Session 10 – Playford Dance Tunes

Posted on 29 August 2021 by Vicki
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Session 10 - Playford Dance Tunes

Hello!
It's been a really busy August and we're in the middle of preparing for our first face-to-face dance with dancers! We're working with a great caller called Bob Morgan, we've done quite a lot of Zoom dances with him so it'll be strange to not be looking at him in a little box. (If I get any footage I'll edit it into the session!) The lessons will be created during this week. (I hadn't clocked that so many hadn't been done yet, they're all great relatively simple tunes to play!)

As usual the session goes at 2pm on Sunday 5th September and stays up forever. See you then!
:))
Vicki & Jonny

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Whitby@Home – A final post!

Posted on 27 August 2021 by Vicki
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Whitby@Home - A final post!

Hello!
Whitby@Home has been an amazing week and we've done lots and lots of videos! This is a summary of everything we did! It was a lot!
:))
Vicki

Watch our Concert (we start half way through)

https://youtu.be/DxQpAJxnjl8

The Swedish Tunes Nyckelharpa Workshop
Polska Från Mariebol - Morfarspolska
Polska efter Jonas Hansson
Brudmarsch efter Johan Vilhelm Söderkvist
PDF of the tunes

The Contra Tunes Workshop
Lightening the Load 
St Alban's New
New England Square
PDF of the tunes

Musical Warmups!

Ceilidh Dance!
We took a recording of the dancing - so if you'd like to play along, dancealong or just watch these are being uploaded to our Duo website dance page. Because there are quite a few, I'll just put one here for you to see. The rest at the moment you'll find here!

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Whitby@Home Swedish Tune Workshop Mosaic

Posted on 25 August 2021 by Vicki
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Whitby@Home Swedish Tune Workshop Mosaic

Hello!
Thank you to everyone that came along to the workshop today! So now it's time for the mosaic! We re-filmed the guide track (the piano was too quiet, or muted, or something!) So here are the instructions:

Film yourself playing along to the track using your phone or camera.
Make sure you are wearing headphones so we can't hear the guide.
Don't worry about making mistakes, if there is anything very, very wrong there is a lot I can do in post edit... 😉
If weren't at the workshop and want to send a video, we'd love that too! Click Here for the dots.
We play three tunes in this order:

Polska Från Mariebol - Morfarspolska
Brudmarsch efter Johan Vilhelm Söderkvist
Polska efter Jonas Hansson

Then using WeTransfer.com send the file to me: smallpiper@mac.com

I'll edit it all together and it'll be public on Friday!
Thank you so much!
:))
Vicki

Posted in Mosaic, Nyckelharpa | 1 Comment

Week 34 – A Whitby Kind of Week

Posted on 24 August 2021 by Vicki
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Week 34 - A Whitby Kind of Week

Hello!
What a week and what a month! We had a very intense week last week with two film projects coming to a finish in a dead heat. I'm afraid you'll have to wait until next year to find out more about those! In the meantime we're in the middle of Whitby at Home. Some of the things that we're doing will be staying up online for a little while in YouTube. I'll put those videos below this entry!

I'm doing a couple of workshops live in Zoom and I've finally finished the set list. So what's in the workshops?

The Swedish Tunes Workshop - Wednesday at 2pm
Polska Från Mariebol - Morfarspolska
Polska efter Jonas Hansson
Brudmarsch efter Johan Vilhelm Söderkvist
PDF of the tunes

The Contra Tunes Workshop - Thursday at 12pm
Lightening the Load
St Alban's New
New England Square - (new this week to the site)
PDF of the tunes

A few new videos to the site this week:
Tune Friday: Midsommarn and Polska Från Mariebol - Morfarspolska
Time to Dance: Anastasia
Focus on Technique: String Crossing Tune
:))
Vicki

https://youtu.be/DxQpAJxnjl8
https://youtu.be/B8ar3tkFvZ4
https://youtu.be/eyo8Q41J6Ec
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Whitby at Home – an online extravaganza

Posted on 19 August 2021 by Vicki
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Whitby at Home - an online extravaganza!

Hello!
We should have been in Whitby for the Folk Week next week. Alas it has had to go online again for a second year running. But it means that followers around the world to my website can join me from the comfort of their own homes! We have a packed schedule! So where can you find us? I'll embed the YouTube videos as they become available!

Saturday 21st August
8pm-9pm - Welcome Ceilidh in Zoom caller Bob Morgan
Entry is by donation and you can register to get the link here.
If you want to play along we have, as always published the tune list!

Sunday 22nd August

https://youtu.be/DxQpAJxnjl8

Tuesday 24th August
You'll need either a beanbag, or balled up socks and a bouncy ball! (But not lycra!)

Wednesday 25th August
2pm-3pm - Nyckelharpa Swedish Tunes Workshop for any instrument, Zoom
It's a nyckelharpa workshop - but the tunes chosen will be suitable for instruments such as the  simple system wooden flute or D/G melodeon. The tune list is:

Thursday 26th August
You'll need an instrument for this one. Done with the nyckelharpa - but suitable for any instrument!

12pm-1pm – Contra Tunes in Zoom with Vicki & Jonny in Zoom
Listed as a nyckelharpa workshop, there will be nyckelharpa goodness - but it's suitable for any vaguely chromatic instrument. Here is a initial tune list:
Lightening the Load - (this will probably be first)
St Alban's New - (this will probably be second)
Hyde and Seek
One for His Nob
New England Square - (this will probably be third)
Doodle Oak Cloggers - (probably a spare)
PDF of the tunes

We hope to see you sometime in the week!
:))
Vicki & Jonny

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Week 33: Halsway Session and Whitby Workshops

Posted on 16 August 2021 by Vicki
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Week 33: Halsway Session and Whitby Workshops

Hello!
August continues its march ever onwards!

