Hi there,
Lisa mentioned the slow session that we hold on campus. This is the second year it's been going and it's turned out to be a lot of fun. We basically meet in a room in the Music Building and teach, in a somewhat organized fashion, the same tunes you hear at sessions at Mike and Molly's or Bentley's here in town or anywhere else in the world. We teach them slowly by ear (no sheet music allowed - it's easier than you think). The music is primarily traditional dance tunes, and everyone plays melody. You can't accompany or play backup for these tunes on the guitar (or anything else) until you know the melodies, so this is how you start.
Anyone is welcome to come, regardless of skill level. We have people who are beginners to music in general as well as people who are accomplished musicians but new to irish music and people who have been playing irish music for years. We usually have some combination of fiddle, tin whistle, flute, uilleann pipes, tenor banjo, mandolin, and guitar people there. If you are new to music in general, you can pick up a tin whistle for around $10 and learn to play it well enough to keep up with the slow session group in a surprisingly short amount of time. Several of the whistle players who come regularly just started playing this fall.
There is a web page at
here with a little more information as well as some recordings and sheet music. We hope to see some new people there.
Erik
edited on 2004-02-13 15:24:30 by withak
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