Blog

The most fulfilling 10 years of my nursing career was spent working with very profoundly disabled young children , in a team that worked in happy skilled unison. Everyone contributed to that special collective feeling . There were difficult and sad days, just as there were many hugely uplifting ones. We carried one another and…

Great fun today , tackling the new playlist. “Houndayawka” provided us with plenty of enjoyable work, tackling the semiquaver runs, particularly for the descants and Trebles! Thoinot Arbeau’s Branles were more interesting and challenging than at first appeared. We played them as one continuous piece, rather than six small ones. “Fair Phyllis” by John Farmer…

Most of our members were busy over Easter, so two of us with one Cello playing husband met to play some interesting pieces.. great sight reading practice, and lovely to have the mellow Cello with the Tenor and Bass.. Just two of us met today, interchanging between Bass and treble, and Tenor and Contra Bass…

What other instrument is portable, easy to start learning on, fosters a socially beneficial experience, and helps the brain handle maths and fine motor skills?!To name but a few of it’s benefits. It can be a stepping stone to learning a different instrument or a different and maybe larger recorder. There are many professional recorder…

Three of us squeezed in a super practice despite pressing issues, but soon forgot them all as we tackled “The Boston Quickstep” (Charles Zeuner Arr by Martin Todd) . It starts with triplet, which has put us off in the past. But we soon found the rhythm, and decided it is a really nice piece.…

Our new member gave us reason to replay some of our Welsh Folk Tunes, which was good. The sight reading and counting where there were several bars break was all great revision, and the familiarity of the rhythms for our newcomer was welcome. Some of us were guilty of speeding up where we knew the…

Welcome to another new descant player, who is rekindling her playing! It is always great to have new members, so it was good for us to consider what we played and how challenging the pieces might be. We played a mix, some older familiar ones, and some new as yet not practiced. Simple Gifts (Joseph…

Three of us met for a super practice, and chose some pieces that we have not yet played in the group. We worked particularly hard on “Dansereye” by Teilman Susato, playing just 4 bars at a time we grasped the 3/2 time, but recognise that we need to speed up somewhat!

A super meeting when we played an assortment of music, including Renaissance works by Thomas Tallis and Maddalena Casulana. Tallis’s “The Third Tune” with its 3 flats , was a stimulating challenge, but such a great sound! It was lovely to welcome a new descant player. The next meeting at the St Grwst Church will…

Three of us worked hard for almost 2hrs at practicing what we had gleaned in the workshop, and another piece where we found places where two bars were tied between quavers , followed by a quaver and crotchet ,( where there was a breath mark) , this proved to be a potential stumbling point if…