The festive, or festival, season is here

The last couple of months have been busy for the Tunes Class and it has been great to see many new players join us.  Kate Fraser's steady speed class has proved to be popular and it won't be long before we hear more of her students joining us playing in sessions.

With Christmas just about here the Tunes Class term has come to a close, the last couple of weeks having been dedicated to practicing our dance sets for the Woodford Folk Festival ceili.  Many members will be away during January, some at the the Celtic Summer School in Victoria and others at various festivals.  The Tunes Class will restart on 6th February.  Those that remain in town are sure to find a session or two around the place.

The next term will bring in a few changes.  Nicole Murray has handed over the running of the group to the members themselves with the various tasks being shared.  Kate Fraser will continue to run the Steady Tune Learning fortnightly while the intermediate group will move their emphasis towards developing skills and creating more sets.  There isn't much point in developing these skills without putting them to good use so plans are afoot to run more ceilidhs throughout the year, including one during the Maleny Celtic Winter School of course. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody, keep those tunes coming!  We look forward to seeing all the regulars, and hopefully some new faces, on the 6th.

Kate's classes-
February 6th, 20th, March 6th, 27th (change of date due to Alasdair Fraser concert).

New Slow Tunes Programme

Maleny Tunes Class continues to develop and nurture community music. This week, fiddler Kate Fraser offered to formalise the beginners' class a little more, in addition to the patient work of Tania Owens, by running a series of programmed nights where you can be sure there will definitely be a beginners' class. Pop them into your diary, come along and really make some progress!

Kate will work on tunes over several weeks, giving you a good chance to work on them, and the repertoire will be selected from tunes the intermediate class is playing. The aim is to create a wider community of players who share each other's tunes.

Kate has also started a moderately paced session every second Sunday at the Maleny Hotel. Its on early in the afternoon, so you can still head on over to Finbar's at 4 for the session there too!

Kate's Dates (Slow speed beginners' class):

September 5th & 19th

October 3rd & 17th

November 14th & 21st

December 5th & 19th

See you there!

Nicole

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

Great Céili, and now an Accompaniment Workshop!

Huge thanks to everyone who came, played, danced and ate cake at last night's Christmas Céili! It was a joyful night and raised just over $500 towards the 2012 Maleny Celtic Winter School, a resounding success!

I especially want to thank those people who made cakes for the night, and gave their time and equipment to make it all work. Huge thanks to Davydd McDonald (our Irish caller) and Mary Davidson (our Scottish caller), without whom the dancing wouldn't have happened. Even though I brought party tooters, I totally forgot to announce its Davydd's birthday tomorrow (Monday), so HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVYDD!!!

Great news for Tunes Class - Jem Dunlop will run a workshop on accompanying Irish tunes at the Tunes Class on Wednesday 14 December, so if you would like to integrate some good ideas about accompaniment into your playing, DON'T MISS IT! We will be working from chord charts which Steve prepared for the ceili last night, and our sets will really blossom. There will be copies of the chord charts available this Wednesday for you to take away and play with. We will combine melodies and accompaniment by the end of the night. Tell all your strumming friends this workshop is on - of course everyone is welcome.

And wasn't it wonderful when we played for dancers last night, and the rhythm of their feet helped us find the groove and the tempo? That's what its all about!

The Christmas Céili!

Its Christmas Ceili Time!

Its Christmas, the time for dancing! And for all of us who meet each week to craft these beautiful tunes, its time to take them out and swing them around some real dancers.

The Christmas Ceili is on December 3, at the Maleny Primary School Hall, 13 Bunya Street, just as you enter town from the coast.

There'll be live traditional music played by the class and lots of our auspicious tune-playing friends, experienced dance callers, and a cafe for refreshments.

Everyone in the class is welcome to participate in the band. But don't forget to get down there and have a dance - its so much fun and it makes perfect sense out of all these tunes!

These are the sets we'll be looking at, with a special Ceili Practice tonight guided by Tania.

Barn Dances

Thadelo's/ Campbell's/ Terry Tehan's

Jigs

Tatterjack Walsh/ Pipe on the Hob/ Nora Crionna

Willie Coleman's/ Black Road/ My Darling Asleep

Reels

Peelers Jacket/ Miss Monaghan/ Banshee

Musical Priest/ Monaghan Twig/ Star of Munster

Plough and the Stars/ Bank of Ireland/ Wind that Shakes the Barley

Dick Gossip/ St Anne's/ Masons Apron in G

Polkas

Rakes of Mallow/ Egan's/ Finnish/ Bill Sullivan's in D then A

Waltz

Josefin's

Extra homework if you're keen

Polkas: Walsh's/ Ballyvourney/ Johnny Leary's

Reels: Brenda/ Scholar/ Dinkies

Jigs: Kerfunten/ Eddie Kelly's/ Give Us a Drink of Water

And its GOLD in the Ring! Plus the Colliers Reel.

The Gold Ring in all its seven part glory has been thoroughly played by Maleny Tunes Class last Wednesday night. If you weren't there and want to catch up, all the parts are below, with the usual instructions on how to listen to a horrid midi file of them as well!!

The other great achievement of the night was the Collier's Reel. By special request and most unusually, the dots are attached as a gif below. The versio

n is based on the playing of Joe Fitzgerald, a Clare box player from Melbourne.

Regular super-slow-paced classes are now a feature of Maleny Tunes Class, and run simultaneously with the intermediate class. There will definitely be a Slow and Supportive Class on Tunes From the Vault night (the second Wednesday of the month, this week) and on Céili Practice Night (the fourth Wednesday of the month), and there may be a slow class every week if there is the demand. The patient and encouraging Tania Owens will be teaching regularly, ensuring more and more people start to enjoy playing Irish tunes.

If you would like to hear the melody, copy and past the text including the header into http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/abcconvert.php, select abc2mi

di and click on "submit".

X: 1
T: Gold Ring, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
|:BAG A2d|cAF G2A|BAG A2d|cAG FGA|
BAG A2d|cAF GBd|~g3 afd|cAF G3:|

|:~B3 Bdc|A2A dcA|~G3 GFG|Add cAG|
B2B Bdc|A2A dcA|FDE F2d|[1 cAF G2A:|[2 cAF ~g3 |

|:fdd edd|fdd edd|fdd ed=c|dcA Geg|
fdd edd|fdd edd|dfa gfd|[1 cAF G2g:|[2 cAF G3 |

|:~g3 f2d|cAG GBd|~g3 f2d|cAG FGA|
~g3 f2d|~g3 f2d|[1 ~g3 afd|cAF GBd:|[2 gab afd|cAF GFE|

|:DBB DBB|DAA DAA|~G3 GBd|cAG FGA|
DBB DBB|DAA DAA|G2G GBd|cAF G3:|

|:~B3 ~D3|~A3 ~D3|~G3 GBd|cAG FGA|
~B3 ~D3|~A3 ~D3|~G3 GBd|cAF G3:|

|:B2G A2G|d2G G2A|B2G A2G|cAG FGA|

BAG AGF|GFD FAd|~f3 fed|cAF G3:|