Over the Easter weekend (Friday 2nd - Mopnday 4th of April) at Gleanings rural study centre in Shropshire, Mary Humphreys and Anahata will be leading a weekend of workshops for instrumentalists.

We'll be focusing mainly on tunes from the Fens - the unpublished manuscript of William Clarke of Feltwell in Norfolk, and the tunes from the John Clare manuscript (Helpston, near Peterborough) but quite possibly tunes from elsewhere in England and even further afield.

All instruments are welcome, but we'll be concentrating on melody instruments, and mostly keeping to melodeon-friendly D and G. There will be printed music to take away, and plenty of time to learn tunes by ear too. There will be a good deal of work on harmony playing, with written out parts and with opportunities to experiment with making up your own. You'll be able to explore the possibilities afforded by playing with other musicians, and we'll look at what's needed for playing dance music and other aspects of turning a group of musicians into a band.

We play melodeons, Anglo and English concertinas and cello and of course Mary sings. I don't anticipate that we'll be doing a lot of singing but if you want to work on song accompaniments and arrangements we could do that as well. And apart from learning a few things, we're there to have fun!

More information and bookings: Gleanings (John and Yvonne Hart)

Anahata