Advance Fiddle Level 7 – On-Line – Old Time Canadian

This is an announcement about the regular 14-week classes at RCM, starting Sept. 20. They are a pretty good deal considering – 90 minutes a week for $25-35 each. We are doing them online, so I am doing my best to adapt the approach to what will be most productive on Zoom, as follows. The “Learn to Play” Class Monday is more focused on improving your technical skills (the year for Old Time Canadian rep) – lots of bowing phrasing, tone and overall how-tos-sound-better, while Sunday’s “ensemble” will focus more on harmony and back-up skills.

You can sign up at : https://www.rcmusic.com/courses/fiddle-learn-to-play-group-classes-(adults)

Advanced Fiddle Level 7: Old Time Canadian.
Mondays, 7pm -8:30pm,
Cost: $470 – 14 weeks,
Sept. 21-Jan. 11.  App. $33/class

Tunes and Tech for the Don Messer/Ottawa Valley Old Time Canadian dance tradition. Waltzes, Jigs, Two-Steps/Reels, and Clogs/Schottisches/Rags/Foxtrots. They’re all here, played with great groove, variations, tone, smooth bowing with lots of lovely slurs, common and some not-so-common keys, i.e., A, D, G and C, Am, Em AND Bb, F, E majors. Some of the tunes may be familiar to you already, but we will be working hard on phrasing, interpretation, ways of going beyond just getting through the notes to a truly musical statement. Taught by ear, but music and recordings provided.

The Fall term will be taught online. This will change the class in some ways. I will ask students to learn the basic notes of tunes we are working on ahead of time, and we will work through tech exercises, rhythm improvement, bowings etc. together on zoom. I will also encourage people to play parts of the tunes individually for the class, or lead a tune that others can follow, but this will be your choice.  Students will also be encouraged to submit recordings of themselves to me a couple of times over the term for individual feedback (cell phone recordings are fine). In this way, I think the online experience can be very fruitful.

This is a chance to really get into what makes this music tick. We will spend several classes each on waltzes, jigs, two-steps, reels and hornpipes, continuing into the second term in order to complete the course material.