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Hello!
It's been a cool week. I can finally announce that the files for the new duet book are uploaded! Of course they went up at midnight on Friday, so as I type this I've not had any confirmation back, but I sent them off! fI had a final run through of the duets and flushed out a few more issues with my wonderful harpa friend David in the day and then set to work to get them all uploaded! So fingers crossed I am on track for releasing the book at Halsway in March! You'll find the page for the book here. There's a check list at the top to show where I'm at! It's been a while in coming, but it's nearly here!

This week I am focussing on recording the new duo album and another secret project. But I hope to be able to slip in some filming slots too.

We have several new tunes added. The waltz Landy's Jo is now added. Another tune from the Rose Ball - The Duchess of Bedford's Waltz and La Rose from Hart's Lancers. I added a duo video of the The Bunch to its lesson. The same with One for His Nob / Dancing Out.

I added a new technique module to the Flute Course - I added a video on vibrato. I added Whist With a Twist for Scottish Smallpipes.

We had the Symmetry Dance on 27th January, so that video is now ready to watch or play-along with. This resulted in a flurry of dance resources being added.

In dance we added videos for Peover Hall, Emigration and Athene Doth Widgets added to Neil Stuart's dance page. Septette was added to Wendy Crouch's. The cool tune/dance by Andrew Swaine called Rhodri's Retirement was added. The dance tune Ever Higher added to Liam Binley's page.

That's all for now. Another update soon!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's been a busy week in the website this week. I decided it was time to sort out the audio mp3s that we make at the Symmetry dances and make them available for download. So gradually I'm adding them into their own module - Dance Audio. I've added 26 audio files so far. Many, many more to come!

We had our first dance of the year the other week and this video is now up: Corsham Dance and I added a video to Jacob Hall's Jig, this was filmed at Corsham, but this is a different camera angle to the one in the main video! I added the Halsway Lockdown Session 6 to the course Playalong course.

It's now January - so it's time for me to start planning for World Nyckelharpa Day. The first thing was to choose the global tune. So I chose (after it was suggested) Långdans från Valö. Torbjörn Näsbom taught this at Halsway in 2024 and it looks like he taught it at other places too, so it's an excellent choice as many people already know it! I wrote the ensemble and have uploaded it to the World Nyckelharpa Day website and also here in this site.

For Scottish Smallpipes I added a tune I wrote many years ago called Going Commando. It's Burns night this week, so I thought a tune about wearing kilts was appropriate! On the Tagelharpa I added Femtiöringen. On the flute we have Garland of Roses, Skillern 1775.

We have Symmetry on Tuesday night and the music is up and ready. The plans for this week include continuing to record our new album and some session recording work.
More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's been a good start to the year with catching up on lots of overdue jobs. First up was editing Chatsworth. We filmed three evenings, but because it was the same music for each we made one video compiled of all the music. So I can finally present the Pride and Prejudice Ball at Chatsworth House.

So what's new this week?
I added La Bouquett, a nice simple little tune that is on our Rose Ball album. We pair that with The Orchard, so I added that too. This one is a nice simple little dance tune in A minor. It gets me a step closer to finishing adding all the tunes from that album!
I've added grace notes, articulations and a video of the two of us playing it to The Willows.
On the tagelharpa I've added An Dro.
On the Scottish Smallpipes I've added Highland Lilt, which is a great tune I play for dance on the nyckelharpa. It's in A minor so I've "adjusted" the C naturals out of the piece, but if you play it with an accompanying in instrument make sure they play it in A minor!
I've added La Rose from Gallini 1770 on the flute.
More next time!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
I hope everyone had a great break over Christmas and a wonderful new year. We came back and immediately went straight into a weekend of three gigs. We had a great New Year Concert in Zoom and also our first Symmetry Dance of the year. Once I get to next week I have some nice gentle time to catch up on everything that needs doing before next season! So what have I added?

Last month the software I use to send out my updates started to lock up my email. So I've had to abandon it and go down a new route. So I am really hoping that these updates don't end up in the spam! So if you've not heard from me for a while - check your spam boxes! This has put me very behind on adding new lessons over the last week.

So what's new? (Other than sorting out a great deal of email tech)
The video for the first Symmetry dance of the year is up and ready to watch. The eagle eyed among you will spot a new nyckelharpa. More about that later!
I wrote a new tune on New Year's Eve and called it Candle Foot. It was the first tune out of a new nyckelharpa and it's very pretty!

