The Maids of Mitchelstown

Last night we learned a lovely slow reel, The Maids of Mitchelstown. There is a slow practice version in the sidebar to the right for playing along with. To hear the fabulous arrangement by the Bothy Band, look for them on youtube, or have a look at this link where the tune has been used to accompany some random pictures of knights in shining armour....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4iPD6Epl4w

We also revised The Leprechaun, a tune Steve taught and which we are combining with The Kesh and Biddy the Bold Wife for a new céili set. For those who asked, here is a basic version of the dots.

Next week Nicole will run Tunes from the Vault, so send her the tunes you would like to revise. If there is the demand, Tania will run a slow class too.

Tunes Class Cranks Up Again!

Tonight is the first Maleny Tunes Class for 2012. There will be carrot cake and a slow reel!

This Wednesday, 1 February, 7pm - 9pm, we're back with our friendly combination of Irish tunes and supper. Bring your instrument, learn tunes by ear, and join in a growing community of musicians enjoying tunes together.

This year the class will be taught by class founder Nicole Murray, with excellent local musicians Steve Cook, Jeremy Dunlop and Tania Owens, to cater for slower players as well as more experienced players.

This week, Feb 1, Nicole will be starting up the year with a new tune, taught at quite a slow pace with lots of repetition of phrases. After supper we'll speed our new tune up a bit, and play a couple of tunes we've done before.

On Feb 8, Nicole will run Tunes From the Vault, where we revise tunes that have previously been taught. We'll work in longer phrases, still with repetition, and Tania will be available to work with slower players and those who have never met the tunes before.

Jeremy will teach a new tune on Feb 15, at a slow pace, with lots of repetition. After supper the tune will go a bit faster and he might visit a couple of other tunes too.

And on Feb 22, Steve will run the Ceili practice. This is a chance to put the tunes together into sets suitable for playing in sessions and for dancing. Steve will move a bit faster, but Tania will be available to coach slower players before supper.

There are 5 Wednesdays this February, so Nicole will finish the month with Tunes From the Vault.

Our planning has moved as far as March! So in March:

7 March - Nicole teaches a new tune.

14 March - Nicole visits Tunes from the Vault, with Tania helping out slower players

21 March - Jem teaches a new tune.

28 March - Steve runs Ceili practice, with Tania coaching slow players before supper.

The cost of tuition has not changed, its still $12 per class including supper. Please invite your musical friends who would like to play Irish tunes to come to the class. Its a tunes class, rather than an instrument class, so they will need to be able to play a few tunes on their instrument and know the names of the notes to get the most out of the class.

All of the teachers may be available for private and small group lessons if you and your friends would like to improve on your instrument.

See you on Wednesday!

Cheers,

Nicole

Christmas Party!!

Tonight is the final Tunes Class for 2010. Naturally we are having a party involving cake.

But we are also in the last five days before Woodford Folk Festival, so we're also having a Ceili Band practice.

6pm - 7pm Maleny Ceili Band practice - a run-through of all the tune sets we have prepared for the Irish Ceili at Woodford.

7pm - 9pm - Slow tunes, the choicest morsels that we love to play, chosen by class members. A Christmassy supper and lots of fun!

And here are some details of the Ceili: its at the Dancehall venue, Woodford Folk Festival, from 5pm - 6pm on Thursday 30 Dec.

Our tune sets are:

Reels.
The Peelers Jacket (G)/ Miss Monaghan (D)/ The Banshee (G)
The Plough and the Stars (G)/ The Bank of Ireland (Am/D)/ Martin Wynne's (D)
The Musical Priest (Bm/D)/ The Monaghan Twig (Amixo)/ Star of Munster ((Am)

Jigs.
Willie Coleman's (G)/ The Black Road (D)/ My Darling Asleep (D)
Tatterjack Walsh (Dmixo)/ The Pipe on the Hob (Dmixo)/ Lilliburlero (G) - Steve's version that starts G2A BAG | A2B cBA

Polkas
Rakes of Mallow (G)/ Egan's (D)/ Bill Sullivans' (D or A) - and we could add the Finnish Polka (Bm/D) to this, as we learned it last Wednesday night.

There's also a set of barn dances which we'll play tonight.
See you there!

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!

What we did at Ceilidh Practice.

Maleny Tunes Class has evolved a format where we have a two-week cycle. In week one we learn a new tune, in week two we have a ceilidh practice, running through tunes we have learned and sets we have created. We aim to become fluent at all the tunes, and play for the ceilidh planned for November.

This week was ceilidh practice, a solid play for the whole evening only interrupted by a welcome supper break. We have a set of jigs up to dance speed, but our reels set is still at a very stately pace, and twice through the three reels currently takes seven minutes , which is a fantastic workout, especially for the flautists.

At last night's class we ran through our jig set:
Willie Coleman's (G)/ The Black Road (D)/ My Darling Asleep (D),
and our reel set:

The Peeler's Jacket (G)/ Miss Monaghan (D)/ The Banshee (G)

plus a variety of tunes chosen by members of the class:

The Ash Plant (reel in Em)

Tatterjack Walsh (jig in D mixo)

The Musical Priest (reel in Bm/D)

Brenda Stubberts (reel in A dorian)

We also had a visit from Jem Dunlop, who will be one of the teachers standing in for Nicole while she's touring. He revised the tune he recently taught, The Monaghan Twig, and enough people missed that class to warrant teaching it again soon. We're going to use it in a new set of reels which Tania (flute) has suggested:

The Musical Priest/ The Monahan Twig/ Star of Munster.

The Maleny Ceilidh Allstars are well on the way!

Maleny Ceilidh Allstars?

Twelve tunes! That's how many we worked through at last week's ceilidh practice. We played them many times through, worked on tricky bits, and even learned a bit of fiddle chop for extra-funky rhythm. For those who would like to learn more about chop from the master, Darol Anger's youtube tutorial is below. If you just want a reminder of the rhythm we did in class, it went: chord-chop-up, up-chop-up.

We played Willie Colemans, The Black Road, My Darling Asleep, The Peeler's Jacket, Miss Monaghan, The Banshee, Rakes of Mallow, Egan's Polka, Bill Sullivan's Polka, Josefin's Waltz, The Jig of Slurs and The Ash Plant.

I have uploaded a slow practice recording of the Jig of Slurs, done in a fairly Scottish style, to the side bar of the blog. 

Cloudstreet did a gig at Joe's Waterhole on Saturday with the Barleyshakes, and their flautist Belinda Ford suggested The Maleny Ceilidh Allstars as a name for our dance band. What do you think?

See you on Wednesday for a new tune!