For those of you in the San Francisco area who may not know already: Tony Higgins is leading a whistle workshop at the SF Free Folk Festival on June 26 at 4 p.m. Another Bay area whistle player, Tim Hart, will also be doing both a whistle workshop on Sunday and one on the bodhran. There’s also classes on concertina and accordian, and a plethora of other music and dance. Shay Black is playing on Saturday night.
We should all come and sit in the front row. 
What will you be teaching, Tony?
JP
What will you be teaching, Tony?
Why, nothing less than complete mastery of the instrument and the entire repetoire. (Well, not exactly.) (Well, not even remotely.)
Actually, I just, a few minutes ago, typed up my outline, which includes the abc’s for The Leitrim Jig. For the purpose of discussing tonguing, I typed it out with the suggested tongued notes in bold type and a repeat with a variation of where to tongue, which I’ll demonstrate. If you started with no idea when to tongue, this will give you a clue. (I’ll need to practice what I typed out so I don’t totally confuse people. Heh heh.)
I’ll show the basic ornaments and have people practice them on the spot. The feedback from last year was that it was helpful.
I’ll explain the difference between a jig and a reel and a jig and a slide, etc. (Try to spend very little time talking about that.) I want to spend some time to explain phrasing and how to make it work and talk about active listening to recordings- what to listen for.
I’ve whittled down the program from last year. One hour is just enough time to confuse everyone. I felt like I gave a cluttered presentation last year by trying to cover too much ground.
The only thing I have left to do on the outline is list some recommended cd’s, books, resources (like Chiff and Fipple). Anyone who emails me, I’ll send the word file to you. All the formatting is lost copying and pasting into this post or onto a website and I don’t want to go back and re-hilight the letters and click on ‘bold’ again.
(I’m also going to sign up for the open mic in the cafeteria. I’ll play King of the Fairies, for sure. Also, KC Jiang is going to do a duet with me, he playing harmonica.)
Last year, I tried to explain a slip jig and played a bit of Kid on the Mtn. This one person couldn’t hear the rhythm. I’d say, ‘it’s 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3’ in a rhythmic way and play it and say, ‘did you hear that?’ ‘No,’ she’d say. Finally, I said, ‘we’ve got to move on.’ (This time, I’ll use Fig for a Kiss.)
Tony
I’m already making plans to go next year when I have weekends free again. I surely wish I could be there this year.
It looks like a few of us are going to get together Saturday evening after Tony’s class for a few tunes at my place in San Francisco, so if you want to come by later, send me an email and I’ll give you the wheres and whens.