This is acoustic instrumental meet-up focuses on tunes in the following traditions: Irish, English, New England Old Time, French Canadian, American Southern, and maybe even Scandinavian. Tunes are those that are typically suitable for contra dancing or other traditional fiddle tunes. This group is intended to provide a musical home for folks interested in playing tunes with other musicians, learning to play by ear and overall increasing their own musical skill. It’s fun and welcoming to all ages and levels of playing. While we won’t play from sheet music, you can certainly use this as a reference on your own!
What do you mean by SLOW JAM? All acoustic instruments (e.g., fiddle, mandolin, guitar, cello, etc.) are welcome and the typical format is that we sit in a circle (or circle-ish, depending on the space) and take turns suggesting/leading a song. The songs will typically follow the AABB format (two “A” parts followed by two “B” parts) and we will simply play it over many repeats and if you know it, great (!), but if you don’t, you try to figure it out as we go along, maybe picking up a few notes here and there. We’ll play tunes at a slow to moderate speed so that they are accessible to a variety of levels.
It’s fun and can be challenging, but is a great way to improve your playing. You don’t have to be a great player, play in tune, or know the songs to give it a shot. If you want to suggest a song, you should either know the song well enough to play it on repeat or we can see if anyone else does!