Fingers crossed for major updating next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
Happy Christmas everyone! I've been writing this update for several days, over several motorways and A roads and now from Sweden! It was a big rush to the end of the tour and now we're on the road to see family for Christmas. I tried to upload and process different things this week, but ran out of time - but there are some things that are quite time specific!

We had a dance for the Sytchampton Folk Dance Group and it included quite a bit of seasonal joy - so I wanted to get this video up and out before Christmas! I am releasing the Jingle Bell Singing Call as a stand alone video on Christmas Eve.

I added With the Last Year's Brand, a tune Jonny wrote for the song Come Bring With a Noise, it's so groovy - I love this tune! I also added the Ever Higher Tune from the song Ever Higher.

I added the old original videos from the Scottish Smallpipe tutor. These are now around 18 years old and as you can imagine - the file size is tiny. But it's nice to have them for posterity! I added the third and final part of Batten Down the Hatches, a nice groovy tune!

I hope you have a lovely Christmas break, eat lots of mince pies and play oodles of season tunes!
🙂
Vicki

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Hello!
I started writing this update yesterday on the M6, just before heading onto the M42. However I didn't finish it - so we've just finished the A1 and are heading cross country towards Chesterfield and on to Chatsworth. I ended up uploading some pretty random things and because we are in the middle of touring and I'm in the van - it's a lopsided mix of things to report this week!

We played for a really lovely ball in Cardiff, so this is ready for watching and playing along with. I added a stand-alone video of Well Hall to the lesson too.

The Winter Wedding - we played this at Symmetry and I've now updated the lesson page to include articulations. I have included videos of how we play it in performance and also a version for dancing too!
We played The Whitby25 Waltz in Symmetry the other week. I have now added this to our tunes section.

In the Scottish Smallpipes tutor I have now completed Chapter 5 by adding Sandy Duff, the final tune in the chapter. Onto chapter 6 in the New Year. I also added Batten Down the Hatches Part 2 for Scottish Smallpipes.

I added Ormond House to the Playford Video dance section. I don't always pull the Playford out from the Symmetry dances - but I think I should do that when I get time! I added Tess's Lament to Neil Stuart's dance page. (Dance instruction link to be added...)

Finally it's time to point out the Christmas Advent Calendar again. Subscribers have access to all the music and videos, so make sure you have an explore around! I always meant to do another one - but that year is not this year!
We have a day off next week, so I'll upload some more tunes then!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
The end of November is nigh! This week I filmed and edited a massive 21 videos. I don't have quite the spread of the instruments that I would like, but it'll keep me going until the new year. What did I get uploaded this week?

On the Scottish Smallpipes we have Batten Down the Hatches Part 1 by Jonny Dyer.
We have La Rose from Thompson 1779 on the Flute.
I added the Maypole Gånglåt for the Tagelharpa.
I have updated the waltz tune by Jonny called Angarrick to include grace notes and a duo video.
I edited and uploaded the video from Symmetry from the 18th November. So that is now ready to play-along with or listen again.
We have started adding music for the dances written by Wendy Crouch to the site and we added three tunes this week - Angelica, The Sussex Martlets and Winter Solstice (to both tunes that it is danced to).
I've added a page for the dances written by Liam Binley. Currently the dances we've filmed are all our tunes - but some others are bound to turn up in the not too distant future.

Back in the pandemic one of the remote recording projects we worked on was for RuneScape: Dragonwilds. The soundtrack is being released this week, so I decided to make a little video to explain the instrument and a little ensemble. Cut to 1 minute 50 if you don't want to hear the "spiel".

That's all for now. We have entered Wales on the M4 and will be at our destination soon! It's Symmetry on the 30th November. Hope to see you there. More next week!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
Turns out November isn't quite as empty as I thought! So I am writing this from the A303 on the way down to a fleeting visit to Cornwall! Once we return it's full on prep for the madness that will be our December schedule.

We had Symmetry on the 9th November and this video is now up and ready for watching. We also had Symmetry last night - but I've not had time to edit this video yet. That will come in the next update.
We had a wonderful dance on Saturday night - the Norwich Assembly Ball. We were so happy that it was the full Purcell's Polyphonic Party and for the first time I captured a whole PPP ball in full glorious colour. At one point we had an event henceforth called Mothgate. I pulled that section out and made a standalone video.

