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[ladydetemps]

I have a btec which i belive is worth 2 A-levels. <smug>

[Lester]

I have a btec which i belive is worth 2 A-levels. <smug>

Not as good as my Cycling Proficiency and 25 yards freestyle ('cept we called it crawl way back then)

[ladydetemps]

Oh i got both those. And a 'most improved at maths' and '100% punctuality' certificates

[ganderbox]

Did anyone get to 'St Chartier' inn 2009? What happened?

I didn't go, but I heard from someone on the hurdy-gurdy forum that I occasionally visit that it was very good. Apparantly the it was more like it used to be before the neo-hippies, all-night drummers, vinos etc invaded .

[Alison Scott]

I do try...like saturday at EATMT was sitting in the cafe garden listening to the little session going on at the other table and suddenly I thought "hey I know that one, its cock o the north" but by the time I'd processed that I only caught the last note (I joined in on last time round....it was a bit fast for me the rest of the time I was 3 notes behind. lol!) before the tune changed.
And I thought 'what's the point? Why bother....it was the only tune I'd guessed right all day!' *sigh*

This is a learned skill and it gets better all the time. I remember being largely at sea in the sessions at my first Towersey (apart from the David Oliver beginners' session of course), and that's not *so* long ago. And now I'm only hopelessly lost in those very fast Irish sessions that aren't playing the stuff I'm interested in anyway. Learning the tunes that come up all the time in sessions helps, but the real joy of sessions is picking up tunes that you don't know as much as joining in the ones that you do.

Beginners sessions slow the process down both by slowing the tunes down so you don't get so lost, and by increasing the number of repeats, so you have more chance of catching the tune.

[Alison Scott]

So, I recommend that you use the sheet music at home big time and just have it in front of you at a session (on a little fold up music stand) to remind you how the tune starts, because sometimes, that's the most difficult bit (how many times have any of us said "How the hell does that tune start?").

Although playing from music is 'not done' at lots of sessions, there's a fine tradition of musicians carrying a notebook containing the names of tunes and the first two bars. The Sheffield Ceilidh Society website lets you create custom tunebooks from its wide selection of tunes, and the index pages of those work in just this way, so you can print those out small and take them with you.

[Mike Higgins]

there's a fine tradition of musicians carrying a notebook containing the names of tunes and the first two bars.

When we used to play in ceilidhs we always had some small pieces of card in the melodeon case with 48 bar jigs  etc as lists. It means that you don't get into a rut of always playing the first thing that comes into your head. Still use these surreptitiously at sessions, although they are now almost illegible.

[ladydetemps]

I think its a bit of a catch 22 situation....you can't join in unless you know the tunes, but you don't know how to play the tunes unless you join in.

[xgx]

... The Sheffield Ceilidh Society website lets you create custom tunebooks from its wide selection of tunes, and the index pages of those work in just this way, so you can print those out small and take them with you.

Thanks for bringing this to the fore Alison... E by gum it's a good'un 

[Bill the Farmer]

Anyway....after that brief detour back on topic. Festivals people?

There were three beginners melodeon workshops on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Bideford this year. Two from our morris side, and one from another side who was dancing with us attended and said it was very good. They were stretched a bit, but they enjoyed it and learnt a lot. It's a very friendly festival with lots going on all week. But a long way from Essex.