Tonight's Sessions was FUN!

Bet You Wish You Were There...

But...chances are, you weren't! There were seven of us chickens in the hen house playin' tunes. It was kickin'! There's room if you want to come next month on November 20th.

Tonight's Tune List:

We played our three learning tunes
Humours of Glen (Cuillin) (Jig)
Knotted Cord (Reel)
O'Malley Waltz.

Our Round Robin included:
Anthony Frawley's Jig
Father Kelly's Reel
Boys of Bluehill / Harvest Home Hornpipes
Limerick Lasses Reel
Out on the Ocean Jig
Whinny Hills of Leitrim Slip Jig

A good time was had by all...

See you next month!

Hilary

October Slow Session Wednesday 10/16

Hi, Friends!

What a beautiful fall this has turned out to be! I hope you've had a chance to get out and wander in it. And perhaps even hear or play some tunes...

I hope you'll come out and play some tunes with me on Wednesday evening, October 16 from 7:30-9:00 PM. We'll work on some of our "Learning Tunes" and then go around the table and pick tunes/sets - you can use the list below and the Sets Lists on the Set Lists Page to choose if that helps. 

I encourage you to print that page out - I've linked to a PDF. I also encourage you to bring a recording device so you can capture pieces of a tune you don't know.

I've put some recordings of some of the tunes below on our Tunes page from last month's session.

As we sat around the tables last month, we discussed what tunes we might like to learn for the season. Below is the suggested list. Links to printable PDFs of these tunes are (or will be) on the Tunes page.

Last month we went over the tunes in the learning list (see the Tunes page for printable PDFs). I also handed out a bonus tune, O'Malley Waltz, by a Massachusetts composer, Tom O'Hare (known to his friends as "Rabbit"). Eric and I had the pleasure and challenge of playing his compositions for a one-woman story-play by Marni Gillard a couple of years ago. (Marni's really good people - and an awesome story-teller!) I really liked this piece and thought it might be a nice little brain twister for us to try.

You won't be surprised when I tell you that last month's stuff got all shuffled in with a pile of papers. In my case, they happen to be campaign materials. You see, I'm doing my civic duty (not without a firm push from friends, of course), and my campaign letters and voter lists are all over my desk! So, this morning I woke up and realized that HOLY CANNOLI! Tomorrow is Slow Session and I'd better get the tunes up on the blog. And then I ran off to work and didn't get back here until about 8:30 pm.

Well, hey! Better late than never, and you should always bring your suggestions (and sheet music if you have it) to the session.

SEE YOU WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16 at 7:30 PM!!!

Best,

Hilary

Fall 2013 Season Starts TONIGHT!

Hiya, Friends! What a spring and summer I had. All is well and I'm ready to start up with tunes and fun with you all.

Each month, we'll focus on a couple of tunes that are either classics the world around or are being played locally at sessions (or both). Once we firm up the repertoire this week, the tunes for the season will be posted. Sets will be adjusted as we go, because we're going to find out what people like and don't like and how best to arrange the tunes.
 
This season's dates are:
September 18
October 16
November 20
December 18
All evenings are from 7:30 - 9:00 pm. We may be downstairs or up, depending on what classes are being held in the building this fall. Tonight we are upstairs.

We'll start tonight at 7:30 with tunes from last year's repertoire and some new tunes from Amy Schoch's Thursday night medium session. Bring a recording device to capture tunes you don't know yet. Bring your tune lists.

If we have new people, tonight's Learning Tunes will be:
Moon Coin Jig - jig
The Flax in Bloom - reel
Taims in Arrears - slip jig



If everyone knows the above tunes,then here's tonight's list of tunes to get us started:
Friendly Visit/Honeysuckle (hornpipes)
Garrett Barry's/East of Glendart/Behind the Haystack (Munster Buttermilk)  (jigs)
Trip to Birmingham/Torn Jacket/Earl's Chair (reels)
The Butterfly/Snowy Path (slip jigs)
Christie Barry's 1 & 2 (jigs)
Belles of Tipperary/Limerick Lasses (reels)
The Cameronian/The Shaskeen (reels)
Off to California/The Harvest Home (hornpipes)


and we'll fill in tunes as we go around the circle.
 
See you tonight at Old Songs!

Hilary

Slow Session on Hiatus til Fall 2013

Hey, Gang,

Sorry for the short notice, but due to personal reasons, I'm going to postpone the Slow Session until the fall of this year. I hope you'll take the opportunity to listen to lots of great live music as well as play some yourself.

Check out the Old Songs website for information about this summer's Old Songs Festival (www.OldSongs.org). I'm really excited that fiddler Oisin Mac Diarmada and accordionist Seamus Begley will be at the festival this year! This is a not-to-be-missed duo of high energy and consummate talent and skill. Besides, they're really nice guys. Go have some tunes with them!

And I hope you've got The Catskills Irish Arts Week on your schedule as well (www.catskillsirishartsweek.org) for this July. Our own Tom Wadsworth is involved, and there will be plenty of great people and music!

If you're interested in playing Irish music on a more regular basis - or getting your feet wet with a friendly group - consider joining Amy Schoch and friends on Thursday evenings for a house gathering of learning new tunes, practicing old ones, and getting sets together. You can reach Amy at amyschoch@me.com.

I wish you all the best for a fantastic summer and hope to see you again in the fall, if not sooner!

All the Best,

Hilary