Dates
Wednesday Oct 25
Times
19:30
Location
MCR Bar
Summary
The idea is that people turn up with their instruments (any acoustic instrument - violin, cello, guitar, flute, whistle, tambourine, you name it) to play traditional English and Irish music together – i.e. not an “open-mike session” (no solo performances). Organised by Peter Thonemann and Eva Hayward. Open to all members of the College.
Further Information
We might sing some songs together too, if people are feeling brave (last term we did the Wild Rover, Nelson’s Blood, Bold Sir Rylas, maybe one or two more).
It’s a wonderful, joyful way of making music, and the more people that turn up, the better it is (and do feel free to come down after dinner if you’re dining that night).
The tunes tend to be very easy (things that one might be able to pick up by ear, or sight-read from sheet music), and we play them through multiple times, to give people a chance to pick them up as we go along – and guitarists can always get away with just strumming along with the chords (English and Irish folk tunes tend not to go too far beyond D, G, A, repeat…).
In order to make it as beginner-friendly as possible, we’ve pre-selected a handful of pretty easy English and Irish tunes which often turn up in Oxford pub sessions, in case anyone wants to have a glance at the notes beforehand – if you’d like a link to the list of tunes, just drop Peter Thonemann a line. Do stop in, with an instrument or without!