Two brand new courses starting up in the next two weeks:  a course on playing jazz and a specialist three week dance course on Scottish ceilidh dancing.

Plus we’ve just set the date for our Christmas party (hooray!) so save the date and come join us on December 5th.

The Scottish Reeling course starts this Thursday (with live fiddle music) and the jazz course starts next week so come down and join us!

Dates for your diaries…

How to play Jazz:
Thursdays ∙ 7:00pm – 8:30pm ∙ 24 October 2013 to 28 November 2013.
Learn to play Jazz and swing music with Pete Thomas.  With an ear based approach Pete’s going to unwrap the mysteries of jazz harmony.  Open to players of all instruments, but I think it’ll have quite a folky vibe too so a great chance to work on your jazz fiddle, accordion, banjo, guitar or even “MacCann Duet Concertina” (!?!!).

Scottish Country Dancing:
Thursdays ∙ 7:00pm – 8:00pm ∙ 10 October 2013 to 24 October 2013
Scottish country dancing is fun social dancing suitable for all ages. There is some cross over with ceilidh but Scottish country dances are a little more complex in structure. They come in the form of jigs, reels and strathspeys. For the classes we’ll be focusing on the reels which are danced in sets of three or four couples and made up of a set of figures relevant to the particular reel. Reels are fast and lively dances and accompanied by upbeat Celtic music which will have you flying around the floor in no time!

Trad Academy Christmas party!
Thursday 05 Dec 2013 8:00pm – 11:00pm
Nick Hart‘s promised to put on a Mummers Play (!), the Shanty Choir are going to sing some songs and we’re hoping to get loads of tunes players down from all the courses to play some mighty music. There’ll even be a new crop of jazzers having just finished Pete Thomas’ course so hopefully we’ll get some tunes out of them too.  There’s be mince pies and mumming!  What more could you ask for?  Save the date…

The Sea Shanty Choir
Thursdays ∙ 7:00pm – 8:30pm ∙ 12 September 2013 to 24 October 2013
The Shanty Choir continues to go from strength to strength.  They performed an amazing set at the Thames Festival and absolutely smashed it!  Then they all came down the Harrison and sang there too!  A more hardy bunch of singers you couldn’t ask for!  New members always welcome!

Playing Folk Tunes
Thursdays ∙ 7:00pm – 8:00pm ∙ 12 September 2013 to 17 October 2013 and Thursdays ∙ 7:00pm – 8:30pm ∙ 9 January 2014 to 13 February 2014
The current course still has two more sessions left and you’re welcome to come and join us to play some music if you like or if you’re keen to do all six weeks then write these dates in your diary now and join us in the new year.