Maine Fiddle Camp

Alden Robinson

Maestro Bistro Plus – March 20th, 2021

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The Maestro Bistro Plus returns! This time, it’s part of the Downeast (Virtual) Country Dance festival. Register for the Bistro and get access to the entire festival!

Benjamin Foss – Intro to GDAD Tuning

We’ll take a look at this magical open tuning from an accompaniment standpoint, learn some chord options, and possibly learn a jig that fits into the smaller range of GDAD. Open to any fretted instrument you can tune to GDAD! Mandolin, bouzouki, tenor guitar, use whatever you have!

Elsie Gawler – “Fiddling Cellos”

Are you a cellist who’s wanting to learn more fiddle tunes?! Come join this workshop with Elsie Gawler where we’ll learn a cello friendly fiddle tune or two! We’ll also explore the unique place that cellos have in the world of traditional fiddle music. 

Alden Robinson – Fun with Bowed Triplets

Those crunchy little three-note bowed ornaments … just three little bowstrokes on one note. Simple, easy to learn, but you can spend years getting them “just so”. We will work on a simple Irish reel (“The Ashplant”) with many good triplet opportunities. Then we’ll talk about how to get a good “crunch” in the triplets … how do you set your bowing up for success? We’ll listen to some different triplet styles from around the world. And we’ll talk about what other ornaments you could use if you catch yourself overdoing it.

Zoom In

The DE(V)CDF will take place in one large Zoom call, using breakout rooms for workshop spaces. You should make sure to update your Zoom software ahead of time to ensure compatibility.

Film premiere: “Bonsoir Mes Amis / Goodnight My Friends” — A Film by Huey

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“Huey explores the changing relationship of two top folk musicians and captures a joyous facet of Maine life. From start to finish the film is a unique, sensitive and satisfying contribution to understanding our time and place.”

(William D. Barry, Maine historian and writer).

“Bonsoir Mes Amis” features cameo appearances by MFC’ers MFC Ellen and John Gawler, Greg, Doug, Smokey, Don and Cindy, plus others from Maine’s Franco community. The film is a wonderful look at how traditional music and dance helps build and maintain community!

Come to the Maine Tent Zoom Room at 6:00 pm EST the filmmaker to put the film in context (and some live music). Watch the film premiere live on YouTube 6:30 – 7:30. Then rejoin the Zoom gathering for questions, dialog, music and rememberances.

https://zoom.us/j/91209198883
password: fiddle

VIRTUAL MAINE FIDDLE CAMP February 19-21 2021

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An online traditional music camp for all ages and abilities!!!

“Twice the program at half the price”. We laugh but it’s really not a joke.
Read on!

What is MFC? Why is it different?
I am often asked “why is Maine Fiddle Camp different?” I don’t normally answer that question here on the MFC newsletter because I’m pretty much preaching to the choir, BUT with the advent of “Virtual” MFC this past June, things have changed a bit. With an enlarged audience that doesn’t have to travel to Maine to go to camp, many of you out there reading this might not know much about MFC, so I thought I’d start out with a short description. The following (PRE-COVID) blurb is from a piece I wrote in 2018. Here we go:

[Read more…] about VIRTUAL MAINE FIDDLE CAMP February 19-21 2021

Handouts from the August Maestro Bistro Plus

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We had the best ever Maestro Bistro Plus on August 15. Our fantastic hard-working instructors have followed up with handouts for class participants—click the links below to view them.

Glen Loper – “Learn A Jig – Cavers of Kirkcudbright”

Sheet Music – Melody and HarmonyDownload
Tab – Melody and HarmonyDownload
Audio file – MelodyDownload
Audio file – HarmonyDownload

Isa Burke – Songwriting: Write Now, Edit Later

Songwriting ExercisesDownload

Ed Pearlman – Power of a Tune Title

Seann Truibas UilleachainDownload

Glen Loper’s “Learn a Jig” workshop

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Glen Loper taught a workshop for the Maestro Bistro Plus on August 15, 2020, entitled “Learn a Jig – The Cavers of Kirkcudbright”.

Here is a link to a series of Zoom recordings from the workshop.

Here is a list of the different segments within the Zoom recording:

  1. Cavers of Kirkcudbright A part : Call and response
  2. Cavers of Kirkcudbright B part : Call and response
  3. Cavers of Kirkcudbright Doublestop Back-up
  4. Cavers of Kirkcudbright: Double-stop chord progressions
Charts and chord diagrams – NEWDownload
Sheet music – melody and harmonyDownload
Tab – melody and harmonyDownload
MP3 audio file – melodyDownload
MP3 audio file – harmonyDownload