So what's new this week?
This week I have made sure that all the tunes from the Virtual Halsway session number 14 have been transferred to the site. I am putting this session below so that you can play along right from this blog entry! There are now over 202 nyckelharpa lessons in the tunes by difficulty list! This doesn't include the Zen scales or Nyckelharpa-Four-A-Day, so this is already becoming a vast website! Time to back it up!

On Saturday 21st August we are playing for the opening ceilidh at the Whitby@Home festival. The dots are up on the Dance Page. It would be lovely to see any of you there! I am also doing a nyckelharpa workshop with Swedish tunes playable on most instruments (I'm aiming at D/G melodeons and D whistles). So there will definitely be happy G major tunes and the chances are they'll be from Småland - which is where my family is from. As the schedule stands this is going to be on Wednesday 25th August between 2-3pm in Zoom. It's free (donations welcome!) Then on Thursday 26th I am doing a contra dance tunes workshop at 12pm. Everything will be backed up with lessons on this website too. Last year we made a mosaic video from the Swedish tunes workshop - I'd like to do that again. So definitely keep your eye open on this blog entry!

Hope you're well and hope to see you in Whitby!
:))
Vicki

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Week 32: A bit of a Playford Week

Posted on 9 August 2021 by Vicki
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Week 32: A bit of a Playford Week

Hello!
This week we've been getting ready for some heritage work - so the tune of the week is medieval! I've also transferred over the Halsway Virtual Session Number 7. These are a great thing to have a look at as there are quite a lot of tunes that are played in the bar at Halsway and the Halsway Manor course is fast approaching!

New Tune of the Week
Buffens on the Sienaharpa

Tune Friday
Maiden Lane
Upon a Summer's Day
Stanes Morris
The Fine Companion
Goddesses
Nonesuch
Some of these Playford tunes are in a story that I tell. I've put the story below for you to watch!

Folkie Flute tune of the week is Springvals after Ceylon Wallin a great G major tune and the Scottish smallpipe tune of the week is The The SlipTease Set.
Enjoy
:))
Vicki

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Week 31: August Already?

Posted on 2 August 2021 by Vicki
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Week 31: August Already?

Hello!
How can it be August already? The year is slipping away fast!

So what's new this week? I decided to complete the lessons for the Fifth Virtual Halsway Bar session. Especially as we took a break from the sessions this week. (We had expected a quiet July/August - but that hasn't happened!). We hope to start filming some more sessions next week, but yesterday I managed to sprain my ankle, so I'm hobbling around a bit at the moment. So what's new?

New Tune of the Week:
The Cedar Fence

Tune Friday
The Sloe
The Rochdale Coconut Dance
The Rogues March
Captain Lanoe's Quick March
Tree in a Bog and Marie's Wedding
Horses Branle (now updated to include the dots!)

For Children
CDs (also good for adults if you see past the animated background!)

In other instruments I've added London's Burning for double bass (who wouldn't want to play London's Burning on the double bass!) and The Black Joke from Playford for Folkie Flute.

Enjoy!
:))
Vicki

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Week 30: Tunes Update

Posted on 26 July 2021 by Vicki
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Week 30: Tunes Update

Hello!
It's been another week of a weekend of gigging, which has been great. I did some filming - then had to re-do the filming. We had to pull the livestream studio 2 apart to get the PA out so we could take it to a real life ceilidh dance! It was a short dance, but a dance none the less! It was fun! Then it went back together again and finally it's being taken apart and then put back together. It looks like things are definitely starting to be more blended. This has put us a little behind for the sessions. So we're going to take a break for a couple of weeks. But have no fear we'll start filming the sessions soon. There are 20 from the original Virtual Sessions at the Bar at Halsway to revisit!

So what's new this week?

Our Dance Tunes
The Japonica Jig
Hyde and Seek
Jonny's Jolly Polska

8-note Polska
Sistapolskan (new tune of the week)

Old Style Harpas
Slängpolska efter Calle Svankvist

For Children
Jumping Beans (of course adults can play this little beginner tune!)

The Zen Scales Course - it's been a year since I filmed these scales in the first lockdown and I have now fully transferred them to this site. 56 days of scales to help you get up and down the instrument and listen to your tone. Give them a go! If you complete them all - let me know and I'll do some more!

The Folkie Flute tune of the week is Linus På Linjen.

Enjoy and stay safe!
:))
Vicki

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Week 29: Tunes Update

Posted on 15 July 2021 by Vicki
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Week 29: Tunes Update

Hello!
We went out and did a real gig! We were lucky enough to play for the Valhalla Viking Festival and it was truly amazing! To play for a bunch of Vikings singing along and banging the table to their favourite Viking songs was brilliant! We're going to make a couple of music videos over the next few weeks and they'll have some freshly composed Viking melodies to learn in them. Watch this space!

So what's new this week?

For Children
C-Saw (don't be put off by the presentation, you can still do this tune if you're an adult and a beginner!)

Complete Beginners
HarpaFours

Moraharpa
A Santa Maria Dadas – Cantiga 140 (totally new)

Tune Friday
Banish Misfortune
Dusty Windowsills
The Global Halsway Parade (2020)

The Folkie Flute tune of the week is Polska after Båtsman Däck and the Scottish Smallpipe tune of the week is Castle Dangerous.
Enjoy!
:))
Vicki

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