Hello! The camera has been out and I've been catching up on a few videos. I've been meaning to do a video of how I use a normal guitar strap as a Y-strap for the oktavharpa. That is now done and edited! I should have been a bit more attentive to the edges of the green-screen, but it works! That video is now in the lesson - Holding the Nyckelharpa and also embedded below! I completed the final two tunes that I did at Benslow and these are totally new to the website, so here they are! Vårvinda Friska Polska efter Jonas Börjesson
Pretty soon it's time to ramp up the World Nyckelharpa Day preparation! More soon! :)) Vicki
Hello! I have just returned from teaching Swedish tunes at Benslow. It was brilliant to be out teaching again! So what did we do? Here's the list. It's not quite complete as I haven't got films/lessons for two of the tunes. They'll end up in next week's blog entry!
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.
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
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.
Hello! It's the final week for the advent calendar. It's been so much fun putting this together. I've enjoyed sharing these every day, so maybe I'll do another one next year too! I'll have to hunt around to find some cool Christmas tunes.
We had a plan that we were going to go to Sweden and see family and do a YouTube concert. However with the state of Covid right now we've decided it's not safe to go. So instead we are going to do a real live Zoom concert on Wednesday 22nd December at 7pm. Entry is by donation, details are on our duo website. Hope to see you there! :)) Vicki
Hello! It's full on with the advent calendar now, I hope you're all enjoying it! We've also got some online Zoom gigs coming up! If you fancy a concert we're at Deal Folk Club in Zoom on Friday night. We're playing for Symmetry Dance on Sunday evening. (Dots will be available for play-along). Our YouTube Christmas special might become a Zoom Christmas Special - we're still trying to decide if we can get to Sweden safely for Christmas - it hangs in the balance!
Hello! The advent calendar is here and in full swing! As I write this update it's 3rd December and we've had three days: Plenty more to come! I've embedded a playlist of the duets below. To get the dots and all the videos collated into one place you need to be a subscriber or buy access for the advent calendar!
Hello! It's the week before the advent calendar starts and we're busy cramming words for the Christmas work we have coming up. We're doing three dances in Symmetry, the dots as always will be available here.
In the Scottish Smallpipe course we have Lullaby for the Sleepy on SSP. This feels like a short update this week - but just wait until the 1st December! It's epic! :)) Vicki
Hello! It's finally time to release my Christmas project! It's taken several weeks of filming, editing and website editing! So here it is! During the month of December I will be releasing a new Christmassy duet from the 1st to the 24th. I'm calling this my Nyckelharpa Advent Calendar. You can have a look at the page already - but nothing will turn up until the 1st December!
Subscribers you'll be able to go to each lesson page, download the music and see all the videos on one page. Each duet has a tune lesson, the duet in full and a minus-1 version for you to play along with. It was an epic project to put together with 80 videos made and more involved in the whole advent calendar!
So what else is new on the site this week? I've added Norrahammarsvägen and The Drunken Piper. One into our dance tunes course and one into tune Friday. We have a new flute duet up - The Piper's Wedding March. There are play-along videos for you in this lesson. For the Scottish smallpipes we have Headphones and Admins, it's mostly about practising triplets!
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