The Nelson

Weekly meet up. Stookey Blue practice from 6.30 and other folk musicians are welcome to join us from 8.00 pm. We play mostly English, Irish and Scottish folk music, some Norfolk tunes and play for ceilidhs, so lots of ceilidh suitable tunes.

Monday 24 Jan 2022
The Nelson is closed tonight due to building works, we are playing at Fiveways pub, Earlham Road on Fiveways roundabout near UEA

Due to unexpected consequences of building activity at the Nelson we played at the Fiveways pub last night, we will be there again next week 31 Jan. We should be able to return to the Nelson the following week.

Fiveways pub, Gipsy Ln, Norwich NR5 8AZ

The pub is on the Fiveways roundabout, near the UEA.

There may be scaffolding but the toilets will be working again, which is always good!

All welcome for tunes.

We’ve been really pleased to welcome new people and visitors to the session, many of whom are experienced session players and some of whom are not. We think it’s worth explaining session etiquette to clarify how this is different from a slow session or folk club.

In our session, musicians take turns to choose the tune or tune set, so everybody will have opportunities to choose and start tunes, if they wish to.

The person who starts playing a tune or a set of tunes is the person who sets the speed, please ensure that you follow that speed and that you change to another tune when the person leading the tune changes. It’s helpful to indicate when you change tunes, if you are leading a tune set. You can do this by saying Hup or Change or by looking round clearly at the other musicians.

You can join in tunes that you already know. If you don’t know the tunes that are being played, please sit and listen and then if you want to you can start to join in quietly, once you start to pick up a few notes or phrases in that tune.

The melody should stand out above other instruments, so that players can clearly hear the melody. Rhythm instruments should be sensitive regards to their volume.

If you play rhythm instruments, your rhythm should complement or reflect the rhythm of the melody: the rhythm played will be different for different tunes. You might also pick out chord sequences, riffs or notes that copy or support the melody. If this is a new experience for you, you might like to listen to professional folk tune musicians on YouTube Music, to see how your instrument can be played to rhythmically accompany particular jigs or reels or waltzes or find a folk tune teacher who plays your instrument.

Stringed instruments such as guitar, bouzouki and mandolin are welcome to play the melody line.

If you play rhythm with one of these stringed instruments, it’s normal in a session only to have one, or at most two, stringed instruments playing the rhythm at any one time. This is because the different musicians will choose different chord structures and different rhythmic accompaniments, with more than one or two people doing this the sound becomes muddied.

Equally only one bodhran would usually be played at a time, for the same reasons.

Please keep your instrument in tune. Check that you use a tuner or tune to a fixed pitch instrument. Do also check your tuning throughout the evening.

If you want to photograph, video or record any part of the session, please check that people present are comfortable with that. This particularly applies to capturing images or video footage.

Thanks for following these guidelines, we’d love you to join us or pop by and visit!

Monday 14 November: we will be playing at the Louis Marchesi in the city 17 Tombland NR3 1HR. If you are driving: there’s parking fairly close by in the Monastery car park and may be some on street parking or slightly further by the Adam and Eve pub (make sure to buy a parking ticket!!). http://www.louismarchesi.co.uk/

We will be at the Louis Marchesi going forward.