Edinburgh Ceili volunteers sought

Hi everybody,

A friend of mine is looking for a couple of volunteers to play at an event in primary school in Edinburgh. I’ll post in the details from his message below. If anyone is interested in helping out please drop me lin either through thesession.org or directly at cw67q[AT]yahoo.com and I’ll put you in touch with Tim.

" I need a couple of musicians, ideally an accordianist and fiddler, to help with ceilidh dance sessions on thursday 21st Feb, 9.30am to 12.30pm. No money i’m afraid (Im doing it unfunded) but I can get you about £30 or so for expenses. Can you help, or know someone who can?"

Cheers - Chris

"Ceili"

Is this an Irish event? Or Scottish music?

I’m sure you would get volunteers for a good cause like this although it’s a little short notice. Hopefully, some may read this post though.

As I’d imagine that *good* amateurs might fit the bill, you could also try making enquiries with the Scots Music group
http://www.scotsmusic.org/contact/
They have quite a few students who have been playing for many years and some of them are actually not too bad.

I’ve also taken the liberty of posting details about this event elsewhere

http://www.nigelgatherer.com/forum/showthread.php? tid=953

just in case they can help.

Wish we were closer, ceili or ceilidh, I’d have been willing, as long as there were no ‘dress-up’. :-D

Very short notice ~ best of luck RP

Thanks Johnny & Ceolachan.

This will almost certainly be a Scottish event in terms of any dances performed. However, as far as the music played for the dances it shouldn’t be too big a problem if the musicians are Irish style players.

Plenty of Irish style musicians and ceili(dh) bands play for Scottish dances. I play in a comhaltas ceili band based in glasgow and we call roughly 60/40 Irish/Scottish dances at >95% of our events, including our own branch fundrasers. We almost always open with the Gay Gordons. We have played at the occasional do which has focused only on irish dances, usually for dedicated Irish dancing groups. I wouldn’t feel comfortable playing all night for a serious Scottish dance group e.g. RSCDC, but Scottish dances at a ceili/ceilidh? No problem.

Cheers - Chris
ps just saw your post at footstomping Johnny

Thanks for posting the request on the other forum Johnny, I’ll make a quick check with footstomping & tradconnect in case anyone has offered their services and if no-one has volunteered yet I’ll try posting at scotsmusic.org site. Not because guys would be a last resort, but there would be no point in asking there if someone has already volunteered:).

Not much chance I could get to Edinburgh for 9:30am. :/ Sorry. And wrong instrument anyway.

Johnny Jay wrote "As I’d imagine that *good* amateurs might fit the bill, you could also try making enquiries with the Scots Music group"

I just thought I’d point out that fair-to-middling amateurs should fit the bill too: Otherwise I’d never have been asked in the first place :)

I wouldn’t worry overly much about the instrument Emily (or anyone else) I’m sure Tim would be delighted with volunteers regardless. Oh and Hi to yourself & Dan, hope you’re both doing well"

- Chris

While I know a lot of the well known Scottish ceilidh repertoire and have done one or two similar things in the past, I’ll not be available as I’m heading "Up North" for the weekend.
Also, it’s a bit short notice to arrange something with other players.

Anyway, good luck in finding some people to do this. Presumably, if there’s no payment involved, it doesn’t need to be restricted to two people? Safety in numbers(within reason) might also encourage less experienced musicians to have a go.

I’d imagine that would be the case Johnny.

Cheers - Chris

Just a quick note to say that volunteers were secured. I think through the good people of the SMG who got back to me saying they would contact Tim directly. Thanks again Johnny - Chris