you can play along with us in the lesson.
It was a request to have a breakdown of the rhythm on the flute version of Tierpspolskan. So I've updated that lesson and it now includes articulations and grace notes for the flute.
On the Scottish Smallpipes I've started adding Chapter 4 of the Scottish Smallpipes tutor to the site. Part 1 is now up!
As this is a non-dance week I am featuring one of our lockdown sessions that we did at Halsway Manor: Lockdown Halsway Bar Session 2
Catch club this week is an easy catch - The Bluebell Line. I love to do this tune with four players and one instrument. But this time you get a minus-1 video!
We have a a Symmetry dance on Sunday and the music is up. So come along live and play-along!
More next week!
:))
Vicki