Me and my bruv, Freereeder, are running a two-day workshop at Cottenham Summer School (Cambridgeshire) on Monday 1st/Tuesday 2nd August 2004. I have scanned the details, which appear below, so I apologise for the jumble, but if there is any interest form Mudcatters, please PM me, or state it here. The course fee is £57, which includes coffee, lunch and tea, but not accomodation. There is a good deal of local interest, but there is space for any prospective sessioneers on Mudcat.
"Joining in with a pub music session
What's the course all about?
The aim is to enable students to join in a traditional music pub session with confidence, including learning 'standard' tunes, session etiquette, playing by ear, sourcing tune scores and accompaniment. Students will also be able to try out what they've learned at our own evening pub session.
What instruments are appropriate?
Essentially any portable instrument, plucked, squeezed, bowed, blown, percussed or otherwise manipulated. In practice most sessions tend mainly to attract squeezeboxes, fiddles, banjos, guitars, whistles, flutes, dulcimers, mandolins, pipes and bodhrans. But other instruments also sometimes join in. If you play percussion (eg bodhran) as a second instrument, feel free to bring it along. To ensure a reasonable balance of different instruments on the course, we reserve the right to accept or refuse applications on that basis. So get your application in early!
How competent a player do I have to be?
Raw beginners will certainly get left behind, but anyone who basically knows their way around an instrument is welcome.
Do I need to be able to read music?
No, but it helps if you can. Session players tend to pick up tunes by ear — something we'll be encouraging you to do, since 'playing along' is a skill the session player needs to develop in order to get the best from the experience. But we'll be providing the dots for the tunes as well.
What do I need to bring with me?
A music stand, something to write with and on, any tunes you'd like to throw into the mix, bags of enthusiasm — oh, and a musical instrument would come in handy."