News

News

A place for Barb to write about fiddle things on her mind

31/12/2011
Planning for the New Year
I have emailed out an end of year round-up newsletter to all students. If you missed out for some reason , let me know.

Lessons start again in the second week of January (Tuesday 10 or Thursday 12).

I plan to have the first monthly group session ("slow jam") at my place on Sunday 12 Feb, 2.00pm (no charge). Such sessions are a good way to consolidate your playing, experience playing with others and of course to meet my other students.

I will add other group session dates on this page as they become finalised.

19/6/2011
Slow Jam

As students progress with learning Celtic tunes, it is very useful for them to have an opportunity to play tunes with others in a friendly, helpful session. Pub sessions can be quite intimidating to the learner.
Currently one of my students, Helen hosts a "Slow Jam" at her home once a month so that fiddlers can play along together at a pace that they can handle. They are free to use music or play by ear as they wish. This provides a very useful adjunct to the regular lessons. A big thank you to Helen for providing this opportunity.

26/7/2010
Hatton Castle
Wes and I are back from a great holiday in Scotland. This included a week in Hatton Castle north of Dundee where I joined 12 other fiddlers mainly from NZ with 1 from each of USA, Australia and Scotland for master classes with 2 of Scotland's top fiddlers and teachers: Dougie Lawrence and Gregor Borland. Magic.

Some pics (click on a pic to see larger view, then use Back arrow)

19/10/2009
Fiddling Around 2009
A big thank you to the fiddle students who were able to participate in Sunday's jam session.
This was a first get together for the year and the recording of the three tunes turned out even better than hoped for. We will have to do it again.
You can purchase your own copy of the CD from Barb for $5.00.
You may even like to have some as Christmas presents?!
You can listen to the tracks on the "Student Music" page of this website.

15/10/2009
We bid a sad farewell to Anne Powley who lost her very brave battle with breast cancer on 12 October 2009. Anne started Celtic fiddle lessons with Barb at the end of July. It was something she had always wanted to do. Anne identified strongly with her Irish heritage and loved the music and an occasional Guinness. Twisty Willow was privileged to play at her birthday ceilidh at which she thoroughly enjoyed joining enthusiastically in the singing and dancing.

Anne's positive spirit and cheeky sense of humour was an inspiration. She is fondly missed.