From: mstevenson1@weber.edu
The Ogden Last Friday Irish Traditional Music Session
Hi folks! Sorry for the late notice, but since I have a work
commitment on the last Friday of October, I thought I’d move up the
session again one week this month to Friday, October 21st, beginning at
6:30 pm. After this, I’ll try and stick to the normal last Friday
schedule (even if in November it falls on Thanksgiving weekend).
(Usually) held on the last Friday of each month, Ogden now hosts its
first (to our knowledge, anyway) acoustic Irish traditional music
session at Universe City, an art gallery and performance space at 2556
Washington Boulevard in Ogden (there is no sign on the front of the
gallery, but it is next door [south] to the Mountain Perk Coffee Shop).
Although no refreshments are available in the gallery, the shop next
door sells a variety of munchies and beverages. Feel free to bring your
own libations and snacks as well.
Format:
6:30 pm - 7:30-ish ‘Slow Play’ / Tune-Learning Session for beginner /
intermediate players. A ‘slow play session’ is a one that plays the
tunes at roughly half speed or less. As we learn the tune and are more
comfortable with it, the pace picks up to full speed (or nearly so). The
goal of the session is to learn the tunes in a friendly and supportive
environment with others who are at the same skill level. For more
information on other slow sessions around the country, session
etiquette, tune lists, sheet music and more, check out
http://www.slowplayers.org/ or http://thesession.org/ , which has a
great tune search function.
I’ve found a great PDF format tunebook online, which can be downloaded
and printed at
http://uilleannobsession.com/docs/john_walsh_session_tunes.pdf -
this is probably a good thing for everyone to bring with them, as there
are many standards in here.
Beginners should have a basic level of proficiency on their instruments
(i.e. you can play a scale and are capable of picking up a few basic
tunes), but if you’re not quite there yet, come anyway as listening to
and acquiring an ear for traditional music is just as important as
practicing. If you have any ideas for tunes you’d like to work on, or
are working on and would like to share, please suggest them during the
learning session! Bring along a few copies of the sheet music if you
have it handy!
Here’s a list of the tunes we worked on last time (at least I think we
played through all these), and will continue to work on next time. If
you have any tunes you are currently working on and would like to have
the rest of us add to the repertoire, please bring them along (possibly
with sheet music, although learning by ear is the ‘traditional’ way to
go anyway):
The Butterfly (slip jig)
Drops of Brandy (slip jig)
Jimmy Ward’s (jig)
The Rambling Pitchfork (jig)
Garrett Barry’s (jig)
Maggie in the Woods (polka)
The Mountain Road (reel)
Castle Kelly (reel)
Planxty Irwin
The Rights of Man
The Road to Lisdoonvarna
Trip to Sligo
I photocopied sheet music for the above to pass around, and you can
also download the dots and/or hear sound files for many of these at one
of the following websites:
http://uilleann.org/Music.html
http://thesession.org/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/ - the BBC Virtual
session: sheet music & recordings of tunes to play along with - requires
macromedia flash plugin for your browser.
TUNES FOR THE NEXT SESSION
I’ve had a request for more reels, so we’ll work on The Mountain Road
and The Silver Spear: - sheet music and a nice recording of both can
be viewed and heard at the BBC Virtual Session link above.
7:30 pm - ??: Irish Traditional Music Session with tunes played at a
more intermediate / advanced pace (depending on which musicians show up
that month!). A great chance to play, hear and/or record tunes to add
to your repertoire, or just to enjoy. Singers of traditional songs,
airs or ballads are a rarity at sessions and therefore are most welcome!
What kinds of music gets played at these things?
‘Celtic’ music is actually a pretty vague and generic term, and covers
everything from Celtic Rock, new-age artists such as Enya, Riverdance or
world music fusion to unaccompanied 19th century dance music.
The main emphasis of the slow / tune-learning session will be on Irish
(and some Scottish) traditional dance music and airs of the past three
centuries or so. As for the intermediate / advanced session, it all
depends on who comes to play.
Who’s behind this, anyway?
Mark Stevenson - I play the uilleann pipes at an intermediate level
(formerly played the great highland bagpipes), and tin whistle. If I
ever get my lip mojo working, I’ll be able to play my flute someday too,
when I find the time. There are some great sessions in SLC (such as the
Piper Down), but you can never have enough Irish music sessions, and I
think this end of the Wasatch Front is just crying out for one.
Cristine Jennings, who along with her family (Caril, Lee and Ben
Jennings) have created a wonderful art and performance space in Ogden
and are generously hosting our session. Cristine plays a mean viola de
gamba (a Renaissance cello), and I’ve been bugging her to learn the harp
as well.
Will playing Irish traditional music make me prettier, smarter, or
more popular (or all three)?
Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
For more information, contact Mark at 801-540-4540.
**PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT FIND IT OF
INTEREST!
Go raibh mile maith agat!