Irish Session on Zoom

We’ll be running virtual music sessions throughout the autumn. The next session will be a steady-speed Irish session on Wednesday September 2nd.

The repertoire will be a varied selection of well-known traditional tunes - jigs, reels, hornpipes, slow airs & polkas. We provide pdf sheet music plus steady speed audio - everything you need to learn all the melodies in advance.

On the night, we’ll play each tune slowly, then a few times through at a faster tempo. Whatever your level, accurate, steady-speed performance reaps huge musical rewards, allowing you to hone your technical skills and to draw out the unique personality of each tune. All instruments welcome!

About Zoom
We use super-fast internet and a professional quality sound-system so that you have the best possible experience on Zoom. Participants will be muted while playing - so have no fears, your mistakes won’t be heard by the rest of the group!

Full details here https://www.wegottickets.com/event/504367 or email Kitty: folkfiddleteacher@gmail.com

Looks interesting: but it does help to say which continent/time zone you’re in as this site spans the world! I gather, after a bit of trawling around, that it is England, British Summer Time, which would suit me well.

Good point, thanks. We’re based in Shropshire, UK.

Am I getting this right? You’re selling ticks to join in on a Zoom Irish Session!

Does seem to be sort of a group lesson (like a slow session - learn/play the tune), with the students muted, but able to play along to the instructor.

"Am I getting this right? You’re selling ticks to join in on a Zoom Irish Session!"
No "We provide pdf sheet music plus steady speed audio - everything you need to learn all the melodies in advance."

For comparison the similar but Scottish "Hands up for Trad" sessions are £4 + booking fee a go.

Looking over Kitty Greenwood’s previous messages over the last 5 years on thesession.org, it does appear to be a form of tuition that is being offered. Similar in some respects to the workshops that have appeared in the other messages posted.

Perhaps it works for some individuals shut in during these pandemic times. I think there are other resources that thesession.org members already offer for free, such as Michael Eskin’s Tuesday night (U.S. West Coast) Zoom sessions.

If a plumber decided to do bits and pieces of work for free (not even charging for the copper pipe) I would applaud that person. But I would still respect other plumbers if they decided to continue charging for their labours.

Doing stuff for free (which invariably ends up costing the person "doing the stuff") is something I have done many times, but it’s nice to earn a few bob now and then. (Sometimes it is just a few bob. I remember a few years back entertaining a WI get-together. At the end we were handed an envelope to "cover our expenses". The envelope contained a £5 note, to share amongst four of us.)

A local (to me) fiddle group charges £75 a year for classes, which have been Zoomed since May (and will probably continue that way until well into next year). There are running costs with guests, etc, and it’s not realistic to expect one person (i.e., the organiser) to take that financial hit, year in year out.