Slow Tunes on the Blog!

Great excitement! Slow recordings of the tunes we are playing are finally appearing in the green box to the right! Four tunes are up already, and now I've been shown how to get them there, more will arrive soon.

Only TEN SLEEPS til Maleny Celtic Winter School!!! www.malenyceltic.org.

This Wednesday, June 9, is a practice night for tunes we have already learned, so we can get them closer to session speed. Sunday's session at Finbar, Bicentennial Lane, Maleny, was a triumph for several members of the class, who got in a decent number of tunes we've been learning at a reasonable pace, in amongst the shouting yet appreciative drinkers and the woodfired pizzas sailing past. The session this week featured singers, guitars, pipes, fiddles, button box, flutes (lots of flutes), whistles, mandolin, concertina, bodhran and bones. 

Now I've learned how to overcome the technological puzzle of how to get tunes up on the blog, entries will be more regular!

The National Folk Festival and Beyond

We're all off to the National Folk Festival, to absorb the wall-to-wall tunes in the session bar. Nicole and John are playing as cloudstreet (www.cloudstreet.org), and launching the new cd, The Circus of Desires. (Which features one of our tunes-class tunes, Willie Coleman's)

So, NO TUNES CLASS ON WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH. And no class on the following Wednesday, April 7, either, as many people will still be travelling.

See you all for a further fix of tunes on April 14. Happy Easter with lots of jigs and reels!

First Class of 2010

Tune of the Night: The Lark in the Morning - jig in D major.

Here is a slow recording of it to play along with...

We had a wonderful class tonight, full of enthusiastic players on whistle, flute, fiddle, mandolin, and viola, and learned the four-part jig, The Lark in the Morning. Well done! 

I have decided to keep the fee at $10 for everyone during March, as its a bit of a disrupted month. I'm not sure yet if there will be a class on March 17, as its St Patrick's Day, and I look like having a gig, and so does every other Irish music player in the district who could possibly step in to teach, but I will know more by next week. There is no class on March 31 due to the imminent National Folk Festival.

In April, there will be four classes, and they will be $10 each if you pay in advance (ie $40 at the start of the month) or $12 each if you attend casually.

Next week, Wednesday 3 March, we will learn a new tune from 7 - 8pm, then have supper (of course), then spend the remaining time working up three jigs to a good level of comfort and a reasonable speed. The plan is for the tunes class to play one of the sets of tunes at the Ceili in June as part of the Maleny Celtic Winter School. We will have them right up to dance speed by then, but next week we will just work them up a little faster than we learned them, and sort out how to get from one tune to the next. The jigs we will work on are the first three on our practice cd: Willie Colemans (in G), The Black Road (in D) and My Darling Asleep (in D).

Happy playing, and see you next week.

love, Nicole

Class starts again on Wed 24 February!

I'm delighted that its nearly time to meet again for tunes on Wednesdays!

Class starts again on Wed 24 Feb at the Presbyterian Hall, Cedar Street, Maleny. I try to start the class by 7.05, and you are welcome to get there a few minutes early and have a cuppa.

The first class for the year will be $10, including supper. From March, classes will be $12 if you attend casually, or $10 per class if you pay for the whole month. In March that fee will be $40, as there will be no class on March 31. Its the day before the National Folk Festival starts in Canberra, and I will be rushing down there to get in as many tunes as possible!

If you have any questions about the class, email me on nicole(at)cloudstreet.org. Put a real "at" symbol in there, of course!

Cheers,
Nicole

Happy Festive Season, crank up the tunes!

Maleny Tunes Class is having Christmas and January off to enjoy summer and go to some music festivals. See you at Woodford for the Ceili.

The first class for 2010 is on Wed 24 February. 

Maleny Tunes Class is run by multi-instrumental tutor, Nicole Murray, every Wednesday night from 7-9pm in Maleny, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Queensland. Nicole teaches mainly Irish tunes, by ear, working slowly phrase by phrase. We usually learn a tune in the first hour, have a delicious supper and finish with a slow session, playing tunes we have learned in previous weeks. Its very social and a good challenge.

If you can pick out a tune on your instrument and would like to learn some traditional repertoire, you're ready to join the class! Maleny Tunes Class students play a range of instruments including flute, whistle, mandolin, fiddle and concertina.

Maleny Tunes Class had a wonderful Christmas Party and Slow Session at Finbar's Lounge Bar in Maleny on December 6, and since then we have learned two more tunes!

A cd of 28 of the tunes we have learned in 2009 will be available in the Woodford Folk Festival shop for $15, or can be bought from Nicole by emailing her on nicole [at] cloudstreet.org.

Tunes we have learned this year include: 

1. Willie Colemans jig in G

2. The Black Road jig in D

3. My Darling Asleep jig in D

4. The Peeler’s Jacket reel in G

5. Brenda Stubberts reel in Am

6. Craig’s Pipes reel in G

7. Rakes of Mallow polka in G

8. Bill Sullivan’s polka in G

9. Egan’s polka in D

10. The Kesh Jig jig in G

11. Christy Barry’s No 2 jig in G

12. Dusty Windowsill jig in Am

13. Calliope House jig in D

14. Dowd’s No 9 reel in D

15. St. Anne’s Reel reel in D

16. The Banshee reel in G

17. Star of Munster reel in Am

18. Hardiman the Fiddler  slide in D mixolydian

19. The Fair Little Canavans slide in G

20. Lannigan’s Ball jig in Em

21. The Ship in Full Sail jig in G

22. The Wise Maid reel in D

23. The Glen Allen reel in G

24. The Concertina reel in D

25. Rolling in the Ryegrass reel in D

26. The Ash Plant reel in Em

27. Christmas Eve reel in G

28. Dinkies reel in A mixolydian

See you in February!

Cheers, Nicole