Playing level/standard

The Folk Tunes workshop is for “improvers” who know their way round their instrument & can play a tune, after practice (however hesitantly). Proficient & experienced players would be welcomed to help others progress to their level.

Players will gain the opportunity of playing with others & may progress in time to play in pub sessions. It is hoped that the group will be able to join up periodically to play with the other u3a folk music groups.

Session Format

In the first half we will warm up with the tune “Salmon Tails Up The Water”. Then, 2 tunes, chosen at the previous session for members to practise at home, will be played slowly three times. There will follow the 2 tunes chosen for the previous session in similar fashion but, perhaps, a little faster. A conscious effort will be made to manage a compromise between the group holding a tune together & not being tedious. If any member finds the group is playing too fast, they may have to do the best they can, shrug their shoulders & keep practising. All the tunes will be gathered together into a “Tune Book” to be played again in the future.

In the second half of each session, after a break for coffee or tea & a chat, members will work their way through the ever increasing “Tune Book”. During the second half of each session the two songs for the next session will be chosen.

Until the group is established & a substantial tune book has been built up the two halves of each session will be similar.

Members will then playing “The Oyster Girl” as a closing tune.

Speed

The group will have a “no blame” culture, will be supportive of all members & no one will be marking anyone’s homework! The purpose of the workshop is to have fun whilst improving our playing, Most members will be self-taught, having picked up their instruments far too late in life. The workshop will not be concerned with “technique” or technical skills but will seek to accommodate new players by not just “bashing” through known tunes without concern for new starters.

Hopefully, as members will have been practising the tunes regularly at home, we will be able to play tunes in the second half of each session at a slightly faster pace.

Tunes

The tunes played will be typical “English” traditional folk tunes including tunes from England, Wales, Scotland & Ireland. Most will be traditional; others will be modern tunes popularised in pubs and clubs. Some tunes will have crossed the Atlantic & come back as traditional American tunes. Most tunes will be those commonly played in pub sessions & will be in the key of “G” or “D”. All will be scanned from copyright free sources &, hopefully, links will be available to players and/or singers on the web or on You Tube for those who play by ear & don’t use the “dots”. Members will be free to suggest tunes which can be accessed through “Open Source” collections.

Resources

The workshop will be paperless and copies of the tunes can accessed/downloaded from our Google Workspace drive. (Ask Andrew for details)