Pipes, hobs and bananas.

This week's guest tutor was Maleny fiddle player Cath Ovenden, who taught The Pipe on The Hob. I am reliably informed (though I am in Shropshire) that the supper consisted of a yummy banana cake!

Tunes Class Powers on with Steve.

Steve Cook has taken up the challenge of working the Maleny Tunes Class up into the Maleny Ceilidh Band. The next ceilidh is on November 13 at the Maleny Showgrounds, so its a clear goal to work for, and of course we will have guest musicians as well to make it loads of fun. The caller will once again be the fabulous Davydd McDonald.

Steve taught the Bank of Ireland this week. In his words:  

"We learned the Bank of Ireland, a sneaky tune with a simple and repetetive A part but a tricky B part. 

We did some work on building tempos by playing a few tunes more times through and gradually building speed. My thinking is that if we pick a sequence of notes that everyone can play without too much thought about the content, we can focus more on improving left-right co-ordination and practice learning to relax the muscles that aren't needed to play the instrument."

If you've been longing to play faster in a consistent and reliable way, Steve's classes are excellent for the skills and practice you need. Not only will the skills set you up to be in the dance band in November, but will make you confident to lead tunes at the sessions. A good place to try it out is Finbar's on Sunday afternoon from 4pm. 

Nicole has arrived in England with John, and this weekend sees the beginning of the Cloudstreet tour with a week of singing teaching. (www.cloudstreet.org)

Tunes Party Tonight!

Bring your instruments and break out the chocolate crackles, its party time at tunes class. Nicole and John are flying off on their UK tour next week, and for the next 3 months, Maleny Tunes Class will have guest tutors including Steve Cook, Jem Dunlop and Cath Ovenden. So put on your party hat and come tonight for some tunes!

An inspiration for the Maleny Tunes Class idea has been Emma Nixon's Brisbane Celtic Fiddle Club. Emma is currently in the UK delivering a paper in Aberdeen relating to her PhD topic on traditional music, and attending summer schools and Gaelic singing courses. Indeed, she is involved in teaching at a summer school in August in Northumberland, and if you would like to catch up with her doings, here is a link to the flyer about it.

Emma teaches at Sandpipers Fiddle Week