Irish Tunes & Technique Workshop at the Old Town School of Folk Music

Tonight I took a workshop with Sean Cleland, director of the Irish Music School of Chicago, all about learning Irish tunes.  It was pretty cool.  One of the best workshops I've had at the school.  I'm not sure how many specifics I learned, but I got to play a lot, I felt like he listened to my questions, and he left me curious to learn more, in a proactive way.  Very inspiring.
  I can't remember the name of the tune that we learned, but we spent an hour and a half learning it from beginning to end.  I was the only banjo player.  There was one fiddle player, one concertina player and one uke player.
  OK.  Onward to more Irish fiddle tunes.
Later,
J
 

Announcing My New Blog about Music, Education and a Musical Podcast from Radio Lab

Hello,

This is my initial post for my new blog experience!

If you know me, you know how important my teaching is to me and how much time I spend making, listening to and reading about music and education.

This podcast from Radiolab has been on my mind since I listened last week. It's called Musical Language. I've studied music for most of my life, and over the past couple of years I've been studying Spanish. Both experiences have informed each other in ways that have been very exciting. So it's great to hear some other people making comparisons between music and spoken language. It's quite validating. I can't recommend listening to it highly enough.

OK! First post done. Onward!