I added Polska from Axel Boberg's Manuscript, that I taught at Halsway in September.
I also added Bung Your Eye, which is a groovy little jig that we played for a recent ball.
Jonny's New Trio March is now up. We played this back in March as 2 nyckelharpas and piano. So both that version and the new nyckelharpa trio version are included there for you to enjoy and play!
I added a 6x version of Rosey Jones up on the website lesson.
I added the tune Walnut to the Tagelharpa course
I also added the waltz version of Scotty's Last Munro.
The Fiddlers Wife, Waltz for Mickie, Nanotyrannus and The Jig is Up have all been added to the Alan Winston Dance page. I added Musidora in Fried de Metz Herman dance page.

That's it for this week! More next week, where I hope to clear the backlog of already edited videos and get some more filmed!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
I can report back that I finished recording the audio for the duet book and then I promptly left to go up to Whitby. So although the book is not yet sent off to print, it's got very, very close. This week I was lucky enough to play through the whole book with my friend and fellow Halsway tutor David. I'm now writing the chords in, doing the final typesetting and making of the front cover. I had hoped to get it finished - but it turns out there are more stages and it takes longer than you think! I wasn't involved in the song this year, but I did make a video of Whitby Abbey in all its glory, you can see that video here. (Or watch it at the bottom of the page if you're reading this on my website!

Just before I left for Whitby I filmed some flute lessons and got those edited. I have roughly two weeks now before the Christmas touring starts - so I'm hoping to catch my breath!

So what's new on the site this week?

I added the full play from Whitby Illuminated 2025 into the subscribers extras to watch. Enjoy!
Whilst I was at it I grabbed the two videos I made from Whitby Illuminated 2023 and added them into the subscribers extras too. Some beautiful piano pieces - unfortunately I've not been able to get any sheet music out of Jonny for those - but if you want to play it, give me a shout and I'll see what can be done!
Bed of Roses from our Rose Ball album on the flute.
I added the next part of Chapter 5 to the Scottish Smallpipes tutor - it's Colin's Cattle.
The next tune I taught at Halsway is up and that's: Ecosoice ur Davidus Bredberg’s Notbok.
I added Never Love Thee More - a great little Playford Dancing Master tune. We're asked to play this often enough that I made a Change Tune called Always Love Thee More to partner it.

If you've ever wondered about the music that I use as the stinger at the start and end I've uploaded the full ensemble version. It's actually a small fragment from Chopsticks - or the proper name The Celebrated Chop Waltz. It's a duet I put together in lockdown, so now I've uploaded the music for you to play it too!

That's all for now - we've reached Warwick where we're playing for a ceilidh tonight!
We've got Symmetry on Sunday - so maybe see you there in Zoom!
More in the next week or so!
:))
Vicki

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Hello!
It's the end of October and that means that Jonny has been busy writing his latest soundtrack for Whitby Illuminated. Because I wasn't in the cast last year it meant that I was able to film the show. I've now added this to the subscriber extras section of the website. Grab a coffee or popcorn and enjoy the show from 2024.

This Sunday it was the Symmetry dance and the video is now uploaded and ready to watch again.
I'm working my way through the ensembles that we performed at Halsway and the next one is ready and uploaded. Into the Dusk Movement 4. Grab the music and play along with us!

I added Svanvals from my workshop at Halsway.
I added the dance tune The Quaff.
I added the next part of the Scottish Smallpipes chapter 5.
I added Clog Bransle to the Tagelharpa course.
In the dance section I added Rebecca's Waltz in Alan Winston's page, and Bell Meade Branle in Brooke Friendly's page.
I moved the Halsway Manor Lockdown Session Number 6 to its own page.

I'm now in the middle of working on the follow up to the Schott Scandinavian Fiddle Tunes book. I've called it A Book of Favourite Swedish Tunes. It's been about three years behind, but finally the list is compiled, the harmonies are written and I'm in the middle of recording the audio. As I write at the moment, I'm 25% through the recording. I hope to get the files to print in by the end of next week. It's a tough deadline - so hopefully it'll be ready before Christmas!

I'm hopeful for more filming early next week anyway!
:))
Vicki