We are currently in the planning process for the San Francisco Pipers’ Club Tionol, which will be held in the Berkeley area on Presidents’ Day Weekend in February 2005, and we are considering holding a whistle workshop as part of the festivities.
Depending on interest, we would have either one or two whistle teachers, and for a small fee, workshop participants would get not only a whistle lesson, but also access to all the cool sessions and parties at the tionol. There is also a possibility that Michael Burke may attend and have whistles available for purchase.
So we are wondering, how many people would be interested in attending if we hold a whistle workshop as part of of the tionol?
Is this the same one you have, Steven? I know we changed the site a while back.
No whistle or flute workshop details on the site yet, but the fee will definitely be less as we are planning to have those workshops be for only 1 day.
will the SFPC website be updated between now and then? (doesn’t seem to have been since last July!)
Sorry about the confusion. The person who used to maintain our website decided not to stop, and he has not responded to repeated pleas to replace the old site with a forwarding link. I will send him yet another nagging reminder, but I’m not holding out much hope that he’ll respond.
Anyway, if you have any bookmarks or links to the SFPC website, please update them to http://www.sfpipersclub.org
The person who used to maintain our website decided not to stop, and he has not responded to repeated pleas to replace the old site with a forwarding link. I will send him yet another nagging reminder, but I’m not holding out much hope that he’ll respond.
Well, I’ve been proved wrong! The old web site is gone now.
Stay tuned for some details on the whistle workshop…
I wouldn’t worry too much. I taught a one hour whistle workshop at the SF Free Folk Music Festival the last 2 yrs and had about 20-30 students. It’s not like they knew who I was! The first time I did it, I was expecting maybe 3 or 4 people to walk into the classroom and was amazed when it filled up. Of course there were probably a number of curiosity seekers who were just moseying around the festival and popped in, but most people had their own whistle. And the fact that they showed up the following year shows how desparate people are for instruction. You just need a way to advertise it. I’ll pass the word around here. I know people who play whistle but don’t pay much attention to this board (believe it or not).
Tony
It looks like we’re going ahead with the whistle (and flute!) workshops. Each of these will be held on one day: the flute classes will be on Saturday and the whistle classes on Sunday. I’ve updated the tionol web page with registration information: http://www.sfpipersclub.org/tionol.html
I’m pretty sure we can get more than 3 people, but there’s no way we’ll have room for the 20-30 people who showed up at Tony’s workshop. If it comes to that, we’ll have to cap the attendance. First come, first served, and please register in advance.
(Hey Justine, since you started this thread, I thought I would just post this here. It might be worth starting a new thread to announce the workshop more definitively. Or, at least edit the title to remove the question marks…)
having been duly impressed by Lady Justine’s virtuosity on several occasions, if there’s any voting to be done here, yes I’d certainly cast one for her, though Master Higgins would be a fine choice as well…
Awww, you guys. (Wiping away a little tear). Thanks for the vote of confidence.
I certainly don’t have much workshop-teaching experience, but I may end up teaching the workshop anyway. It might be better if we can get someone else, though, because I don’t want to miss half the piping workshop. We’ll see what happens…we’ll be discussing it at our pipers’ club meeting this weekend.
BTW, Tony, might you be available as a possibility? It would be for a good cause, the benefit of the SF Pipers Club. I’d love to be able to suggest you to the pipers this weekend.
Gaaahhhh! Stress.
You know, I’d be happy to do it if it’s the right audience, namely, not advanced. I feel comfortable teaching newbies and think I have some useful advice. For people who can play tunes and know the basics of ornamentation, I can expound on tune phrasing, which I consider a supremely important factor in getting things going in the right direction (like figuring out where to breathe or ornament). If accomplished players show up hoping for some magical tricks or for pro quality playing, I’m dead meat.
My background is learning from listening to recordings. I do that a lot. I compare how things are done on different instruments and think about how that can be applied to the whistle. I’ve come to recognize the common factors. I play at the occasional session and I perform once in a great while with a bouzouki player. I practice every day up in the bedroom, hammering tunes into the ground and experimenting with how they sound with tonguing or ornaments placed here and there- always with an ear to the phrasing/rhythm. There’s a lot I don’t know well. I never cran. Just haven’t gotten around to learning it. My ornamentation is pretty basic, but that’s a good place to start and I can teach that. I do have ideas on where and why it works and that’s what I’d think about teaching.
So, you decide, depending upon who you think would sign up.
Tony
Tony, assuming I can make it to the workshop (I’m hoping, I’m hoping) you’re covering exactly the territory I’d be looking for in a workshop.
I’ve reached a point where I can get the bones of a tune down fairly fast, and I can handle at least some ornamentation. And though I like to have the score on hand, I’m doing my best to learn by ear. But I’ve slowed down learning new tunes to a crawl because I’m not happy with my rhythm or phrasing. I listen to recorded tunes, and work on areas needing improvement , but it sometimes takes me weeks to go from “I’ve memorized this tune” to “I like the way it sounds when I play it”.
Now need to pencil this into my calendar (beyond “don’t have a C & F gathering this weekend”)
There is also a possibility that Michael Burke may attend and have whistles available for purchase.
Nothing has been determined yet. I think Ted has a few people in mind, anyway.
