Hi ,

I just wanted to let you all know that I’ll be arriving in the UK this Thursday ready to play concertina tunes, sing songs and drink beer! My schedule is posted below if you are interested, but the main reason for this topic is to share my workshop materials for the Whitby Festival workshop I’ll be co-teaching with Roger Digby on Wednesday Aug. 20 from 10:00 - 11:20 called: CONCERTINA WORKSHOP WITH MASTERS FROM EITHER SIDES OF THE WATER.

Roger and I will discuss English and American style on the Anglo with examples, then I will teach a great American tune, Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss for C/G and G/D concertinas. As we learn the tune, style points from our discussion will be brought to life in the hands of the participants on their instruments. Workshop materials for those who want a head start now can be found here. I hope you can make it.

My August tour will include performing, conducting teaching workshops and leading sessions at:

August 7-10 Bradfield Traditional Music Weekend near Sheffield.

General squeezing fun plus on Saturday 9th I will take part in an interesting seminar, Anglo Hour hosted by Roger Digby at 10.00 AM: EDGEMOUNT BARN

Later in the day at 4.00 PM EDGEMOUNT BARN, I’ll teach a workshop where I’ll show Anglo players how to play "COOL AMERICAN STUFF ON THE C/G ANGLO" with a focus on emulating pitch sliding ornaments. Workshop materials are available here.

August 13-16 Off to Ireland to visit the Mrs. Crotty gathering in Kilrush, Claire.

August 17-21 Whitby Festival, Yorkshire

Monday 11:30 - 1:30 Late night concert appearance
Tuesday 11:30 - 12:50 Squeezology with Rhythmic Drive solo concert
Tuesday 7:30 - 11:00 Traditional Night Out concert appearance
Wednesday 10:00 - 11:20 Concertina Workshop with me and Roger Digby
Wednesday 5:00 - 7:00 session lead by Roger Digby and me
Thursday 10:00 - 12:00 Children’s Playworks with me and Julia Bryan

August 22- 25 Towersey Festival, near Oxford

The schedule is a bit vague at the moment but will include a workshop called:

Concertina American Style:
all instruments welcome with the focus on Anglo concertina.

More details here.

August 26- fly back via Heathrow, Canada, and finally home to Brooklyn... sleep for a week.

Jody,

See you at Whitby as I am doing my concertina workshops this year as well!

Dave

Great! I look forward to that. There is sure going to be a whole lot of squeezing going on at Whiby this year.

So Jody, will you be all rested up by Sept 19 to stop in at NESI?

I still play thru your "Feet in the Clouds" book once a week or so on my Hayden Duet. Great tunes.
--Mike K.

My tour is going very well so far. I’ve just left the Bradfield weekend which was splendid, full of sessions, singing, a great ceilidh, all liberally lubricated by pints of real ale. There were a number of presentations, all of them well attended.

20 concertina players learned techniques of American Anglo style at my afternoon hands-on workshop, while an equal number watched from the side lines.

Roger Digby led a very interesting panel discussion called "Anglo Hour." He invited Dave Prebble, Alan Day, Chas Marshall, Dan Worrall and me to demonstrate and discuss our various approaches to playing the Anglo concertina in a harmonic style. Dave played an English tune, Alan played a French one and I squeezed out an American old-time standard to get the discussion rolling. Each of us then spoke about how we do what we do to obtain such different sounding music from our boxes. Dan put our comments in historical perspective and Chas played a tune in the style of the great Scan Tester. A number of folks, players and non-players alike, told me afterward how interesting the discussion had been.


Hi Mike,

Well, I hope so. I do plan on going to NESI.

Do you really play through my book like that? Good man! Which tune is your favorite?

Glad you'll be there!
OK, it might be every 2 weeks now, but I do cycle thru your book. My faves are "Little Fat Morning Man" and "Gone FIshing" (for the 67-key big box with its extra bass). There are several other faves that I hit every time thru -- waltzes, reels, and jigs alike.

You planning another book in the foreseeable future?
--Mike K.

Yes I am. The tunes are all written but it will take a lot of boring formatting and such before they are ready for publication. One big question is what to call my second book of tunes? "Feet in the Clouds" was the first book and it needs a sequel but I am resisting the best title proposal so far "Head in the Sand"

Funny, but does not have anything to do with the tunes. What do you think of "Dancing Up a Storm"?

I like it but still think I could do better.

Any ideas?

Now I'm off to Mrs. Crotty. Fun, fun, fun.

Your room is reserved, see you tonight!

I can think of even worse places for one's head

Since I play my own piano composition, "Sand Trap Rag" on my Hayden Duet, I might use that title someday

Yep, I've done some music formatting and editing. It can get old fast, and there's the danger of being such a perfectionist that you never finish the job!
My own home-grown program has one nice feature for us: When you transpose the score, liek from G to D, all the chord symbols transpose too!

SOrry Jody, I don't recognize that tune name. I've saved and printed and learned quite a few of your TOTM, but don't recall that one. Did I miss something? "Dancing by Starlight" is my fave from those.

Fun (in all its meanings) is what I play for.
Oh BTW other faves of mine are "Seals of Gawanus" and "Pierre Imbert", also "Life O'Reilly".
Enjoy -- Mike K.